The Ten Commandments (1956)

DeMille’s final film is one of his most stirring and spectacular, a Victorian melodrama with the pictorial grandeur of the silent era. The reviewer highlights DeMille as a master storyteller and entertainer, praising Charlton Heston as a truly heroic Moses despite the film’s occasional prurient appeal.

The film is the summit of screen achievement, a monumental production that is entertaining, uplifting and an unsurpassed achievement beyond ordinary critical standards. It masterfully combines technical advances with one of the greatest stories, delivering a profound spiritual message of liberty under God.

The critic praises DeMille's spectacle and self-confidence in delivering lavish sequences, but notes the crassness and inane dialogue; ultimately calls it a great film for its monumental scale and entertainment value despite flaws.

The critic views it as the Hollywood epic at its peak, savored for magnificent set pieces and vast extras rather than dialogue or characters; highlights Oscar nominations and special effects like the Red Sea parting.

The 4K restoration makes the epic look better than ever, with standout camp from Anne Baxter carrying the film through its longueurs to the majestic Red Sea sequence. It remains a grand, kitschy Sunday-school pageant elevated by ornate spectacle and a stentorian cast.

The 1956 film remains DeMille’s best-known and most successful work, a barn-burning melodrama centered on two men in love with the same woman rather than purely religious themes. The reviewer singles out the epic choreography of thousands of extras and the imaginative depiction of the tenth plague as particularly dazzling.

The script and acting are shallow and unmemorable except for a few performers, but the director's vulgarity and seriousness give it daft power; praises the exodus scene and one dialogue scene while dismissing most as arid nonsense.

DeMille delivers a high, wide, occasionally handsome spectacle full of coarse secular effects and hokum that fills in biblical gaps with dramatic license. The reviewer praises the marvelous visual set pieces like the parting of the Red Sea but notes the nearly four-hour length makes it wearying if one is particular about hokum.

The super-spectacular is statistically intimidating with its massive budget and cast but remains conventional as art; spectacle fills the eyes while emotional tug is sometimes lacking. The reviewer singles out the Passover supper sequence for its beauty and notes the film is too long, with performances generally meeting requirements except for Anne Baxter’s histrionics.

The critic views the film primarily as a striking artefact of 1950s Cold War propaganda, equating the Hebrews' struggle with American anti-communist ideals under DeMille's conservative vision. It singles out the epic scale, location shooting and special effects for their visual impact while noting historical inaccuracies and the heavy-handed political messaging.

The critic finds the 1956 epic a towering achievement that draws viewers in completely despite its length and period style, praising its unapologetic confidence and focus on human stakes over preachiness.

The critic calls the film the dictionary definition of epic with its massive sets, cast and production values, noting it feels dated and overblown yet remains a magnificent, eye-popping spectacle that is culturally essential.