Do not let the name fool you. Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923) is actually two films, not one. The first is a brilliant tour de force of early Hollywood epic film-making that tells the story of Moses and the Hebrews' exodus from Egypt. It's big, lavish, and jaw-dropping in scale. Alas, it only lasts for the first 40 minutes or so. If the film had ended there and then, it would have easily been one of the best silent films of DeMille's career. In fact, I would confidently say that these 40 minutes are better than his later 1956 remake of the film. But it doesn't stop there. The plot then jumps forward several thousand years to a preachy, stiltedly melodramatic story about two brothers, one who follows the Ten Commandments and another who doesn't (and is subsequently killed). I can't begin to explain how jarring this shift is. It's almost like if somebody took the Normandy landing sequences from Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) and tacked them onto the front end of William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). It positively kills the entire film despite the fact that the second part has its merits, such as its moral that living the love of God is more important than blind, Puritanical obedience to His laws.
6/10
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