Review – The Ten Commandments (1923)

The first half of this silent classic from Cecil B. DeMille is actually quite good. Naturally it doesn’t measure up to his later retelling of the story of Moses either in depth of character or complexity of plot. But the seeds of the Hollywood epic are nonetheless being sewn with authority here. What a shame, then, that the second half of the picture is so terrible. After rushing through the biblical portion of the show, the rest of the production is turned over to a slow, dumb, Goofus-and-Gallant tale of a prodigal who goes about breaking most of the Big Ten (plus several more just for good measure). If you want to walk away feeling good about this movie, I suggest hitting the “stop” button as soon as the setting turns modern. Mildly amusing (which is actually half a “worth seeing” and half a “see if desperate,” so it averages out)