On M List of Movie Reviews

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Moses (1974)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 4/03, 5/22

5/22: At first, I thought why Moses when The Ten Commandments had already been made, but after seeing it, my question was answered.

Cecil B. DeMille's classic will always be the best Biblical epic picture made, but this one with Burt Lancaster is as natural as it gets. Hence, that's the goal all along: no fancy special effects, no magnificent monuments, and no lavish colors but a straightforward retelling of the Exodus tale. What's odd is the few changes. Instead of Rameses II, it's Merneptah. Aaron does the speaking for Moses at times. There's more to go after the Ten Commandments tablets are brought out.

The movie began as a five-hour miniseries under the title Moses the Lawgiver. All I could feel is relief. 141 minutes is still too long for my liking, but the editing is good and also clever by working around the impossible scenes given the low budget. In fact, this version is a lot closer to the first fifty minutes of the 1923 silent picture by DeMille.

I like the dialogue as one of the four writers was Anthony Burgess of A Clockwork Orange fame. The acting is fine, but nobody including Burt Lancaster stands out that much. His son, William, plays the young Moses while Laurent Terzieff isn't bad as Mernefta.

All in all, Moses may not be as splashy as The Ten Commandments, but it gets down to brass tacks by taking the natural, ancient route of storytelling.

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