The Ten Commandments review

 Number 422 on the top 1000 films of all time is Cecil B. Demille's 1956 biblical epic 'The Ten Commandments.'

The Ten Commandments dramatises the second book of the bible Exodus. We see Moses (Charlton Heston) change from an Egyptian price into the saviour of the Jewish people. Yul Brynner plays the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II who clashes with Moses. Such events include the ten plagues, the exodus itself, the parting of the Red Sea and the receiving of the eponymous Ten Commandments.

There is no doubt that the Ten Commandments was a technical marvel upon its release. Although it's certainly outdated by modern standards, I was very impressed by the special effects from the burning bush to the parting of the Red Sea. At the time it was absolutely groundbreaking.

I have also read the bible including the book of Exodus. It is a dense text, but Cecil B Demille did well translating it to the screen. Sure, you can argue, that the almost four-hour runtime is excruciatingly long for today's Tiktok generation, but perhaps the length was necessary to truly convey the full extent of the book of Exodus. Granted it might have been overlong for me, but I think Rhodes managed to hit all the key plot points.

In the lead role, we have Charlton Heston who plays Moses with all the righteous indignation that we would expect from Heston. By righteous indignation, I mean lots of shouting - similarly to Planet of the Apes or Ben-Hur. Yul Brynner was also very good as the villainous Rameses II.

I'm not sure how well the Ten Commandments would appeal to a modern-day audience, but there's no doubt that it was a technically-proficient, Oscar-darling of its time.

Planet of the Apes review (1968)

 Number 363 on the top 1000 films of all time is Franklin J Schaffner's 1968 science-fiction Planet of the Apes.

Set two thousand years in the future, astronauts George Taylor (Charlton Heston,) Dodge (Jeff Burton) and Landon (Robert Gunner) crash-land on an alien planet. The planet is a desolate wasteland where the dominant form of life are sentient, intelligent apes. Meanwhile humans have been rendered mute savages including Nova (Linda Harrison.)

This is the film that has spawned one of Hollywood's biggest franchises including endless sequels, reboots and Tim Burton's god-awful 2001 remake. But this is where it all started.

And it was a great start to the franchise. Right from the start, we were given a mystery to solve and across the two-hour runtime, the layers of the mystery were peeled back leading to one of the best-executed twist-endings in science-fiction. Don't worry, I won't spoil it here. Although this film is almost sixty years old. If you have somehow avoided the twist ending then you've performed a miracle. All you need is to martyr yourself and you'll become a saint.

What I liked most about this film was its quiet, intimate nature. There is a minimal cast, few sets and a lack of explosions and gunfire. Taylor's fellow astronauts are quickly lobotomised/killed by the apes leaving him and the other humans to be taken prisoner by the apes.

I was half-expecting him to lead a rebellion and to topple the oppressive ape society - this was the predictable way the story could have gone, but instead Taylor breaks himself and Nova, for some reason, out of jail where they escape the apes and ride off into the sunset - with the help of a family of scientists who became unlikely allies.

Let's talk about Nova who seemed pretty superfluous to the pitch. The scientists originally wanted Taylor to mate with her, hence why the two were imprisoned together. Instead, when Taylor makes a break for it, he insists that Nova comes too, because of reasons. And she agrees because of reasons. And later on, she rides off into the sunset with him, because of reasons, instead of returning to her own people. The fact that she had no lines and did little but stand around and look pretty, it was difficult to see her a little more than eye-candy.

Charlton Heston made for a good leading man even if he was a bit theatrical for my tastes. Nonetheless, if you're going to watch the Planet of the Apes franchise, do yourself a favour and start here - not with Tim Burton's terrible remake.