Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Kirpianuscus inspired adaptation of Mika Waltari novel. or only part of a series of historical films. in fact, a beautiful film who escapes from the rules of the genre or fashion of a period. because it is a good exam of the small significant values. and nice way for use great actors in a story about the truth, honor and courage. a film about faith. and hope. so, it is unfair to define it. the only right choice - see it. twice. for a powerful message and for the wise manner to remind old basic truths. story of a hero across the challenges. and his victory. or lesson. about the inner force who defines each from us.

weezeralfalfa An example of the Hollywood trend in this era of producing expensive lavishly-staged color dramas about the classic ancient world of Egypt, the Romans, and Hebrews/ early Christianity. Released just 2 years before Cecil DeMille's much better known, more expensive, ultralengthy epic "The Ten Commandments": essentially a biography of Moses as mostly described in the bible. Fox sold many of the costumes and props for the present film to Paramount, used in that film. The main character, the fictional Sinuhe, exhibits certain clear parallels with the Moses story. Both were cast adrift on the Nile in a small cradle-like raft, as infants to be raised by caring adoptive parents. Both eventually learned of their true heritage while adults, and both turned down an opportunity to be a major player in the Egyptian hierarchy, perhaps as pharaoh, to help the downtrodden and serve their god, who was at odds with the Egyptian religion. Also, both fled or were exiled from Egypt for many years over an incident, returned to Egypt for a spell, then again fled or were exiled from Egypt. There is a difference in the detail of their birth and upbringing. Moses was born to a Hebrew slave and adopted by one of pharaoh's wives. Sinuhe was born to one of pharaoh's wives, and adopted by a physician to the poor, thus providing Sinuhe with a model for his early adult years. The main point of this film is to dramatize the attempt of historic pharaoh Akhnaton to replace the pantheon of classical Egyptian gods with a singular supreme deity, which he identified with the sun. Although Akhnaton's attempt to remake the state religion of Egypt failed to long outlast his reign, it's presented here as a promising model for the ascendency of the Hebrew god Yahweh to a similar position with the Hebrews, approximately a century later, with the critical participation of Moses. As Akhnaton is dying, he hypothesizes that the god he has been worshiping is not just associated with the sun, but made the whole universe, and presently intervened in its operation. This is articulated to Sinuhe, who finds this a satisfying answer to his obsessive quest to discover a better answer to the central meaning of human life than what the Egyptian religious orthodoxy offered.The hedonistic opportunistic Horemheb and the eternally brooding Sinuhe seem like an odd couple of buddies for most of the film. Ultimately, each achieves their primary goal in life. Horemheb becomes commander of the Egyptian army, then succeeds Akhnaton as pharaoh. Sinuhe seems satisfied with Akhnaton's final vision of a supreme deity, and returns to his Christ-like role as a physician to the poor. However, he has lost the love of his life, Merit, in Horemheb's purge of the followers of Akhnaton's religion. Also, he's exiled from Egypt for his continued belief in Akhnaton's religion and for nearly giving Horemheb a lethal dose of poison, as part of the conspiracy by Sinuhe's half sister Baketamon, Sinuhe, and Horemheb to poison Akhnaton for his failure to give Horemheb permission to take his army to engage the invading Hittite army and for his divisive state religion makeover... Historically, Horemheb was a pharaoh, but didn't directly succeed Akhnaton, with a couple of pharaohs between them. He did, however, initiate an effort to erase all physical and social traces of Akhnaton's reign and religion, as dramatized. Sinuhe had a chance to succeed Akhnaton as pharaoh, with the backing of ambitious heartless Baketamon(Gene Tierney), who informed him of his birth within the royal family. But, he copped out at the last minute, in favor of Horemheb, probably realizing that he was not cut out to be pharaoh, being too much like the visionary pacifist Akhnaton, when Egypt needed a man of action, like Horemheb.Victor Mature: a favorite to play the lead in several of the contemporary biblical-related lavish films, was well suited to his role as the anti-revisionist Horemheb. Edmund Purdom likewise was well suited to his role as the brooding idealist Sinuhe, whose choice of relationships with women were largely disastrous. He too long largely ignored the poor, but beautiful and potentially loyal Merit(Jean Simmons), who later bears him a son while he is in self exile, and later dies in Horemheb's purge, leaving Sinuhe a lonely old man in exile. It's difficult to believe that Sinuhe would fall so hard for the grasping royal courtesan Nefer, who left him much embittered with women in general. Later, he briefly agreed with Baketamon's scheme to make him pharaoh, with she his wife.Most professional critics of the time loved to hate this film, writing it off as overly drawn out and with the main character too pessimistic about the worth of human life to bare interest for long. Many reviewers, including this one, acknowledge these and other faults, but find sufficient positive aspects to recommend a watch.

agaczyk-219-676241 I like Bella Darvi, don't ask me why; I just do. Having glanced at other comments about Darvi, her performance, the film, the nastiness alleged, I will only say that I find Bella completely enchanting, captivating, beautiful, painfully sexy and sister of my heart. The rest is silence. Have been told my comments must be longer. Fine. How about that score? I believe that Hermann was responsible for the Nefer music. Beautiful and, in my opinion, one of the elements closest to Waltari's emotional evocations of the Sinuhe character, not Nefer's. Those familiar with the novel will recall Nefer's less than tragic continuing adventures. But we are not talking about Waltari or Nefer or Zanuck or Hollywood. Only and always, Bella, Bella, Bella.

Steffi_P For many of the more highbrow producers, the holy grail of the 50s big picture was the so-called "intimate epic". Daryl F. Zanuck's production of The Egyptian opens with a spiel about the people of this ancient time being ordinary men and women, making this one of the earliest examples of a picture openly setting itself up for that lofty task.The human story of this epic is however unusually pessimistic, with its hero being ruined by his obsession for an evil woman, becoming a bitter rival to his best friend and losing the only woman who really loved him. This being the age of film noir, it's tempting to make parallels with pictures like Scarlet Street and Out of the Past. Of course, the femme fatale plot device is as old as Adam and Eve or Pandora's Box, but it is true that in the 50s there was a tendency for those cynical story lines to creep into the most unsuspecting of genres. There was also a convention in these ancient world epics of bringing Christian or Judeo-Christian philosophy into the picture (God not being a major figure in your typical film noir), although unusually The Egyptian is not a bible story. Instead it uses as its backdrop the rule of Akhenaton, a genuine historical figure who instated a brief period of monotheism in ancient Egypt. And oddly enough the conflation of Aton the sun deity with the Abrahamic God comes across as far more genuine and intelligent than, say, the rather dubious Easter story spin-off of The Robe, and its sermonising is far gentler than that of The Ten Commandments or Ben Hur.In the director's chair we have the highly-respected Michael Curtiz. Curtiz was in many ways a great choice because he was so adept at handling crowds and visual complexity, although old-timers like Curtiz (who made his debut in 1912) tended not to get on well with the cinemascope ratio. But while Curtiz continually makes the mistake of framing his actors from around the knees up as if they were in fullscreen, he balances out the extra width by keeping a lot of depth in his shots, occasionally highlighting the distant focal points for greater definition – such as the dancer in yellow in the bathhouse scene. Often he will place the deepest part of the shot to one side or another to give emphasis to that half of the screen. There's also some of his distinctive use of movement to drive the narrative forward smoothly. When we hear Edmund Purdom's voice-over telling us about the Jean Simmons character, the camera follows her, all the background business disappearing, with the exception of a single extra in one corner. This extra then gets to his feet, drawing our eyes to that corner, upon which the camera pans back to the right to reveal the procession announcing the pharaoh's death. This elaborate yet inconspicuous arrangement segues us neatly from one part of the story to the next.Unfortunately, that very mechanical nature of Curtiz's direction is not ideal for highlighting the acting performances. Then again, perhaps there is not much here to highlight. Lead man Purdom is by no means bad but he is astonishingly dull. This is a major failing with the picture because it becomes difficult to sympathise with him or believe in his actions. In contrast Jean Simmons and Victor Mature while not outstanding players at least had some character and intrigue about them. Thank goodness for Peter Ustinov, whose delightful and immaculate comic delivery here and there allows the movie to break free from its depressing austerity. There's also a colourful yet sadly short appearance by John Carradine as a grave robber. But while Ustinov and Carradine provide entertaining diversions, the only really strong dramatic performance is that of Gene Tierney, who gives a bit of realism to Baketamon, and actually manages to draw that line between folks ancient and modern as mentioned in the opening lines.The Egyptian is admittedly a noble effort to come up with an original and engaging spin on the ancient world epic. The trouble is it's not really enough of one thing or the other. The dramatic human story is simply not well-executed either by cast or crew, and while the whole production may be steeped in a look of authenticity, there is just not enough scope or spectacle to make this a satisfying epic either. The champions of the intimate big picture may have had high-minded intentions, but in truth the genre flourished most with the shameless splendour of Zimbalist and DeMille.