This cinematographic version of "Os Dez Mandamentos" is a kind of compact version of his successful telenovela, in which each episode had an average cost of 700,000 reais. With its 176 chapters, the feature film's budget is around 123 million reais (this figure must be much higher, as there was a whole work of sound mixing for the cinema and a new color correction). With this oasis within Brazilian cinema (many filmmakers would like to have ten percent of an episode's budget to shoot a feature film) it's amazing how the Record network project has a megalomaniac air at all times; each shot and each speech is filmed, edited and performed as if it were the greatest thing in the world, and if indeed Moses' message is powerful, the film, with all its pretensions, turns out to be a minuscule cinematographic piece. The idea of re-editing all the chapters of your soap opera and turning it into a feature film obviously wouldn't work: how to compress a story shown over months on television into just 2 hours of production?
Directed by Alexandre Avancini (among others) and with a script by Vivian de Oliveira, the production aims to portray the life of Moses (Guilherme Winter), his birth as a Hebrew slave hunted by his Egyptian masters, his adoption by the pharaoh's daughter, Henutmire (Mel Lisboa/Vera Zimmermann), his rise as prince of Egypt, the discovery of his true origin and escape after the death of a foreman, to his rise as a spiritual leader and liberator of the Hebrew people.
Condensing such a large period of time into a film is already a difficult task, even more so when it has so many parallel plots that are lost in the middle of the main story. Several important characters are cut from the story, and even the protagonist's arc is lost in the midst of so many quick and dry cuts. There is an attempt to anchor the main plot through a narration made by the successor of Moses, Josué (Sidney Sampaio), who would be telling the story to inspire the Hebrew soldiers in the conquest of the promised land (something along the lines of "300"), but even that doesn't save the tape from looking like an extended version of a television serial recap. Despite some production values of "Os Dez Mandamentos" being well above the national television average (especially on open TV), what you see in the feature is just a collage of rushed scenes, ignoring narrative arcs - originally worked over the course of entire chapters - to suit a feature film, in a disastrous editing.
In this, one of the most important pillars of history, the relationship of brotherhood/rivalry between Moses and Ramses (Sérgio Marone) passes in white clouds, without any weight. The relationship between the protagonist and his wife, Zipora (Giselle Itié) happens out of nowhere, characters suddenly disappear from the narrative, such as Anrão (Paulo Gorgulho), Moses' biological father, and so on. With the rush to present the greatest amount of biblical information, the scriptwriters and director did not bother to present characters, to make the spectator identify with these figures, even though they were already known to the public. In "Os Dez Mandamentos: The Movie" the characters just appear and disappear as if it were the public's duty to know who they are and what their motivations are, and with all that the film has practically no drama, not even with its various attempts to slow motions and super close up on the actors' faces.
The rushed pace of the narrative makes it impossible to connect with that story or with those figures beyond what the public already had before entering the cinema. It also cannot be forgotten that the process of character interpretation and composition is different in the two media. Everything in the film seems to be a ton above - the performances, exactly for this reason, are always exaggerated, which gives an artificial tone to the actors, even the most competent artists of the cast. This also happens due to the fact that it was a recording for television and for a soap opera, in which the performances of the dramatic cores go to that tone, something that works on television, but not on the big screen of cinema.
And that's a big problem, understanding that not everything that works on TV has the same effect in theaters. And in this case, the visual aspect is the most affected: the small defects that do not appear on the enlarged televisions for the projection room are extremely evident, both the art direction and the special effects show their lag in this regard, and the feeling of megalomania is not even in these great defects it is shaken. Each scenario is filmed as if it were the most extraordinary thing in cinema. And it's funny to see that Os Dez Mandamentos - The Movie slips in the technical aspects of cinema, the sound mix is poorly worked and sometimes the audio bursts and it's impossible to understand what a character is saying; so many times, the sound of the feature's noise is louder than the lines, and this just demonstrates how much this transposition from the telenovela to the cinemas seems to have been rushed. And it would be unfair to compare the soap opera with the movie, in which case no. It is evident that the film is just a condensation of everything presented throughout the 176 chapters of the soap opera and of some that will be part of the second season, and that does not work at all. There is only the feeling that the film does not have a dramatic curve, just a heap of information thrown into two hours, a patchwork of biblical passages and quotations stitched together by a flawed voice-over narration by Joshua that recalls all the deeds of Moses and the Hebrews. And to make a film adapted from another medium, it is necessary to be aware that there must be narrative concessions for the work to be dramatically achievable.
A botched edition that does not hide its television origin, shameful special effects clearly provided without the necessary care and a low and artificial art direction complement the set alongside an irritating and omnipresent soundtrack. Anyway, what you have is a great music video with many hidden interests, except those aimed at healthy entertainment and cultural and artistic growth. Any viewer will notice that the film's scenes are too fast. Some dialogues cut off abruptly. Others continue off until the next scene (or the voices are heard before the characters enter). The sounds are cut very directly, which exposes a hastily mixed mix. In terms of image quality, compared to what was seen on TV, colors lose strength and shadows are not as dark as they should be. Even if they don't bother the general public, these details impoverish the product, sold for tickets at the same price as productions with better finishing. What looked cinematic on television looked like video in the movies.
The adaptation of wills does not adopt subtleties. The religion of the Egyptians is practically ridiculed, as if all its wealth of symbols served only for the vanity and greed of the pharaohs. The God present in Vivian de Oliveira's script - who has the voice of a commercial announcer - is the most severe type possible, resentful and vindictive, who inspires more fear than admiration. Little guides, but much punishes. Represented by a voice and special effects, many of them quite artificial, God is merciless and even blackmailing those who do not follow him. The transposition of this plot into a fictional universe should highlight the allegorical characteristics of the plot, such as the relationship with the fantastic and the presence of possibilities beyond comprehension. This film, however, has the sole objective of catechizing its audience with an outdated and dictatorial discourse, which serves more earthly interests than spiritual ones.
The phenomenon of the Seven Plagues of Egypt is shown as a purely magical and supernatural event, with no room for other plausible interpretations, as recently done by the American film "Exodus: God and Kings", by Ridley Scott, which also gave more verisimilitude to the motives of the Egyptians. In Os Dez Mandamentos, everything is very direct and didactic. The audience is led to accept what they see and not to reflect or question. Any doubt becomes a risk of punishment. Compared to Exodus, the character of Moses created by actor Guilherme Winter is more pacifist and kind, while Christian Bale opted for an angrier path (to emphasize the character's military background). The Brazilian version, therefore, is theoretically more Christian. Ramses, lived by Sérgio Marone, starts out balanced coherent and then becomes more purely evil, concluding as a ruthless and stubborn villain.
As a result, "Os Dez Mandamentos", at least in the cinema, seem just a dramatization, an audiovisual simulation of several passages from the Bible, something that assumes its audience's pre-knowledge of the subject in order to pass its message on in a playful way. Film form. Os Dez Mandamentos, therefore, is a film for an audience that has already been conquered, in two different ways, and that will thus fulfill its function, which is to pass on its message, even if in a messy way and with several mistakes, but which seems to little will be noticed. This adaptation did not know how to transport one medium to another and seems to please the religious public due to the popular content that the telenovela sustains. Driven by the success of the soap opera, which became a national reference as the first telenovela based on a biblical story, the film, however, lacks cinematographic and technical quality, proving that it is not enough to invest millions in special effects when the basics - montage, continuity, or simply editing - it becomes a mere extra in the process of making movies.
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