There are biblical movies, and then there is The Ten Commandments .

Furthermore, the film influenced later historical epics, proving that religious stories could be marketed as action-adventure blockbusters. Its influence is visible in films ranging from Ben-Hur (1959) to The Prince of Egypt (1998) and Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014).

Perhaps the most critical academic lens through which to view the film is the socio-political context of the 1950s Cold War. DeMille was a staunch anti-communist, and he explicitly framed The Ten Commandments as a political argument.