Cinema Judaica: Biblical Epics (4)
The commercial success of Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949) ushered in two decades of expensively-produced “Biblical epics” and “sword and sandal” films, made both in Hollywood and abroad. Though some were little more than drive-in theater spectacles, campy even by contemporary standards, others were critically acclaimed; Ben-Hur (1959), for example, won eleven Academy Awards, and received a citation from the National Conference of Christians and Jews for “promoting the cause of goodwill and understanding among all peoples of the nation.”
The Ten Commandments
Solomon and Sheba
The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah
Samson and Delilah