Land of the Pharaohs
One of the most obvious criticisms one can levy about “Land of the Pharaohs” watching it in 2021 is that it has white actors in the main roles as Egyptians, and others from the Middle East, and that some of them are in tanned makeup to brown their skin up. While we’d like to think this could never be made now in that way, the past decade has had Ridley Scott and Alex Proyas casting white actors as Egyptians in their films, and not exactly being apologetic about it. There is one way Howard Hawks’s 1955 epic could not be made today, however, and that’s in its deployment of thousands of extras and real-life sets to tell this story. While there would certainly be some real elements in making a film such as this, the scenes of the great pyramid being made would be largely digitized, giving the sense of a grand scale. Looking at it now, that might be the most noteworthy thing about “Land of the Pharaohs.”
This film came out around the time of biblical and historical epics, from DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” to “Ben Hur” and “Spartacus.” Howard Hawks was an interesting choice to direct this film for Warner Bros., as most of his films he was known for were comedies like “Bringing Up Baby” and “His Girl Friday” or genre films such as “Scarface” or “The Big Sleep.” Hawks was more than up to the task of creating this great epic, however, and it’s a spectacular vision seeing montages of the pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu (played by Jack Hawkins) built. That makes it all the more disappointing, however, that the dramatic narrative, as set out in the screenplay by William Faulkner, Harry Kurnitz and Harold Jack Bloom falls, so flat. As grand as his vision is, Hawks cannot really intrigue me with the human story of this film.
Pharaoh Khufu has spent much of his life winning wars around the world, taking gold and slaves, which- at the time- equated to great power. Of his six years of marriage to Queen Nailla (Kerima), he has been away for five. Now, he is thinking about his legacy. He requires an heir, which is how his Queen tempts him to stay home for a while, and he wants work done on a great pyramid for his afterlife. After the court architects fail in designing for him a secure palace, so that no one will ransack his gold as he has from others, he takes a chance on a slave, Vashtar (James Robertson Justice), whose ideas come with a price- the Pharaoh must set the slaves free after the work is done. Khufu agrees to those terms, and work commences. Along the way, another woman comes into Khufu’s life, a prize from another territory in Princess Nellifer (Joan Collins), whom he falls in love with, and whose desire for his riches rivals the Pharaoh’s own.
The film is a fictional account of building the Great Pyramid. As such, the screenwriters and Hawks had carte blanche to come up with something entirely original in terms of story. What they came up with is not without interest, but also falls flat as drama, in part because the main actors are not really compelling in the roles. It also doesn’t help that another avenue could have been explored by making this story an adaptation of King Lear, much as Kurosawa would later do with “Ran,” but focusing on the tension between the Queen and the Princess. There’s some of that tension in the final film, but it seems to be rushed to get this film in at under two hours. Because the Princess is brought in later in the film, the story and drama feel unfocused; if she had been a fundamental part of the narrative from the outset, maybe the film’s political narrative would have been a stronger element throughout.
As it is, the main reason to watch this film is to see the impressive visual splendor, and authentic feel, Hawks and his collaborators brought to giving us ancient Egypt on screen. Cinematographers Lee Garmes and Russell Harlan bring a human perspective to the film’s spectacle; why the film’s noted Cinemascope camerawork only seems to exist- digitally, at least- in a full frame rather than its original aspect ratio is beyond me. Regardless, the images of building the pyramid are striking, and all the more remarkable because of the attention to detail Hawks used by bringing together thousands of extras on massive sets to give us a sense of seeing the pyramid built before our very eyes. Also indispensable in that task is the score by Dimitri Tiomkin, which is a classic example of epic film music used effectively. My wish was that Hawks crafted a dramatic narrative worthy of those elements.
