The Ten Commandments

Rating:
Summary: Wowzers
Review: Its still amazing to me that this movie was made in 1956. A secular person can still enjoy this movie as it is more than just a bible story, its a full blown spectacle full of outrageous over-acting (see Charleton Heston) and serious special effects. Its not a family film if you take into account the slavery, the deaths by plagues, and pharoah's army getting wiped out, and the general nastiness like flaming tornadoes and the golden calf scene. Enough to freak out a 10 year old easily. It's great to see Yul Bryner and Edward G. Robinson showing us what real acting is all about. You can't top DeMille's talents, even with 100 million dollars worth of computer graphics nowadays. My only gripe is that nobody looks middle eastern/north african in the movie except for Bryner and maybe some of Pharoah's nubian slaves, but hollywood will never make a bible flick with anyone but light skinned caucasians. Its a marketing thing.

Great flick, much better than the modern christian dreck that devotees must watch that masquerades as a movie. If you have seen the Omega Code, you understand where I'm coming from.

Rating:
Summary: A True Masterpiece
Review: This is my favorite movie that is based around the Bible; it is the story of Moses, the deliever of the oppressed children of Isreal. The movie is outstanding, although it has such an old-fashioned air from the fifties, but it is such a beautiful movie. You have to watch this. Moses, found among the reeds of the Nile River by the Bithia, becomes the prized prince of Egypt. He competes against Raamses, both for the throne of Egypt and the for the princess of his heart's desire. He learns of his Hebrew heritage, the clue is a piece of homespun cloth. He forsakes the palace and his rich life to go out among his people and work as they do, as the slaves of Egypt. After he kills the cruel master-builder, Baka, to save the life of another slave, he is cast out of Egypt is disgrace. When he lived in the desert as a keeper of flocks, he encountered the burning bush. He returns the Egypt then to set his people free. This is such a masterpiece. A tender love story, the exciting exodus, the parting of the Red Sea, and Moses' faith in God are all portrayed very well. Charleston Heston, Anne Baxter, and others star in this wonderful movie, The Ten Commandments.

Rating:
Summary: HOLY COW! - THIS TRANSFER NEEDS SOME WORK!
Review: When Paramount released Cecil B. DeMille's remake of his own silent film - "The Ten Commandments" in theatres in 1954 it was an instant hit! Capitalizing on the widescreen phenomenon (VistaVision in this case) and using the, then current, trend of Biblical epics to its advantage - the story of Moses (Charlton Heston)using divine power to defeat Egypt's autocratic pharoh (Yul Bryner) was a natural at the box office and with the advent of television, the film has since become a perennial fav' during the Easter and Christmas seasons.
TRANSFER: Not the best. Though colors are rich, they tend to be inconsistently rendered. Flesh tones at times appear an unhealthy pumpkin orange. Black levels can be deep but quite often they are tonal gray instead. There is a considerable amount of aliasing and fine detail shimmering that make for an unstable picture. Edge enhancement is present throughout, making the matte painting backdrops and process screen visual effects really look even more artificial and pasted on than they actually looked before. This draws the viewer's attention away from the performances. The audio is 5.1 remixed and masterfully rendered with an expansive and aggressive bass in the music especially. Naturally, the sound quality is dated, but background hiss is minimal for a pleasing audio representation.
EXTRAS: Forget it! This was Paramount during its penny pinching DVD days. You get nothing! But cheer up. Rumor has it that a NEW version of this classic is getting ready to come out in 2004 and with some pretty interesting, if tentative, extra features.
BOTTOM LINE: Wait for the special edition. This transfer is not up to par.

Rating:
Summary: Forget Cranky and Heston - this is DeMille's show!
Review: I am not sure if Cranky Reviewer is trying to be funny (which he/she isn't) or is just playing (or plain) dumb, but when C. Heston took on the role of Moses in 1956, I doubt he was looking four decades down the road to when he would front the evil NRA. Watching the film now, with Heston's politics so front and centre (and after the drubbing he took from Moore in Bowling For Columbine), the film does take on a highly ironic tone. But that should not stop anyone from enjoying this masterpiece of cinematic storytelling on a scale that only CB DeMille could deliver. Sure it's campy as can be in places, and the casting of stars like Edward G. Robinson in a Bible epic now seems quaintly offbeat, but you can't beat XComm. for sheer spectacle. I say watch it, and as Yul Brynner states, "So shall it be written, so shall it be done!"

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Im very happy with the dvd version of this great epic. Great picture quality and sound. The voice of God is a bit subdued but all in all a very pleasurable viewing. While the purests are finding the tiny faults i will be enjoying this movie for many years.

Rating:
Summary: YUL BRYNNER and CHARLTON HESTON forms ....
Review: ... a very good TEAM for this splendid MASTERPIECE WITHIN the WORKS on the history of CHRISTIANS ! This is THE MOVIE WITCH IS ESSENTIAL to be able to undersrand without the BIBLE the longs times THROUGHT THE CENTURIES GOES ALL OVER BY THEM ! The OFFSPRINGS the descendants of MOÏSE'FAMILY A VERY SUBSTANCIAL DVD MOVIE WITCH RECOUNT THE INREDIBLE STORY OF THE GENESIS ...CHRISTIAN PEOPLE !!! SPLENDID UNTEMPORAL STORY *****

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Then, Not Now
Review: l saw this flick when it first came out, paid extra to get a seat, and was in awe of it. But that was a long time ago, and seeing it again gives me the shudders: stilted acting, pompous dialogue, and puerile special effects, e.g., the parting of the Red Sea is, by today's cinema standards, laughable. lt might be a good idea for someone like Steven Spielberg to re-make this flick and show how it can be properly done.

Rating:
Summary: Bring us back to Technicolour...
Review: While not even the tiniest bit religious, I still have to admit this is one of my favourite movies to watch, and a big part of that is its epic scale and hammy acting.

Yul Brynner never looked better than in this film; ditto Debra Paget. But scene-stealers include Vincent Price and Edward G. Robinson. The vibrancy of technicolour makes you wish they had never gotten rid of it, technology be damned. Heston is himself, no more, no less. And whether or not you believe in God is academic; it's pretty solid storytelling from start to finish.

Just for fun, though... check out the cheese quotient, which is considerable--the look Yvonne DeCarlo gives to the camera after hearing the line "Your eyes are as sharp as they are beautiful". Also the look for the trio of Hebrew 'playmates' near the Red Sea bit, how they're 'blown away' by the power of Moses; ditto Anne Baxter, who's got some of the worst lines on film ever ("Moses, you splendid, stubborn, fool.").

Rating:
Summary: Still not the best !!
Review: While the DVD of "The Ten Commandments" is great for it's clarity and ease of scene access, this is NOT the definitive version that is available. There was a RESTORED VHS put out in the early 90's that is completely UNCUT. The DVD is NOT! There are jump-cuts in several places, particularly the end of the RED-SEA sequence. The picture is much brighter on the VHS version, and the sound is better too. The DVD has ARTIFICIAL REVERB which is NOT part of the original soundtrack. The voice of God is hard to understand on the DVD, but NOT on the fully-uncut VHS. Also, where the music drops out during the parting of the Red Sea on the DVD, you can still hear music when the sea part on the VHS. Another difference is when the sea covers the chariots, the music starts 10 seconds sooner on the fully-uncut VHS, but not on the DVD. Why are there 2 versions of this scene? Paramount should release the "FULLY-UNCUT" version on DVD.............

Rating:
Summary: Good Movie...But
Review: Great movie, but instead of airing this on network television every Easter, they should air the miniseries, "Jesus Of Nazareth" with Robert Powell. The ten commandments is the law. We aren't under the law anymore. We are under Jesus Christ- the NEW convenant.