(2013-05-16 05:21:36)

the ten commandments is a true classic

this is an excellent movie to add to your collection its one of the best movies of all time the actors are brilliant ,the colors in this picture are so beutiful ,this is a movie to charish because they just cant make movies like this one anymore.thank you amoazon for making it possible for me to own this movie.

(2013-05-15 18:04:14)

HOLY COW! - THIS TRANSFER NEEDS SOME WORK!

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.

(2013-05-11 09:51:06)

AN OK FILM, BUT GETS BOGGED DOWN IN THE MIDDLE

Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 silent film of "The Ten Commandments" is a decent work from one of Hollywood's most influential and controversial directors. Unlike DeMille's more powerful 1956 remake with Charlton Heston, the story of Moses and the Hebrews being delivered out of Egypt takes up only about a fourth of the film. But that part is truly spectacular, featuring beautiful cinematography, enormous sets, and visual effects that were cutting-edge for the silent film era.However, most of this film is set in the 1920s, and concerns how a family is torn apart, as one son sets himself on living by the commandments set down by God, and the other decides to reject the words of his mother, and live his life free of those commandments. Sadly, this part of the film is mostly uninteresting, as the story gets too involved in "preaching" to the audience. However, the last few minutes are great, as the story of Jesus curing a person of leprosy is told with great reverence.This film comes as a part of theThe Ten Commandments (50th Anniversary Collection) DVD. Overall, this is an OK film that fans of DeMille will find interesting, if a little too dry.Grade: B-

(2013-05-10 11:01:01)

Major hardware disappointment

the movie is fine for all the known reasons.... except that it won't play on my windvd pc player. I suspect the dual-layer technology..... it plays fine on my (5 years older) non-pc dvd player.

(2013-05-05 21:11:20)

Great!

This review is from: The Ten Commandments (DVD) Got this for my mom, but it's on TV every Easter week. Did a great job with this movie for it's time.

(2013-05-05 13:16:02)

One of the greatest

This, I believe, was one of the greatest movies ever made. The cast was superb and the special effects (miracles) were done very well. The older version, 1923, included in the set was a delight to watch. This is one rare movie that would be very difficult to forget.

(2013-04-30 21:18:11)

Makes Plan 9 From Outer Space Seem like a artistic Triumph

Thankfully a lot of people feel the same way I do about this film. It is offensively bad. So bad it makes Wood's Plan9 from Outer Space seem like a true cinematic classic. The special effects were raved about in the 50's but films that pre date this one such as Pal's war of the World and When World's Collide trumph this by centuries. Fans of the mythology should have been appalled and those that found it campy give it a universe of extra credit. First time I've seen the film. Heard about it for 50 years and admittedly the subject matter has kept me from really ever watching it. But I had no idea just how bad a film could be. Give me Attack of the Killer Tomatoes any time over this abomination. This should have ended the acting careers of everyone involved. Its like Criswell Predicts meets Kathryn Kuhlman being produced by the crew of MST3000. Only its not funny. My mouth is still stuck open in shock!!!!

(2013-04-30 11:19:13)

AND THE ELEVENTH SHOULD BE TO WATCH THIS FILM !

I do hope that did not sound blasphemous ! I happen to enjoy this movie very much, and try to watch it if my schedule permits when it plays around this time every year. Who would believe that the material used to create this movie (- that would be the bible, for those of you not "in the know " - )shines far, far brighter than the sets, stilted "fifty-ish " acting (at times ) , and the as well fifties -looking paradys of "ancient" egyptian attire - complete with the max factor blue eye-shadow , to match all of those silken drape gowns with their gold lame' threadings. The point is , as threatening to distract as some of these details are from the total picture experience, they do not. They could not, and can not. In fact, so discerned is the writing of this screenplay that any schloar of its content will find that they are immersed in the truth-in action of this re-inactment from ancient history. This is to say ... all is as it should be in this film that attempts and succeeds in conveying an epic story, in all of its epic proportions. The director of the ten commandments made the movie clean. The actors who carry the film (perhaps because of, in fact, that stilted, fifty-ish acting style in vogue at the time ) made it easy to read. The sets- in all of their haunting simplicity -made it brilliant. And the special effects made it ...well...rock ! This film is a spiritually enlightening film , it is an easy and informative film to watch, and its subject matter is eternally profound. Lets here it for the ten commandments.

(2013-04-30 11:16:50)

10 Commandments

AMAZING movie. One of my all-time favorites! Usually I would watch it on television when they show it every spring, but this is the full 4 hour movie (saw it in a 2 sittings) and it has many scenes that were cut out from TV. I would definetely recommend it!

(2013-04-29 20:08:10)

Ten Commandments

The movie is excellent quality and it has a bonus CD from the very first silent version of the movie. I just love it. I recommend it anytime and anyday for anybody.

(2013-04-25 01:51:42)

Go get your straw

It's no accident that this film is broadcast on American television every year and finds an appreciative audience during the Passover-Easter period. It's less like a standard movie with a linear plot than a series of tableaux illustrating parts of the book of Exodus. Amidst all the spectacle Cecil B. DeMille was in fact somewhat ahead of his time in handling the show. For instance, he had Moses reject the idea of a God who is not "in every mind, in every heart", and used Charlton Heston both as Moses and the voice of God, raising the issue of whether Moses was saying these things to himself. Pretty daring for the 1950's. DeMille offered logical explanations for all the Mosean miracles except the last plague and the parting of the Red Sea, the film's twin signatures. When Moses signed off he sounded more like George Washington than a Jewish prophet, proclaiming "freedom among all nations." DeMille even thought to reserve a dignified place for the forbears of Islam in his tale. The film speaks directly and emotionally to the issue of good and evil, and how people should live their lives, and no other filmaker in the English-speaking world does that today. Good enough reason for DeMille's last film to be his best-remembered.

(2013-04-24 13:13:34)

An Eye Popping Epic

Every scene in this film shows DeMilles artiste for the screen. The costurmes were great and I thought Anne Baxter was pretty good. It's kind of hard to believe that Charlton Heston behind all of that gray hair torwards the end though. A must see for all ages. If you get a chance to watch it, don't pass The Ten Commandments up!

(2013-04-23 06:25:40)

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments (50th Anniversary Collection) One of the greatest movies ever made, telling the story of Moses, the Jewish Slaves, and the Egyptian Pharaohs. Even if you have never read the story about Passover, you will learn quite a lot of ancient biblical history in this movie. A Great famil movie for everyone. A Must Watch!!!!!

(2013-04-23 02:32:50)

Solid and entertaining Hollywood hokum

The Ten Commandments showed DeMille's savvy, commerical and epic style as a film director. It hasn't aged all that well but it's still entertaining and larger than life. Charlton Heston was never the most subtle actor, but the energy and vitality he brought to his many performances always make them memorable. Yul Brynner steals many of his scenes with a sharp and sly performance.The visual effects are pretty good by today's standards and were outstanding by 50's standards. John Fulton's process photography particularly for the Red Sea sequence, is memorable. The matte paintings and process shots add to the epic elements in this fine if slightly dated film.Although not DeMille's best film, The Ten Commandments certainly can claim the crown for his most over the top production. The striking visuals, performances and visual effects make this film a memorable Hollywood epic.

(2013-04-19 12:30:28)

The 10 Commandments: History as a Fable Not Agreed Upon

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS is a massive movie whose bulk hides some gross historical errors and anachronisms under some pretty spectacular special events. Director Cecil B. DeMille purports to tell the story of the Hebrew exodus led by Moses sometime around the 13th century BC. The opening credits list the sources for the script: Philo, Josephus, Eusebius, and the rabbinic commentaries. The problem is that these writers lived more than 1,000 after the event they discuss, so their grasp of historical accuracy is questionable. Further, the number of anachronisms is appalling. The seder ceremony, for example, sonorously echoed by John Carradine did not exist until centuries later. Putting these errors of history aside, how does the movie fare as entertainment? On the plus side, the sheer sweep of the plot tends to carry along the viewer with it. We see the baby Moses (played by Charlton Heston's real life son) cast adrift in a basket to be adopted by the Pharoah's wife who raises him as the Prince of Egypt. Moses,played by Charlton Heston, is as animated as a cigar store wooden Indian. He delivers his lines as if he is auditioning for a high school production of The Ten Commandments in which that high school director wants his actors' speech patterns to reflect the terribly serious Biblical phrasing that Hollywood suggests that the historical Biblical figures used. The other actors, Sethi (Cedric Hardwick), Nefretiri (Anne Baxter), Dathan (Edward G. Robinson) just to name a few, all seem unable to speak naturally and easily. When Moses discovers his true identity, he is cast out by his ambitious pseudo adopted brother. The film's best moments are not those of the spectacular sort, but show Moses having to think and plan after his one man exodus. He arrives bare-footed and starving to a land whose local ruler welcomes him after he saves the ruler's daughters from some neighboring ruffians intent on water poaching. Moses' return to Egypt shows him at his most wooden. Each word he utters is so bereft of spontaneity that his scenes with Ramses (Yul Brynner) which ought to ring with the passion of two giants battling, instead degenerate into the self-parody of hollow and corny rhetoric. The highlights of the movie, of course, are the special effects. The burning bush, the finger-flame of God, the fiery barrier of flame at the Red (Reed?) sea, and the splitting of the sea itself are usually what most viewers take away from this film. And that multi-use of pyrotechnics as the lingering image in the viewer's mind of a topic that should have come alive far more than on a special effects level leaves one with a sense of incompletion. To resolve this, one might try what the film's scriptwriters did: to read contemporary accounts of Moses and the Exodus in the Old Testament and later accounts by Philo, Josephus, and Eusebius to see what if anything the historical Moses said and did to bring to mind a bearded Charlton Heston who can give a mildly entertaining version in whose historical origins are even now shrouded in antiquity.

(2013-04-19 06:26:20)

I give this movie 5 stars not for the acting but the sets

The acting was like all the acting in bibicial type movies of the era. I think this is what is wrong with all religions at least in my view, that we don't feel really connected with the "God" or whatever your interpertation of "God" is. I think it was perpetuated by movies like this. The overly wooden performances, I don't think Charlton Heston found his inner "Moses" in order to portray him as a person that lived in a desert at that particular time in history. After all Moses did have a wife and children, how did they feel about being totally ignored by their father after he became the spreader of the word of God? Well anyway, the sets and the costumes and of course the famous parting of the sea is spectacular and will never be duplicated.

Michael Neumann

(2013-04-16 04:03:59)

I'll take DeMille's paraphrase of Scripture any day

Cecil B. DeMille's silent epic certainly ranks among the most audaciousOld Testament melodramas ever made, jumping in one dazzling edit from a90-minute exodus out of ancient Egypt to modern (c. 1923) SanFrancisco, where the possibility of divine retribution is never morethan a tremor away.The biblical prologue, a complete film in itself, condenses thematerial DeMille would later use for his entire 1956 remake, with asimilar emphasis on spectacular set design, impressive special effects,and stoic overacting. But the plot really picks up steam after itshifts to the 20th century, depicting the fraternal rift between acrooked building contractor out to break all ten of the Lord'scommandments, and his saintly younger brother (a carpenter, naturally).The older, unscrupulous sibling is cheating on the construction costsof a new cathedral, and because DeMille's God is a vengeful God thesinner pays a heavy penalty for his greed, indirectly killing his ownmother when the walls come tumbling down, and later contracting leprosyfrom his deadly Eurasian mistress! The moralizing is no lessheavy-handed than in most silent melodramas, but DeMille was always abetter showman than a preacher, and at times it almost seems theunintended humor of this typically overwrought Sunday School lesson wasdeliberate.

(2013-04-15 21:46:08)

Ten Commandments

I saw this movie for the first time when it was new and I was only 5 years old. I was impressed then and have been every other time I have seen this classic.

(2013-04-14 06:52:44)

Biblical Epic

Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments is quite possibly the best biblical epic ever made. The film is long, but never drags and Mr. DeMille employed the proverbial cast of thousands to tell the story of Moses. The sets are spectacular and the effects are still great, even if they are a bit outdated by the computer wizardry of today. But still, to watch Moses part the Red Sea still packs a visual wallop. Charleston Heston is at his bombastic best as Moses, but Yul Brynner steals the movie as the evil pharaoh Ramses. Other notables include a luminous Anne Baxter as Nefertiti, a young John Derek as the strong headed Joshua and a sinister Edward G. Robinson as a slave trader Dathan. The Ten Commandments is a vestige of the glory days of movie making and holds up fifty years on. This version contains the silent version of the film from 1923.

(2013-04-13 10:07:57)

Breathtaking

The Ten Commandments is one of the greatest films of all time. The spectacle and storytelling are simply immense. I like Ben-Hur better, but this is a superb epic. Just one question: Is the AFI completely stupid? Ben-Hur should have been much higher on their list, but I can live with that. The fact that The Ten Commandments didn't even make the list blows my mind!