Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17250 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-03-09
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Collector's Edition, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Running time: 220 minutes

From Amazon.com
Legendary silent film director Cecil B. DeMille didn't much alter the way he made movies after sound came in, and this 1956 biblical drama is proof of that. While graced with such 1950s niceties as VistaVision and Technicolor, The Ten Commandments (DeMille had already filmed an earlier version in 1923) has an anachronistic, impassioned style that finds lead actors Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner expressively posing while hundreds of extras writhe either in the presence of God's power or from orgiastic heat. DeMille, as always, plays both sides of the fence as far as sin goes, surrounding Heston's Moses with worshipful music and heavenly special effects while also making the sexy action around the cult of the Golden Calf look like fun. You have to see The Ten Commandments to understand its peculiar resonance as an old-new movie, complete with several still-impressive effects such as the parting of the Red Sea. --Tom Keogh

Amazon.com Essential Video
Legendary silent film director Cecil B. DeMille didn't much alter the way he made movies after sound came in, and this 1956 biblical drama is proof of that. While graced with such 1950s niceties as VistaVision and Technicolor, The Ten Commandments (DeMille had already filmed an earlier version in 1923) has an anachronistic, impassioned style that finds lead actors Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner expressively posing while hundreds of extras writhe either in the presence of God's power or from orgiastic heat. DeMille, as always, plays both sides of the fence as far as sin goes, surrounding Heston's Moses with worshipful music and heavenly special effects while also making the sexy action around the cult of the Golden Calf look like fun. You have to see The Ten Commandments to understand its peculiar resonance as an old-new movie, complete with several still-impressive effects such as the parting of the Red Sea. --Tom Keogh

Review
The Ten Commandments was the final film in the five-decade career of legendary producer/director Cecil B. DeMille and, despite its flaws, it remains a primary example of combining high production values and epic scope for a box-office blockbuster. Expanded from one of the segments in DeMille's 1923 silent film of the same name (though not exactly a remake of that film as is often claimed - the earlier version took place mostly in modern times), it benefits greatly from Charlton Heston's star-making performance as Moses, and from a veteran supporting cast that includes Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, and Vincent Price. The acting, though, is secondary to DeMille's visually expansive storytelling. The production design has an appropriate sense of grandeur, and the parting of the Red Sea is among the most famous scenes in any film from the 1950s. DeMille's directing style is straightforward, maintaining a clean, brisk pace throughout the film's 220 minutes. The Ten Commandments was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning for John Fulton's special effects. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

good, but no masterpiece
while i will say this movie is good,i wouldn't say it is great.for one
thing it is way too long.i mean that generally,but also many of the
scenes went on way too long.there were some pretty impressive,even
spectacular scenes.but for me,this movie is all about the spectacle.i
found that a lot of the dialogue existed to simply to give several
overwrought speeches.as for the acting,it wasn't bad,or
anything.however the only standout,in my mind was Yul Brynner as
Pharaoh Rameses.he was brilliant.also,i got the feeling while watching
this movie that it may have been a vanity project,for director Cecil
B.Demille and to a lesser extent Charlton Heston.and Heston was not
that great in this movie.in fact,i felt he tended to overact at
times.anyway,i did find the movie worth watching,but not the
masterpiece that others have claimed.for me, The Ten Commandments is a
3/5

The definitive Ten Commandments.
An interesting title as the Commandment part is a tad closer to the end of the movie. Cecil B. DeMille takes a few liberties with history; however if he did not then this would have been some dry documentary instead of a great epic. This story is more of the life and times of Moses from birth to the last farewell. We see rivalry, temptation, brick making and dancing girls.

One item that Cecil tactfully worked around is where do you think Anne Baxter ...Nefretiri came from? Can you say sister? As the bloodlines from Egyptians, came through the women. That is why who ever married her would become pharaoh.

The graphics are great for the time; the plagues are really spooky and we all still hold the image of the parting of the sea. The acting has that 50's epic feel. Elmer Bernstein's music adds a hidden dimension to the story and you will not be able to get it out of your head. Edward G. Robinson made a great Dathan; He gets to be a modern day Dathan in "Key Largo" (1948). Is it not interesting that Pharaoh Rameses in The Prince of Egypt - DTS (1998) looks like Yul Brynner?

This is the one version most people relate too. The story has been told before and after this version. Some people know this version better than the real one.


Some of the other "Ten Commandments" floating around out there:
The Ten Commandments (1923).
The Ten Commandments (1956).
Greatest Heroes of the Bible - The Ten Commandments (1978).
Ten Commandments 1 & 2 (2000).
Ancient Secrets of the Bible - "Moses' Ten Commandments: Tablets From God?"
The Prince of Egypt - DTS (1998).

Good but not great edition of a classic
I already had "The Ten Commandments" on DVD, but with almost no extras and no commentary, it wasn't all that satisfying. This new Collector's Edition is easily worth its low price, to me, even as a replacement. The colors are breathtaking, Elmer Bernstein's store is still luscious, and it's probably as close to what DeMille intended as you'll get on a screen smaller than twenty feet.

I enjoyed Katherine Orrison's commentary track quite a bit (and have put her book on the movie on my wish list), although much more about the movie than some of her amateur theological comments. After spending so much time with Henry Wilcoxon, DeMille's right-hand man on this and many other movies, she has anecdotes and understanding that help you understand how the film was made. I had no idea it took five full years to make, or how some of the seemingly-odd decisions were made or even how some of the effects were created.

The other extras are a bit disappointing. The six-part documentary (complete with titles in Paramount's "Star Trek" font because they can't recreate the hand-lettering of the movie's titles, over leather that shows up in richer color than I've ever seen it) doesn't offer nearly as much as AMC's "Cecil B. DeMIlle" biography from earlier in 2004. That special included pre-matte shots of the parting of the Red Sea - the actual water in the tank, including the sides of the parted Red Sea, and how it was created. Paramount may not own that documentary, but some of that footage should have been on this disc. Without it, there are still some good interviews, but not enough behind-the-scenes footage that we now know exists.

If you like "The Ten Commandments" and don't have it on DVD, this is for you. If you have the older version but like it a lot, this one's also for you - but get the Cecil B. DeMille biography when it comes out on DVD, too.