The Ten Commandments (50th Anniversary Collection)
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DVD details
Actor: Ten CommandmentsBrand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Published)
Format: Black & White, Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 356 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-03-21
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of The Ten Commandments (50th Anniversary Collection)
DVD Review: The Ten Commanments 1956 stands the test of time
Summary: 5 Stars
This is exactly the kind of movie we need more of. But, I know that will never happen, not in America. Starring Yul Brenner, Charlton Heston -This is Cecil B. Demile's great, big, wonderful telling of Moses. He was put on the river in a basket before the Egytians could kill him along with all the other Hewbrew children. He was found in a drifting basket my Bithia the Pharoh's sister. She raised him in the palace as her own. One day, he and everybody else found out he was a Hebrew...Woo-hoo! Buy it for the rest of the story. "So let it be written, so let it be done" (You'll understand this line from the movie once you see it) Based on the Old Testament writings with excellent special effects for 1956. I bought this with "The Robe" another classic starring Richard Burton."Were you out there?" (you'll understand this line too when you buy The Robe)DVD Review: Great Movie great Price!
Summary: 5 Stars
The movie arrived on time and in the condition as promised. This set is the ultimate disc set of the movie. Everything you could want and more. DVD Review: Still Great After 50 Years
Summary: 4 Stars
Like most people, I watched "The Ten Commandments" on TV many times over the years while growing up. Many of its scenes are etched in my memory. But in the wake of Charlton Heston's recent death, I decided to have a marathon viewing of his films and watched "Commandments" for the first time since my adolescence. It was interesting to see it now with more mature eyes (and without being interrupted by a million commercials).
Made in 1956, this film launched Heston's career as the star of big historical epics. He is dynamic and powerful as Moses, who grows up believing he is Egyptian royalty, only to discover that he is actually born of a slave. Moses becomes the messenger of God and delivers the Hebrews out of their terrible bondage. The cast is very good, especially Yul Bryner as Rameses and Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Sethi. The script is lyrical and literate, both socially conscious and reverent at the same time. The special effects in the parting of the Red Sea sequence are impressive even today, although some of the other effects (like the "pillar of fire") are animated and look pretty cheesy. However, the scene where the Angel of Death slithers through the city as a slow-moving mist is still chilling.
To modern audiences, the film will seem melodramatic and exaggerated, but that was the intended style. The director, Cecil B. DeMille, got his start making silent movies where the actors needed to overact to convey the emotion of the scene. In fact, the 50th anniversary DVD of "Commandments" includes the 1923 version, also directed by DeMille. In the earlier film, the story of Moses and Rameses is featured only in the prologue, which is then followed by a "modern day" story of two brothers and what happens if a person does not live by God's laws. It's a wonderful time capsule of movie making and it's interesting to compare (and contrast) it to the later film. Despite it's age, the silent version has surprisingly good special effects.
The other extras in the 50th Anniversary set are also good. There is a 40-minute documentary on the making of the film which features interviews with surviving cast members, including Heston. There are also enthusiastic and informative commentaries by Katherine Orrison on both versions of the film. She shares many interesting anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories, and both are worth a listen.
So if you've never seen "The Ten Commandments," by all means you should. If it's been a while, revisit the grandeur and spectacle of this cinema classic.
DVD Review: A Bible film even we atheists can like!
Summary: 5 Stars
In the begining, deMille created a silent film. And it was good. But lo! It lacked color, it lacked sound and it lacked the great Heston. So deMile created "The Ten Commandments" anew, and saw that it was good, said that it was good, and it was... really quite corking, actually.
"The Ten Commandments" really only features said laws towards the end of the movie, but that's ok because as they say, getting there is half the fun. The movie is a spectacle on a grand scale, with huge sets, a cast of literally thousands, location filming in Egypt, beautiful costumes and a 1950's mentality that meant they had to sanitize quite a bit of the actual story.
The tale the movie tells is one known to most people. The Hebrews are living as slaves in Egypt until God tells Moses (Charlton Heston), to go tell the Pharaoh (an amazingly good Yul Brenner), to let his people go. Moses does, Pharaoh tells him to get lost, and plagues happen. Eventually the innocent are murdered and Moses is allowed to take his people into the Promises Land where they will be slaves to God, instead of to Pharaoh.
`course that's just my interpretation of Exodus.
The film is specatcle of the first order, with a huge a-list of Hollywood's finest actors including Heston, Brenner, Vincent Price, Edward G Robinson, Yvone de Carlo and others. All the performances are great, particularly the two leads. Atheist though I am, even I found Heston compelling in his role as Moses.
What's most interesting, though, is some of the side stories to the movie. If you pick up a copy of the DVD, you can hear an audio commentary by a woman (I forget her name, forgive me), who obviously is a believer, as was deMille. What makes that so interesting is hearing her talk about the compromises to the Biblical story that deMille made, and justifying them to herself and the audience!
For example, she points out one scene where Moses is standing next to a black woman. That he had an Ethiopian wife is news to me (apparently I didn't read Exodus close enough), and this movie doesn't really want you to know that he did. All you see is a black woman standing next to Moses and some large black guy standing next to her looking more like a Zulu than an Ethiopian. Of course this was because we didn't want to ruffle the feathers of 1950's society by showing an interracial marriage (though apparently deMille himself was big on civil rights).
Also glossed over, and again something I missed in the Bible, is that due to Moses' stammering, Aaron actually spoke to Pharaoh. I knew he had problems talking, but I'd assumed God had just fixed that. In the movie there's no stammering and no Aaron talking to Pharaoh.
Of course the Biblical facts had to be gussied up a little for the film, in order to make the movie more, well, movie-like. But I find it interesting that people who believe in God would think it's ok to twist the stories they believe in just to make a good movie.
Anyhow, theology aside this is indeed a great film and one worthy of all the adulation it gets!
This DVD is worth every penny. You not only get the movie and the commentary mentioned above, but you also get the fascinating silent film version of the movie! A great buy!
DVD Review: Fabulous
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is so amazing. I watched it with my grandparents when it was on VHS, and now that it is on digitally remastered DVD, the color and clarity of it is amazing. Such a great movie, one to definitely share with the kids.
Description of The Ten Commandments (50th Anniversary Collection)
Paramount Pictures celebrates the 50th anniversary of Cecil B. DeMille's Bible epic spectacular THE TEN COMMANDMENTS with a double feature that includes both the 1956 version and the director's original 1923 silent version. See individual titles for plot details.System Requirements:Running Time: 356 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:?DRAMA Rating:?G UPC:?097360412246 Manufacturer No:?041224Legendary 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
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