Editorial Review:

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

The Ten Commandments DVD (1956) with Charlton Heston.

Charlton Heston will always be remembered as Moses and this old film is an enduring classic.

It probably can never be equalled even with all the modern CGI and special effects and to repeat myself, is an enduring classic of biblical cinematograpahy.

Its long, its basic, no computer animation, but it's a great film.

Average Rating:

Rating: - An enduring classic epic
The Ten Commandments DVD (1956) with Charlton Heston.

Charlton Heston will always be remembered as Moses and this old film is an enduring classic.

It probably can never be equalled even with all the modern CGI and special effects and to repeat myself, is an enduring classic of biblical cinematograpahy.

Its long, its basic, no computer animation, but it's a great film.

Rating: - So let it be written.
Our 6 year old daughter is fascinated by this and watches it repeatedly. We enjoy it with her.

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Rating: - MY FAVORITE
I HAVEN'T OPENED IT YET BECAUSE I AM WAITING TO GET THE FAMILY ALL TOGETHER TO WATCH IT.THIS IS A MOVIE I ALWAYS WANTED TO OWN, BECAUSE OF THE STORY BEHIND IT. IT ALSO SIGNALS FOR ME THE HOLIDAYS.

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Rating: - Greater than divine, plain human
You have to be nostalgic to go back to such a long and typical film of 1956. And yet the film has kept an intense charm. The special effects are of course old but they are believable: you cannot see the zipper in the back of the monstrous pharaoh. The charm though does not come from that brilliant set, the great costumes, the perfect acting, for this distant period at least. The actors speak the way actors used to speak on a sound stage because it was filmed on a sound stage. So the language is unnatural, artificial, over-dramatic, staged in one word. The charm comes from the story itself. You do not need to believe in it to appreciate it. It is a beautiful and magical story of love and struggle, of slavery and freedom. That is this very human charm that still attracts us. Those who believe in the divine nature of the story are just adding something else to it but they are not changing this story: a humane and deeply emotional story about a few human beings who are suddenly confronted with a fundamental choice: do I help myself and remain happy in my corner or do I help those I consider as my people to get free and happy in their turn? That's the choice of Moses and he goes the right way. But in 1956, when McCarthyism and the vast repression against the Communists were raging, before Rosa Parks refused to stand up and yield her seat to a white passenger on a bus, Hollywood had found a way to remain on the side of those who suffered. They produced films like this one that was punctuated all along by this simple sentence that had accompanied and would accompany the long struggle for civil rights: Let my people go. That is in no way Christian or Buddhist, Moslem or Hindu. It is just human and eternal because there will always be some freedom to conquer for everyone or just for one group of people. Freedom is not natural: it is a human creation and invention.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

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Rating: - the ten commandments
very informative and entertaining.kids will love it too.
i have been looking for this movie for the past 5 years. thankyou amazon.I have found it here.

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