Cecil B. DeMille "THE TEN COMMANDMENTS" (1956) in HD on ABC. It's so clean!

That sound like DeMille talking.

 

Yeah, I watched the BluRay tonight. First time I had ever seen the film. It looks and sounds spectacular. Colors were uniformly rich and vibrant but never distracting. Everything looked incredible. Pretty much a demo quality disc...

 

You can thank former Paramount executive Ron Smith, who supervised the 6k scan and 4k restoration 5 years ago...given that we're talking about a 3.5 hour movie with spectacular cinematography and special effects, it was a monumental chore for them to bring it up to HD standards for both the ABC telecasts and blu-ray...

 

I'm still watching and I 'm surprised at what a really well made and entertaining movie it is.

 

Just watched the HD version, and am amazed by the clarity.

 

Costco had the deluxe edition out so I picked it up. Looks terrific and I'm looking forward to finally seeing the silent version.

 

I'm very sad that Viacom chose to get rid of the majority of their restoration and archival staff at Paramount.

 

can you please give me the sku number and UPC number...I'd like to see if it's available on their website? thanks.

 

SKU 868940
UPC 883929341931

I paid $24.99

 

thanks so much!

 

It took me two nights, but I finally wrapped the Heston version up on Sunday.

It does look terrific, but the blue screen shots really stands out and the animated pillar of fire was pretty sad. The water effects for the Red Sea sequence were well done.

I do prefer the movie up to the intermission, when it's more of an action film. Heston gets too hammy in the second half and I have to question why the Israelites start building the golden calf when Moses has only been gone for what seems like a few minutes. I felt like they rushed through the second part of the film after the great first part.

 

You need to remember that this movie was created with 1956 production values, technology and entertainment sensibilities...what inevitably seems quaint compared with 2014 equivalents was state-of-the-art then, as evidenced by this movie's Oscar for visual effects...

 

Of course I remember that. I'm a huge fan of classic movies, dating back to the silent years. I'm just saying that the clarity of Blu ray really made the blue screen effects stand out more so than they would on any other home video format.

I wonder what the shelf-life of films like this will be when people under the age of 20 or so (post Jurassic Park) have never known films without photo-realistic digital effects.

 

Well, my kids put up a stink when I suggested going to see it at the theater yesterday.

 

Actually, MYKE..the EXACT line is "Where is your DELIVERER now???"

 

I do agree about the rush at the end with the Golden Calf which seems really odd but we certainly don't want the movie to be any longer . It was my first viewing as well and to me the last 20 minutes with the Commandments was surprisingly the least interesting part. Loved the first couple of hours. Great movie making. The only weak effects for me was the Fire . Anne Baxter was hot!

 

DeMille came right out in the beginning and said that they didn't know a whole lot about Moses' life during those years, so they consulted several scholars and came up with a story. I believe there was another recent Biblical film that tried the same thing...

Anyway, I hope that we don't get the Peter Jackson version, split into two three hours films.

 

Getting ready to be flamed...

For history reasons, I understand the value in preserving the original film...but my kids, who really enjoyed it, were majorly distracted by the primitive special effects. Would it be so awful to redo those parts, staying as close to DeMille's vision as possible? Sorta like what they did with the original Star Trek series...

 

I think it's inevitable. Like it or not, these films are assets, and if few people are interested in them they become worthless.

In 2031, look for the 75th Anniversary version at a theatre near you.... now with an improved pillar of fire!

 

It will be a pillar of plasma!

 

I have the bluray of this and it simply looks amazing. The colors of the first half of the movie are flat out simply astounding.

 

Please, no. Just remake the movie from scratch if you must, don't tinker with other people's creations and muddle history.

 

Actually isn't there a remake in the works?

 

A lot of kids these days won't watch anything that's in black and white. Shall we colorize all old B&W movies so people won't be distracted?