Review of The Ten Commandments (1956) by Padraig G — 24 Apr 2011

HAPPY EASTER!!!

For Easter (even though its a day after) I'm going to write about what I watched on Easter for the first time ever... Cecil DeMille's The Ten Commandments.

This film is a great story to tell, told in an entertaining way... the life of Moses from birth to death.

This film was great in just about every way. Lets start with the scenery. The scenery was INCREDIBLE and was nominated for an Oscar but lost to The King and I which I've never seen.

Another Oscar-worthy aspect of this film, the costume design. Which was also nominated but yet again, lost to The King and I.

Also the special effects were amazing especially for its time with the water and fire it was great. The visual effects won the Oscar which I think should go without saying.

The cinematography and color quality was good, the camera work didn't seem dated just like the other biblical movie I watched recently The Robe (review on my page). But the cinematography lost the Oscar to Around the World in Eighty Days which I have yet to see.

I don't like Charlton Heston that much but putting aside how I felt about him as a person he was pretty damn good in this.

This is definately the longest movie I've ever seen it was 4 minutes longer than the previous movie that held the record of longest movie I've ever seen which was Lawrence of Arabia.

Usually when films get past 3 hours or so they start to seem too long and start to lose interest but in this case it was better long! It made more sense I mean how can you tell the whole life of Moses in just 2 hours? Well done DeMille!

100% Great holiday tradition film.