Bluray Commandments Arrives
Paramount Home Video’s Bluray of The Ten Commandments (out 3.29) is fairly close to magnificent. It’s a visual bath of the first order. The costumes, the golden armor, the beards, the wood grain, the jewelry, the matted hair on the donkeys and oxen…all the remarkable little details that are part of any well-photographed, large-format, big-event film just keep on coming. The glossy, freshly-painted chariots are a trip in themselves.
I’m not exaggerating — this is one of the most excitingly detailed Blurays I’ve ever seen.
The soundstage scenes constitute 98% of this film, and are therefore the most carefully lighted and colorful and delectable. The glistening palace floors, the stone facades of the Hebrew homes, the Hebrew garments, the shimmering idols and battle helmets and chestplates, the gleaming swords, the mustard-colored deserts, the red headresses and deep-blue palace drapes…wow! Forget the thematic and story contents of this 1956 film, and forget most of the performances except Yul Brynner and Edward G. Robinson‘s. It has always been a tedious and tiresome sit. But the colors and detail are amazing. I feel like I finally understand what this film is really about — i.e., production values!
Watch the following in 1080p to get the full low-rent effect:
The extras contain a short doc about the film’s New York City premiere, and in it there’s footage of John Wayne without his rug.
Just in time. I usually watch in right around Easter.
As is actually sometimes the case, you and I are on the exact same page with this one, Jeff. It is no exaggeration to call this a staggering DVD. Just gorgeous, every frame, and very true, I suspect, to the theatrical VistaVision presentation. Even down to the “flaws” e.g., the outlining of foreground figures in some of the blue-screen shots. And man, how about Ann Baxter and her costumes?
One thing I love about this picture is how DeMille stages and shoots it in what is for all intents and purposes a silent style, or rather HIS silent style. A lot of static long takes, tableaus almost. But it works, in large part because of what you mentioned, production value. This thing’s almost drowning in it.
THIS is how you make a big time special-effects extravaganza. There aren’t many other films that capture the epic feel of this one.
Gotta disagree about the tedious sit part. It’s riveting in its thoroughly 19th century way from the start. Oddly, no other DeMille talkie really is– compare Samson and Delilah which is both dull and oddly cramped-looking.
The real question is– how come H’wood doesn’t realize, for the second time, that 3-D is an irritating stunt that only lasts for a year or two, but large format films are dazzling, suck you right in and give you an experience nothing else can equal? With digital projection, how come someone hasn’t figured out an 8K projection system that looks like 70MM? Better yet, run it at 60 fps like Showscan. Tell me that wouldn’t blow everyone away (and yet be far more feasible than it ever was with film)?
The actors all did a great job, especially for the gloriously ridiculous dialogue. There are no method actors in this bunch. Some movies demand ham and lots of it just to be heard over the set design. A subtle actor like Paul Newman would have been a disaster in this movie. (see ‘the Silver Chalice’)
The only bad performance is John Derek, who seems to be always looking over the camera at the cue cards.
Gotta disagree about the tedious sit part. It’s riveting in its thoroughly 19th century way from the start. Oddly, no other DeMille talkie really is– compare Samson and Delilah which is both dull and oddly cramped-looking.
The real question is– how come H’wood doesn’t realize, for the second time, that 3-D is an irritating stunt that only lasts for a year or two, but large format films are dazzling, suck you right in and give you an experience nothing else can equal? With digital projection, how come someone hasn’t figured out an 8K projection system that looks like 70MM? Better yet, run it at 60 fps like Showscan. Tell me that wouldn’t blow everyone away (and yet be far more feasible than it ever was with film)?
“Tedious and tiresome sit?!?” WTF? You have been hanging around LexG too much.
This is magnificent, old-Hollywood excess at its glorious best. This is James Cameron, circa 1956, where every dollar is on the screen and every actor is playing to the back row. And unlike, say, Cleopatra, it is never, ever boring.
Plus, de Mille knew exactly what he was doing here. Watch Scorsese’s commentary on Sunset Boulevard, where he observes that de Mille’s performance there is more natural than any given by his actors in any of his own films. The Ten Commandments is over-the-top because Cecil B. wanted it that way. Why? Because the Old Testament demands it!
It is a relic of a bygone age, to be sure. But if you can’t get jazzed for this flick and its amazing wretched excess, I just don’t know what to say.
Dunno about the rest of you, but I rather enjoy reading the broken Engrish spam posts like the one’s above. (except for the stupid yaseo ones or anybody else that just lists links)
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