Review by Guido Henkel

The Ten Commandments    (1956)
Paramount Home Video

Length:         220 mins.
Rated:           G
Languages: English, French
Subtitles:     None
Format:       Anamorphic Widescreen
Extras:        Trailers

During the 1950s Hollywood saw the rise of monumental motion pictures like never before. Huge numbers of extras were employed on the sets of the film studios for the money shots that give movies their credibility and awe. Shot in Technicolor, these films hard dazzling colors and hues, sure to complete flabbergast every moviegoer. One of the films of the era was “The Ten Commandments”, a 4-hour epos by Cecil B. DeMille, one of Hollywood’s most prestigious filmmakers at the time, featuring an endless array of Hollywood stars and a story of truly biblical proportions.
It is with an enormous amount of pride that Paramount Home Video has now released

brother Rameses (Yul Brynner) for the throne. Pharaoh is more and more favoring the active Moses over the zealous Rameses, because Moses is very charismatic and uses his powers to make the country’s slaves content. One day, Rameses finds out the truth about Moses’ past and reveals it for everyone to see, claiming Moses is the deliverer, the one who will according to the prophecies lead all slaves into freedom, bringing the Egyptian empire to a fall. Pharaoh Sethi (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) renounces all of Moses’ rights and leaves it to Rameses to determine his fate. In an abominable move, Rameses decides to leave Moses on his own in the desert, hoping he would die and forever forgotten.

Everything about “The Ten Commandments” is big. The settings are gigantic, the story is epic, the characters are larger than life, and so are the gestures. The film exhibits a great deal of theatrical and melodramatic acting, and grand postures, but in the entire context and feel of the film, this is not even a bad thing. “The Ten Commandments” is beautifully produced and choreographed. It is impressive at the very least and almost overwhelming at many times. In his money shots, DeMille is staging over 12,000 extras and 15,000 animals, and especially the exodus scene when Moses is leading the Hebrew to freedom, is incomparable to anything seen ever since, as is the chariot

Despite its magnitude and splendor, the film is extremely powerful in its narrative however. It is a solid story, based on a script that that leaves nothing to be desired. Perfectly cast with some of the industry’s superstars of the time, the movie weaves magic like only few do. Charlton Heston is once again the soulful protagonist, as he was in numerous films at the time, while Yul Brynner is giving an exhilarating performance as his half-brother Rameses. The two are like fire and water, two opposites, and yet both are powerful actors that manage to have an electrifying onscreen presence throughout, but especially when paired up in scenes. The list of

About 10 years ago, Paramount has done a major restoration of “The Ten Commandments” which is evident on this release of the film on DVD. It is presented in a 2.20:1 widescreen aspect ratio on this DVD, that is enhanced for widescreen TVs and the sharpness if the picture is simply staggering. The image is clean and mostly free of any artifacts as a result of the film’s considerable age. The picture is rich, with plenty of detail, also restoring the complete glory of the movie’s Technicolor process. The colors are vibrant and strong, creating seas of colors and hues in the many crowd scenes. No color bleeding or chroma noise is evident there, and the compression of the film transfer

With the movie’s restoration, Paramount created a new sound mix of “The Ten Commandments”, which is presented on this release in a full 5.1 channel Dolby Digital audio track. The track has been cleaned up and as such there is hardly any noise or hiss evident. Only in very delicate passages the original sound is overlayed with an ever so slight hiss, which is technically unavoidable, and as a matter of fact hardly noticeable either. The mix itself is majestic, revealing a wide mix across the front speakers for Elmer Bernstein’s phenomenal orchestral score. Due to the age of the film, the sonic spectrum of the dialogue is a bit limited however and sounds thin

throughout. In a few scenes you will notice a bass extension for the subwoofer, and some surround effects for ambience, but for the most part these channels are used quite sparingly and mostly to enhance the soundfield in specific scenes rather than across the board.

This DVD release of “The Ten Commandments” also contains three trailers for the movie, and it is interesting how they have changed over time, focusing on completely aspects of the film. The first one from 1956 is the most exhaustive one, running for

several minutes. It features Cecil B. DeMille himself, telling the story and background of the story, introducing all the main actors of his film. It is a very interesting trailer, nicely complemented by others from 1966 and 1989.

Although I believe probably everyone has seen this film before, there can be no doubt that this DVD will nevertheless make you fell like you experience the film for the first time. The outstanding picture and sound quality of this release makes this 2-disc set a must-have for every DVD owner.