The Ten Commandments (1 Viewer)

ABC is showing The Ten Commandments in HD right now and it looks beautiful! The missing bits of music have been restored, the DNR is gone, and the detail is amazing. The only thing is that it looks dark and not as saturated as before. I wonder if this is correct? If so, I am VERY excited about the future Blu-Ray release. It looks as if they have worked on this, due to the corrections I noted.

 

[Flemming.K]

Great reading. Thanks for your observations. I look forward to every classic getting out in HD. It's like watching these movies for the first time, when they're restorated right. I do hope Spartacus has recived the same treatment.

 

[Parker Clack]

I watched parts of this last night and it has never looked better on video. I look forward to a Blu release of this later.

 

[Nelson Au]

I almost always get sucked into watching this every year! "Oh Moses! Such over acting! And I am not putting the movie down at all. They just don't make them like this any more. I would like to see this on blu ray too. I thought the broadcast version did look great. The optical effect limitations weren't too bad. I can't help wonder what a CGI makeover would do to just subtly tweak this film. Nothing major, just help smooth out some transitions from live action to new animation of things like when Moses drops his walking stick and it turns into the serpent, or the animated flames when he is about to separate the water. The recent work done on Star Trek TOS was just right, not over done. Pretty spectacular DeMille entertainment, even if you ignore the subject matter being depicted!

 

[ahollis]

It would be great to get a Paramount DeMille Blu-ray collection

The Ten Commandments (including the 1923 version)
The Buccaneer (including the 1938 version)
The Greatest Show On Earth
Samson & Delilah

Also find a way to include the the 90 minute 1963 TV special The World's Greatest Showman: The Legend of Cecil B. DeMille as an extra.

That is one collection I would be all over.

 

[MatthewA]

Next year is the film's 55th anniversary (hint, hint), and while I only caught a few minutes, I was overwhelmed. The picture quality is leaps and bounds above what I've seen. But for the eventual release I've got some commandments of my own for Paramount:

1. Thou shalt not use DNR.
2. Remember the original sound mix to keep it lossless.
3. Thou shalt port over all the extras from the existing DVDs.
4. Thou shalt not gouge us with a big box exclusive release (African Queen gave us a choice).

 

[TonyD]

they cropped it on abc again didn't they?

 

How was it cropped? It was 1.78:1.

 

[nolesrule]

The aspect ratio for The Ten Commandments is much wider than that.

 

[Jim*Tod]

I thought for VistaVision it was more or less up to the exhibitor what the aspect ratio, though according to the American Widescreen Museum site, 1.85 was recommended, so ABC was not far off. I did see the 70mm version created about 20 years ago which was around 2.20 ratio and it looked bad. At least it is not as bad as the cropping for ABC FAMILY's showing of SOUND OF MUSIC tonight at 1.78 from a 2.20 original... in some shots you lost a Von Trapp or two. It is too bad now with HD we still have to fight the battle of correct aspect ratio.

 

The Ten Commandments was a 1.85:1 Vista Vision film in 1956. That's pretty much the same as what was broadcast last night.

 

[Mark-P]

The original camera aspect ratio of VistaVision, which is 8-perforations running horizontally (exactly double that of 4-perf vertical of standard 35mm film) is 1.50:1, however VistaVision allows matting from 1.66:1 to 2.00:1 but strongly recommends 1.85:1. Here's my source from Widescreen Museum:
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/vistavisionspecs.htm
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingvv1.htm

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Mark-P

The original camera aspect ratio of VistaVision, which is 8-perforations running horizontally (exactly double that of 4-perf vertical of standard 35mm film) is 1.50:1, however VistaVision allows matting from 1.66:1 to 2.00:1 but strongly recommends 1.85:1. Here's my source from Widescreen Museum:
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/vistavisionspecs.htm
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingvv1.htm

10 cannot be run at 1.66, as there is lack of usable image not far beyond 1.75. Anything outside of that is garbage.

 

[Daniel Bakken]

What I saw was fantastic, much better than the DVD releases. Film weave was gone, and I didn't see a single speck or scratch. The colors were great, more natural than DVD. I also wouldn't mind a little CGI to very subtly augment the errors and limitations, but not make it look "new" either. The animation is just jarringly out of place, and calls attention to itself. Also the blue screen effects at times could use some smoothing out, edges look bad. I'm sure this film has made enough money for Paramount, please help this classic out. This may be my favorite movie, just because it's so big. Overacting included, but they were making an epic.

 

[Daniel Bakken]

This looked fantastic! This is my favorite movie, and waiting for Blu. Digitalbits listed this as a rumor a couple years ago. I can only guess that further restoration was deemed necessary to account for its delay. Color and detail were superb, and no film weave or specks or scratches anywhere.

I too would encourage a CGI spiff up, the animated sequences are just cringe worthy, and really pull yourself out of the movie. Some of the bluescreen effects also need touch ups, edges look bad at times. Otherwise the epic nature of the movie is engrossing, even the overacting. You can tell deMille poured himself into this movie.

 

The presentation was cropped more tightly on the left than the dvd. I hope when this gets to blu-ray that Paramount checks the framing carefully when preparing the blu-ray. Also, the voice of God sounded much more clear and out front in the soundstage during the burning bush scene, but still muffled during the writing of The Ten Commandments. I don't know if this was intentional or not.

 

[Daniel Bakken]

Sorry for the double post there, I got an error the first time, and looks like it did go through. Carry on...

 

[Adam_S]

I too think an alternate version ala the Star Trek releases that cleaned up the mattes would be a great seamless branched option on the bluray. I don't think they really need to redo the animation or any of the other effects, but some of the mattework is really bad, iirc from my last theatrical watching of the film.

 

[Haden]

Has the studio indicated yet if this title is in the works for a blu ray release? Or are we just assuming it'll eventually come out within the next couple years?

And on a related note, why was "The Greatest Show on Earth" never given the special edition treatment? I recently had the desire to get that film on DVD and discovered that the only release out there is from 2004 with no extras. Even at its cheap price (under $10 most places) I decided to hold off on getting it until a special edition is ever released.

 

[Jon Lidolt]

Put me down for a Blu-ray copy of The Ten Comandments - can't wait. I watched it in hi-def on ABC too and was happy to note that it retained much of that famous VistaVision clarity, so the Blu-ray should be outstanding. I did note that the color timing was off in a few scenes. The skin tones were too yellowish and the contrast seemed a bit flat.

As to the some of the amateurish animation such as the pillar of fire, apparently even DeMille didn't like it, but they had a premiere date that couldn't be changed which explains the quality issue. Should it be changed? I'm not sure. And the same applies to the travelling matte shots. They'd have to have the original elements to rectify those problems and it would probably be cost prohibitive. On the other hand, why not go whole hog and convert it to 3-D? I don't know about anyone else, but I'd be the first one in line at the theatre.