A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Ten Commandments -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

So, me being curious as to why 4K is fine for VistaVision and Technirama, am going to the logical conclusion that since 4096 is the vertical axis of resolution [the frame being rotated 90 degrees from "standard" 35mm"], the horizontal axis would be ~6K, as the 8 perf frame has a rough negative AR of 1.5:1, which is later matted [or matted and "unsqueezed" in the case of Technirama]. Am I close?

Home run!

 

[Bob_S.]

The soundtrack set is also available directly from Intrada (and it's $10 cheaper too): http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.10415/.f

Well, since it's free shipping with Amazon, you really only save $1.75 (according to Intrada's shipping rates). Plus I was able to use my Discover Card Reward points through Amazon and saved an additional $24.50.

 

[usrunnr]

I listened to this all day yesterday. Magnificent! How lucky we are to have this --- finally. Could not have been better presented! Thank you to everyone at Entrada.

• The Ten Commandments 60th Anniversary Original Soundtrack Collection 6-CD set

It’s here! World premiere release of the complete soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein for Cecil B. DeMille’s all-time greatest epic and box-office champion! Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Edward G. Robinson, Anne Baxter, John Derek, Vincent Price and many others bring powerful and inspiring story of Moses to vivid life. A lot of hands put in several years to make this release possible: Paramount, Universal Music Group, MGM, Intrada. Six CDs, three premiering the entire original two and a half hour soundtrack for the first time ever - much of it in stereo, also for the first time ever!

Every cue appears, including all of the myriad fanfares, processions, court dances, authentic shofars (eight of them!), percussion tracks, harp sequences, Theremin and Novachord overlays… everything right down to the tiniest tiple, a rare member of the guitar family. All of Bernstein’s magnificent and justifiably famous masterpiece appears intact and uncut, including numerous sequences edited from the finished film! And after the complete score, another 40 minutes of never-before-heard alternates and unused music! Trailer cues!

 

[PMF]

Have always loved the score but 6 CDs is a bit of an overkill for me.
Would buy the stereo Dot remake if released separately .
Shame none of it released in hi rez sound.

Whereas I was expecting 10 CommanDmentS.

 

[allanfisch]

Looks like it would make a fantastic gift!

 

[Keith Cobby]

Hard hat on. Sorry Mr de Mille but i couldn't finish your film. I got about half way and turned it off, i just found it too ponderous and stagey (theatrical!). Tomorrow it is going to a good home, which is a bit of a shame as i really like VV productions. To lighten things up i watched The Falcon in Hollywood.

 

[David Wilkins]

One of my luscious Technicolor favorites. I've watched it two or three dozen times, at least. It looks so damn good in Blu-ray, I can't help wondering what a UHD would look like, with proper restraint of HDR, of course.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

There’s something about this movie that makes it seem much shorter than it actually is when I watch it. I’m not generally a big watcher of religious epics or four hour films but for this one, I get engrossed in it and it just flies by. I recognize that it’s filled with very stagey/actorly performances and a lot of the visual effects seams show, but none of that seems to matter when I watch it.

 

[JimMiller]

As far as a representation of what Technicolor really looked like, this and A Matter Of Life And Death are my "go to" movies. I know there are many more excellent examples but there are at the top of my list.

 

[Nick*Z]

The Ten Commandments may not be the greatest Bible-fiction epic of all time (personally, my money's on the 1959 Ben-Hur for that top honor, with nods to Quo Vadis, The Sign of the Cross, Noah's Ark, and, King of Kings - another troubled production, unceremoniously dubbed 'I Was A Teenage Jesus'), but it nevertheless is required viewing around our house every Easter Sunday.

Epic production values, some fine performances, and De Mille's usual verve for grandiose picture-making with a reverent slant for all things Biblical.

I can understand the comments about it being stagy, but not stodgy. It's De Mille, remember? His was a picture-making style unto itself. It's an acquired taste - acquired by many, if not all. With the passage of time De Mille has transcended art to become its own sub-genre by its very definition.

You don't muck with that...ever!

 

[Robin9]

Hard hat on. Sorry Mr de Mille but i couldn't finish your film. I got about half way and turned it off, i just found it too ponderous and stagey (theatrical!). Tomorrow it is going to a good home, which is a bit of a shame as i really like VV productions. To lighten things up i watched The Falcon in Hollywood.

Thanks to your bumping an old thread to announce you're giving away your Tora, Tora, Tora Blu-ray disc, I watched it today and found it consistently interesting and highly enjoyable. So tomorrow I'll watch The Ten Commandments!

 

[cinemiracle]

Hard hat on. Sorry Mr de Mille but i couldn't finish your film. I got about half way and turned it off, i just found it too ponderous and stagey (theatrical!). Tomorrow it is going to a good home, which is a bit of a shame as i really like VV productions. To lighten things up i watched The Falcon in Hollywood.

I never found TEN COMMANDMENTS ponderous. I saw it when it was originally released and enjoyed every minute of it..I have seen it many times on dvd and bluray as well as when it was released in 70mm. Parts of the film were stagey as you say, but that was a sign of the times for many epics. It was and still is great entertainment even if it was based on fiction.

 

[Rick Thompson]

I listened to this all day yesterday. Magnificent! How lucky we are to have this --- finally. Could not have been better presented! Thank you to everyone at Entrada.

• The Ten Commandments 60th Anniversary Original Soundtrack Collection 6-CD set

It’s here! World premiere release of the complete soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein for Cecil B. DeMille’s all-time greatest epic and box-office champion! Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Edward G. Robinson, Anne Baxter, John Derek, Vincent Price and many others bring powerful and inspiring story of Moses to vivid life. A lot of hands put in several years to make this release possible: Paramount, Universal Music Group, MGM, Intrada. Six CDs, three premiering the entire original two and a half hour soundtrack for the first time ever - much of it in stereo, also for the first time ever!

Every cue appears, including all of the myriad fanfares, processions, court dances, authentic shofars (eight of them!), percussion tracks, harp sequences, Theremin and Novachord overlays… everything right down to the tiniest tiple, a rare member of the guitar family. All of Bernstein’s magnificent and justifiably famous masterpiece appears intact and uncut, including numerous sequences edited from the finished film! And after the complete score, another 40 minutes of never-before-heard alternates and unused music! Trailer cues!

You listened to it all! Wow! Much as I love the film and the score, six hours-plus is beyond me. To paraphrase a famous movie quote, "You're a better man than I, Gunga Usrunnr!"

 

[Robert Harris]

As far as a representation of what Technicolor really looked like, this and A Matter Of Life And Death are my "go to" movies. I know there are many more excellent examples but there are at the top of my list.

10C is Eastman Color 5248.

 

[B-ROLL]

Historian Mel Brooks has established that there were 15 Commandments but five were dropped ...

 

[Robert Crawford]

One of my luscious Technicolor favorites. I've watched it two or three dozen times, at least. It looks so damn good in Blu-ray, I can't help wondering what a UHD would look like, with proper restraint of HDR, of course.

I watched it in a movie theater within the past year or so as part of my local cinema's "Flashback Cinema" series.

 

[Paul Rossen]

I listened to this all day yesterday. Magnificent! How lucky we are to have this --- finally. Could not have been better presented! Thank you to everyone at Entrada.

• The Ten Commandments 60th Anniversary Original Soundtrack Collection 6-CD set

It’s here! World premiere release of the complete soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein for Cecil B. DeMille’s all-time greatest epic and box-office champion! Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Edward G. Robinson, Anne Baxter, John Derek, Vincent Price and many others bring powerful and inspiring story of Moses to vivid life. A lot of hands put in several years to make this release possible: Paramount, Universal Music Group, MGM, Intrada. Six CDs, three premiering the entire original two and a half hour soundtrack for the first time ever - much of it in stereo, also for the first time ever!

Every cue appears, including all of the myriad fanfares, processions, court dances, authentic shofars (eight of them!), percussion tracks, harp sequences, Theremin and Novachord overlays… everything right down to the tiniest tiple, a rare member of the guitar family. All of Bernstein’s magnificent and justifiably famous masterpiece appears intact and uncut, including numerous sequences edited from the finished film! And after the complete score, another 40 minutes of never-before-heard alternates and unused music! Trailer cues!

Ambitious set to be sure. A lot of research and work is in evidence. That said for most folks this will ultimately be an unsatisfactory release. The sound goes from satisfactory to downright unlistenable.. this is from the original tracks. The original Dot rerecords sound ok.

A huge disappointment.

 

[Alan Tully]

Hard hat on. Sorry Mr de Mille but i couldn't finish your film. I got about half way and turned it off, i just found it too ponderous and stagey (theatrical!). Tomorrow it is going to a good home, which is a bit of a shame as i really like VV productions. To lighten things up i watched The Falcon in Hollywood.

Yup, it's a lot of fun until Heston grows that big beard & goes all religious & slow talking (another case of an epic that's not so good in the second half). It always looks great, & I was really surprised to read here that it wasn't shot in three-strip Technicolor.

I first saw it in London in the sixties when it was re-released. I saw it at a cinema up town (as we call the West End), & the only seats I could get was on the front row, a wee bit too close to the screen, I've never done that again.

 

[Keith Cobby]

I won't be commenting on The Robe or Cleopatra because i never liked them enough to buy them on disc!

 

[Robert Crawford]

I won't be commenting on The Robe or Cleopatra because i never liked them enough to buy them on disc!

Thank you.