Rate This Movie: The Ten Commandments (1955)

[David]

A+ Masterpiece
A Classic
A- Excellent
B+ Near Excellent
B Damn good
B- Pretty good
C+ Not bad
C I've seen worse
C- Seriously flawed
D+ This stinks
D This really stinks
D- What is this ****?
F+ Flush it pal!
F F***ing retarded
F- Movie only Richard "Thumb and Thumber" Roeper can like


RULE: rate the movie and leave short commentary.

My rating: B. A superior popcorn movie, & a guilty pleasure. De Mille at his most squeejee'd. The scene where Nefertiri & Rameses weep for their son & vow vengeance on Moses, taunting each other with challenges & hatred for each other & the Hebrew slaves, is explosive drama, & the sleek black mourning attire they're wearing is pagan-chic. Also iconic is Vincent Price with whip.

Aesthetic misfire: Debra Paget as saccharine love interest of Joshua, plus lots of old toothless people who gum their smarmy dialog. Also, why did the great Biblical line -- Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground -- become "Remove thy shoes, for thou art standing upon holy ground"?

I change my grade to B+ because the sillier a big movie is, the greater it is, as I have said before.