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.

[strandinthewind]

I might go with an A - but B+ probably is accurate. I also LOVE the way she says "MOOOOOOOOSSESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS"

BTW - I really liked the silent version of this

[hayley]

F, only because I like that you put "F***ing retarded."

You really need that chat room, Davy. I'll go with you! It'll be just like the days of yore.

[dissention]

C.

Another one of Demille's "small-minded pictures on a big scale." Pretty to look at, but uninvolving and eventually boring.

[irishgrl]

B-. I happen to like seeing young John Derek in this movie but really the only saving grace is Yul Brynner. I think casting Edward G. Robinson as the slimy Jewish overseer is PERFECT! I do love the costumes that Nefertiri wears...
but I'll NEVER understand what she sees in Moses....(Yul Brynner on the other hand, YUM!)

[Livia]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

B-. I happen to like seeing young John Derek in this movie but really the only saving grace is Yul Brynner. I think casting Edward G. Robinson as the slimy Jewish overseer is PERFECT! I do love the costumes that Nefertiri wears...
but I'll NEVER understand what she sees in Moses....(Yul Brynner on the other hand, YUM!)

Correction: Edward G. Robinson was the slimy, EGYPTIAN overseer - the Jews were slaves.

I love this movie! Overacted? Yes? (Didn't Heston overact in everything? "Solent (sp?) green is PEOPLE!")

The special effects were, at that time, incredible. The parting of the red sea, especially.

John Derek, yum!

If you've ever wondered what the Jewish holiday Passover is all about, this movie is basically that story. I give it a "B."

[Serrart]

B-
Bad Points
I prefer the silent version; Charlton Heston is predictable; some of his Egypt seems bought in a cheap bazaar; Anne Baxter makes no sense in that role.

Good Points: I agree on Yul Brynner ; impressive (as ever) mass scenes; the pace of an all time classic epic movie.

Romy

[GypsySorcerer]

I would give it a B-. Certainly was an impressive epic for its time.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by Serrart

Charlton Heston is predictable...Anne Baxter makes no sense in that role.

You've got to lay some of the blame on Demille, that man didn't know a thing about directing actors. A bad performance goes hand in hand with a bad directorial effort and Demille was one amateur if I've ever seen one. Thank the stars that we were spared his film about the Boy Scouts.

Baxter's hysterics actually make the movie watchable; it's high camp at its finest. She shouts and screams "Moses!!!!!" as if she's trying to sell him to various uninterested customers on a slow day at the bazaar. I think Elizabeth Taylor was channeling her in many of the scenes in "Boom," to be honest. Heston borders on cloying much too often and is as stiff onscreen as Michelangelo's statue of Moses is in real life.

E.G. Robinson is another one of the worst offenders, playing his scenes and spouting his lines in full gangster mode.

[DrummerDeanna]

I'll give it a B- - it's a classic - I've only seen it once though - and other "classics" I can watch over and over and over again...but have actually never had a desire to see this one again - I was glad to have seen it once - but that's pretty much all I needed...

I have no intelligent commentary on the actors or anything

[dissention]

Originally Posted by DrummerDeanna

I have no intelligent commentary on the actors or anything

Neither do I.

I liked Kael's review of it, she recognized it for the enjoyable camp trash that it was while everyone else was blowing smoke up the public's ass by raving about it.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by dissention

Neither do I.

I liked Kael's review of it, she recognized it for the enjoyable camp trash that it was while everyone else was blowing smoke up the public's ass by raving about it.

Of course you would not know good if it slapped you in the ass and if Heston was not the gun advocate he is you would not hate it so much

Of course it has been a long night and I am pithey

[dissention]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Of course you would not know good if it slapped you in the ass and if Heston was not the gun advocate he is you would not hate it so much

Of course it has been a long night and I am pithey

The word "good" belongs nowhere near Demille's "The Ten Commandments" (or many of his other crap films, for that matter). Fun camp trash is what it is. Bad acting, bad direction, bad script, bad everything.

A movie isn't good based on how technically proficient it is or how pretty it is to look at or how admirable the intentions of those involved were, a movie is good based on what you bring to it by drawing on your knowledge and experience and what you interpret and take away from the movie. A movie is good based on how you connect to it. There is no such thing as objectivity when you view a movie.

But if you think it's a good movie, more power to ya.