Monday, April 20, 2009

The Ten (hour) Commandments


We watched The Ten Commandments at old movie night last night which was a bit risky given its ridiculously long run time. But we did it, and most of us made it through. A couple people left before it ended which is really unfortunate for them since they'll never have the sense of accomplishment the rest of us do.

Anyway, what can I saw about this movie? It goes on forever. The special effects are ... interesting. Charleton Heston is surprisingly handsome as the young, shirtless Moses. Yul Brenner just kept making me want to watch The King and I. Vincent Price is in it and is creepy as usual, but not in his usual way. Overall, a great experience if you have the time to sit through it.

It follows the Bible story pretty well, but there are quite a few liberties taken. Luckily, the overall focus of the film remains on God and his purpose for Moses. I guess they were still allowed to talk about God in movies in the 50's.

2 comments:

Claymation said...

For anyone who hasn't seen the movie I would caution you that the title is a bit misleading. While the ten commandments is the sort of climax to the story (if there really is one), it in reality is only about the last 10-15 minutes of the movie. It would have been more appropriately named, "The Story of Moses". Or to follow the real theme of the movie, "The ridiculously long and full of drawn out sequences to show off our cutting edge 1956 special effects Story of Moses starring the many faces of Charleton Heston". I would watch that!

Ancient said...

I just wonder what value this movie serve the mind of someone seeking truth about past life. Think about it for real, what about the story of Moses can be confirmed as true, which would make it worthwhile watching.