The Ten Commandments

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2004-04-13 01:12am

No, I'm not talking about Judge Moore's oversized paperweight. Rather, I'm referring to the immortal 1956 movie everybody thinks of when it comes to the religious epic. Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments.

If I have to watch one of these, this is the style I like: ridiculously overblown. Everything on a GRAND scale; ham-acting, hilariously pompous and stilted dialogue, bombastic music, ponderous narration, a literal army of extras. With a cast which includes: John Derek in the days before he changed his profession from acting to exploiting his wife Bo, Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the very British Pharoah Seti, Anne Baxter with her borderline-slut portrayal of Nefreteri, pre-Munsters Yvonne Craig, Vincent Price just being Vincent Price, Edward G. Robinson as the Hebrew gangster Dathan Rocco, and of course headed up by the overacting tag-team of Charleton Heston and Yul Brenner, you've got the Mother of all Religious Epics.

Not content merely to portray Moses, Heston is also the voice of God in this picture, while Brenner's Ramses is so iconic that probably many people to this day think the historical Ramses looked like Brenner. When comedian Billy Crystal once did an impression of Brenner portraying Babe Ruth in a movie, he of course played Brenner as playing his Ramses as Babe Ruth. And with some decent SFX, a ton of memorably MST-able lines and 50s piousness oozing out of every frame, TTC is four hours of entertainment gold.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2004-04-13 01:19am

LOL...great review of it.

Brenner's Ramses is practically one imbedded into me even nowadays as both Pharoh and Ramses.

And overblown indeed, the whole view how people were either pure or evil...with little to no exceptions

Batgirl was in it?...huh, never knew that, learn something new everyday indeed.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2004-04-13 01:34am

Ghost Rider wrote:Batgirl was in it?...huh, never knew that, learn something new everyday indeed.

Sorry, I meant Yvonne DeCarlo (Lily Munster), not Yvonne Craig.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-04-13 01:38am

I always liked Ben-Hur better.

But TTC was a helluva movie regardless.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2004-04-13 03:46am

Four hours?!? Jesus.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2004-04-13 05:18am

Uraniun235 wrote:Four hours?!? Jesus.

Rounded off. I think uncut it times out at 3.48. With commercials, ABC's annual airing runs to 4.45.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-04-13 08:02am

and surprisingly when my relatives forced me to watch the thing i was able to actually stay awake through it. Unlike Braveheart, which i wound up falling asleep in after the first tape.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-13 08:16am

Uraniun235 wrote:Four hours?!? Jesus.

no, not Jesus. Moses

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2004-04-13 08:27am

Patrick Degan wrote:
Ghost Rider wrote:Batgirl was in it?...huh, never knew that, learn something new everyday indeed.
Sorry, I meant Yvonne DeCarlo (Lily Munster), not Yvonne Craig.

Ah, okay. Cool.

Still a near holiday tradition to turn this thing on and start laughing at bits, I mean who can't love how perfectly cultured yet cruel the Egyptians were, while the downtrodden Jews were good and simple folk of the earth.