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The Ten Commandments (1956)

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91

Average Rating: 7.3/10
Reviews Counted: 32
Fresh: 29 | Rotten: 3

Bombastic and occasionally silly but extravagantly entertaining, Cecil B. DeMille's all-star spectacular is a muscular retelling of the great Bible story.

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 2

Bombastic and occasionally silly but extravagantly entertaining, Cecil B. DeMille's all-star spectacular is a muscular retelling of the great Bible story.

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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 56,083

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Movie Info

Based on the Holy Scriptures, with additional dialogue by several other hands, The Ten Commandments was the last film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The story relates the life of Moses, from the time he was discovered in the bullrushes as an infant by the pharoah's daughter, to his long, hard struggle to free the Hebrews from their slavery at the hands of the Egyptians. Moses (Charlton Heston) starts out "in solid" as Pharoah's adopted son (and a whiz at designing pyramids, dispensing such

Mar 30, 1999

Paramount Pictures

Cast

All Critics (34) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (4) | DVD (29)

With a running time of nearly four hours, Cecil B. De Mille's last feature and most extravagant blockbuster is full of the absurdities and vulgarities one expects, but it isn't boring for a minute.

March 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

DeMille remains conventional with the motion picture as an art form. The eyes of the onlooker are filled with spectacle. Emotional tug is sometimes lacking.

October 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The crammed contents are linked ponderously in a long, warning movie sermon that has authority but little power.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comments (6)
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It seems as if some films are perpetually being restored, with each new version touted as better than the last. That said, I can assure you that the new DVD and Blu-ray edition of...

April 21, 2011 Full Review Source: Leonard Maltin's Picks | Comment
Leonard Maltin's Picks

DeMille's last film (he died in 1959) is also his biggest, most spectacular epic, excessive and lurid, displaying him as a showman--must see for Hollywood students

March 25, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Stirring, even if it's as much showbiz as Bible.

December 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Bank holiday afternoon fare it might be, but DeMille's remake of his 1923 silent is a marvellous epic of the kind they don't make any more.

March 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

A great big wallow, sublime hootchy-kootchy hokum, peppered with lightning that does automatic writing and an unsurpassed homage to the joys of jello.

March 4, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Still the definitive depiction of the Exodus in the popular imagination.

November 2, 2006 Comment

An epic soap opera of an event -- the running time is longer than any church service -- that still impresses more than it amuses.

May 6, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

As much a testament and a fixture of traditional American ideals and affections as a courthouse display of the stone tablets, and as weighty and solid.

April 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Decent Films Guide | Comment
Decent Films Guide

...still fun and fascinating, and it remains a special treat for the eyes. (Blu-ray Edition)

March 7, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

...a benchmark of comparison for all super spectaculars, and in its restored, high-definition Blu-ray presentation, it's more spectacular than ever.

March 7, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

It's the gigantic vulgarity, the obsessive righteousness of the director himself, which keeps the show on the road and suffuses the movie with its daft power.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing in DeMille's ponderous, yet still colossal, Biblical soap opera.

February 3, 2006 Comment
Las Vegas Review-Journal
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Ten Commandments

With the full technicolor, the increased setback, and the whopping length, we expect an epic such as GONE WITH THE WIND: melodramatic, yes, but thoroughly engaging. Instead, we are shocked to receive something completely different: a melodrama that succeeds in its entirety with information, but not much else. In

February 2, 2012
spielberg00
Alexander Diminiano

Super Reviewer

This was Cecil B.De Mille's last theatrical feature,with a running time of nearly four hours(basically the running time of 3 hours and 40 minutes which includes the opening overture,intermission, and exit music),this stunning and most extravagant blockbuster is full of absurdities and vulgarities,but in all aspects

August 18, 2006
rayman0071
Mister Caple

Super Reviewer

    1. Nefertiri: I'll have you torn into so many pieces, even the VULTURES won't be able to find them.
    – Submitted by Gordon G (9 months ago)
    1. Nefertiri: I'm surprized you noticed me.
    – Submitted by Gordon G (9 months ago)
    1. Nefertiri: Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)

Latest News for The Ten Commandments

June 10, 2011:
Ten Commandments for Movie Audiences

October 12, 2009:
Fox Preps 300-Style Story of Moses
What do you get when you cross the story of Moses with a "300"-style green screen modern action...

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Foreign Titles

  • The Ten Commandments (1956) (DE)
  • The Ten Commandments (1956) (UK)
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