Les dix commandements

I had high hopes for this movie I even gave up a night of watching Stargate for this movie. I found it had a rushed feel about it and a lot of the key biblical moments and facts were missing. I might be a bit jaded and spoiled for the 1956 version, as I have watched that one every year for the last 20 or so years. I doubt this one will make it to the realm of yearly classic, as the other one has. If you have not seen the 19546 version, you might like this one but, I seriously doubt it and urge you to skip this one and go rent or buy the classic one. This has some nifty special effects but that is not what I look for when telling a movie like the Ten Commandments. I was kind of looking to see how they told the story, and the writers did not do a good job with this one.

I think it's missing the point to expect this to be like DeMille's version. I wasn't crazy about part one, as it didn't seem to know what it was -- epic movie or historical drama. But part two falls more into the historical drama category. There it works much better for me.

The actual story (miracles aside) of how the Israelites became a cohesive people is one that has not often been explored. Haven't watched part two to the end, so can't say if it will disappoint. But I do find the idea of former slaves having to carve their way, battles and all, across the wilderness to be an interesting point of view.

Will say that the character development and some of the acting (in part one) left a lot to be desired. But, again, that seemed to work better in part two. I think looking at this as a story in itself, instead of comparing it to some '50's Hollywood extravaganza, is the fair approach, no matter how it turns out.

Seeing Biblically-based movies makes one wonder if the movie makers cracked open a resource like. . . Oh, let's say the Bible.

They're a bit confusion. The Hebrews boys weren't killed but Pharoah because of a prophecy. That's thousands of years in the future, in the New Covenant's life of Christ. You might recall three Magi appearing before Rome's pal Herod and saying they'd seen a star, and Herod's experts chimed in . . . It's part of the pagentry we use around something called Christmas. You may have heard of it. Unless you live in Hollywood. The Hebrew boys were killed because the Hebrews were being fruitful and multiplying and Pharoah was scared of being outnumbered.

And that's scratching the surface.

The older version of this story had its problems, too, being based on novels. The next time you see it, watch the source materials. Scripture comes last. And Charlton Heston hardly fits Scripture's description of Moses as humble.

Anyhow, like the pre-conversion Augustine of Hippo, folks in Hollywood probably see Scripture as a lot of fairy tales and metaphors (they probably can't tell you what a metaphor is but they know it when they see it. They think.

I'd rather they not make movies and TV shows like this at all if they can't get them right.

I watched this series out of curiosity,wanting to see if they could possibly and with ALL this modern technology,out do Cecil B. DeMille's classic epic of 1956, starring Charleton Heston,Yul Brenner and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Of course, I was let down. Yes, they had all the Biblical characters correct, but they didn't give us any of the spectacular theatrical scenes, that held your interest throughout the first movie. If you going to have a mini-series, you have to have some "rivoting" scenes, the "Burning bush", Parting the "RED Sea",drowning "Pharohs Armies", "building Sethi's Pyramids", could have been done with todays' technology on the scale of blockbuster movies such as "Lord of the Rings" or the Matrix. Obviously, they didn't want to leave a LASTING impression of "faith and sacrifice", which is much needed in these trouble times.

This was a mess. The continuity was a mess -half the actors spoke with English accents, King Herod looked like he never saw the sun, and the darkest person was Naveen Andrews who, while a fine actor, seemed out of place. Come on. Finally, out of all the great actors with tremendous voices, (James Earl Jones), the voice of God sounded like the local pizza delivery guy.

One good thing was the special effects and showing the darker side of the story. And the actors though, a little overly dramatic at times, did a pretty good job.

I haven't seen the original in a while, but will check it out this week 2 compare.