Amazon.com Essentials:
Legendary silent film director Cecil B. DeMille didn't much
alter the way he made movies after sound came in, and this 1956
biblical drama is proof of that. While graced with such 1950s niceties
as VistaVision and Technicolor, The Ten Commandments (DeMille
had already filmed an earlier version in 1923) has an anachronistic,
impassioned style that finds lead actors Charlton Heston and Yul
Brynner expressively posing while hundreds of extras writhe either in
the presence of God's power or from orgiastic heat. DeMille, as
always, plays both sides of the fence as far as sin goes, surrounding
Heston's Moses with worshipful music and heavenly special effects
while also making the sexy action around the cult of the Golden Calf
look like fun. You have to see The Ten Commandments to
understand its peculiar resonance as an old-new movie, complete with
several still-impressive effects such as the parting of the Red
Sea. --Tom Keogh
Amazon.com video review:
Jumping on to the end-of-the-century bandwagon a little early,
Paramount Pictures released 10 of their top films in one 10-pack, the
Millennium Collection, in 1998. All the films are presented in their
widescreen editions; one, Breakfast at
Tiffany's, is offered in this format for the first time. The
set includes 5 Best Picture Oscar winners and films that took home an
additional 33 Academy Awards. All the tapes are available to buy
individually. The pack, with a handsome mosaic of faces from the
movies, also features collector gift cards (a movie version of
baseball cards) and a commemorative booklet detailing the productions
of all 10 films. The collection is oddly weighted toward the last 25
years, offering only one film from the 1950s and one from the
1960s. Your taste in current cinema will define the value of the
set. Besides Tiffany's, one of Audrey Hepburn's finest films,
the collection contains: The Ten Commandments
with Charlton Heston, Grease with John
Travolta, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and
The Godfather,
the funny, whale-saving Star Trek IV--The Voyage
Home, Tom Cruise's hit Top Gun, the smash
hit Ghost with
Demi Moore, Mel Gibson's Celt fest Braveheart, and Forrest Gump with
Tom Hanks. --Doug Thomas
