The Ten Commandments (1956)
87%RT Audience Score: 87%
Awards & Nominations: NA
Bombastic and occasionally silly but extravagantly entertaining, Cecil B. DeMille’s all-star spectacular is a muscular retelling of the great Bible story
The Ten Commandments is like the ultimate Sunday school lesson on steroids. It’s got everything you could want in a biblical epic: Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea, a golden calf, and even some good old-fashioned sibling rivalry. Sure, the dialogue can be a bit cringey at times, but who cares when you’re watching a cast of thousands in stunning Technicolor? Plus, you can’t deny that Cecil B. DeMille knew how to put on a show. It’s a classic for a reason, folks.
Production Company(ies)
Diamond Docs Fish Films, Oceanic Preservation Society
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Ras Safsafa, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt
MPAA / Certificate
G
Year of Release
1956
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:3h 40m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Oct 5, 1956 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 29, 2011
Genre(s)
History/Drama
Keyword(s)
Worldwide gross: $65,500,000
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $812,601,238
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 140
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 88,615,184
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $13,282,712
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $164,786,996
Production budget ranking: 191
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $88,737,797
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $559,076,445
ROI to date (est.): 221%
ROI ranking: 589
Director(s)
Cecil B. DeMille
Writer(s)
Æneas MacKenzie, Jesse Lasky Jr., Fredric M Frank, Jack Gariss
Producer(s)
Cecil B. DeMille
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (43) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (37) | Rotten (6)
It is all a grandly unrestrained act of regression to the infantile days of the cinema, which DeMille seems never to have outgrown.
November 17, 2021
New York Daily News Staff
New York Daily News
TOP CRITIC
There is no other picture like it. There will be none. If it could be summed up in a word, the word would be sublime. And the man responsible for that, when all is said and done is Cecil B. DeMille.
April 7, 2015
James Powers
Hollywood Reporter
TOP CRITIC
DeMille’s direction of the action is superb and the various roles are played with feeling by a large and competent cast, headed by Charlton Heston.
December 10, 2014 | Rating: 5/5
Kate Cameron
New York Daily News
TOP 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
Leonard Maltin
leonardmaltin.com
TOP CRITIC
May 13, 2009 | Rating: 2/5
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel
TOP CRITIC
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
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
…De Mille places each actor and drapes each Edith Head gown with such fastidious pride it’s as if the hands of history, if not God himself, were responsible.
March 3, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/4
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central
Whatever its dramatic and religious shortcomings, the film grapples — and often tellingly — with subject matter of great importance for this or any year.
July 14, 2021
Moira Walsh
America Magazine
Cecil B. DeMille set out not just to be entertaining but to do as much justice to the Moses saga as he could, with as much awe and pomp and grandeur as the Fifties studio system could muster. He succeeded spectacularly.
April 5, 2021
Kyle Smith
National Review
As The Ten Commandments hits its sixty-fifth anniversary, it is once again being celebrated and has been given a true makeover.
March 29, 2021 | Rating: 4.5/5
Allison Rose
FlickDirect
The Ten Commandments may have been impressive for its time but the film horribly fails in its attempt to recreate the story of the Exodus.
May 28, 2020 | Rating: 3/5
Danielle Solzman
Solzy at the Movies
Staggering as spectacle and inspirational as a Biblical tale, but it has to labor mighty hard to overcome the lamentable dialogue (“Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!”) and the poor acting by virtually all of its leading players.
March 14, 2020 | Rating: 2.5/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy…
Plot
To escape the edict of Egypt’s Pharaoh Rameses I (Ian Keith), condemning all newborn Hebrew males, the infant Moses (Fraser C. Heston) is set adrift on the Nile in a reed basket. Saved by the pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah (Nina Foch), he is adopted by her and brought up in the court of her brother, Pharaoh Sethi (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). Moses (Charlton Heston) gains Sethi’s favor and the love of the throne Princess Nefretiri (Anne Baxter), as well as the hatred of Sethi’s son, Rameses II (Yul Brynner). When his Hebrew heritage is revealed, Moses is cast out of Egypt, and makes his way across the desert where he marries, has a son, and is commanded by God to return to Egypt to free the Hebrews from slavery. In Egypt, Moses’ fiercest enemy proves to be not Rameses II, but someone near to him who can “harden his heart”.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
NA
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