The Ten Commandments 4K Blu-ray Review

[Omaha Steve]

We just started watching and so far it is beautiful.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Ten-Commandments-4K-Blu-ray/282780/#Review

The Ten Commandments 4K Blu-ray Review
Reviewed by Martin Liebman, March 17, 2021

Paramount has released Director Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 masterpiece 'The Ten Commandments' to the UHD format. The film was previously released to Blu-ray in 2011 with all sorts of physical goodies and again in DigiBook packaging in 2020. New specifications include 2160p/Dolby Vision video. See below for an in-depth video review and notations of other technical and supplemental carryover and absentee content.



Paramount states the following concerning its UHD release of The Ten Commandments:

As part of the restoration done in 2010, the film was scanned in 6K and those files were the basis for this brand new Dolby Vision version, which shows off the full beauty of the original VistaVision negative. The VistaVision format used special cameras to feed 35mm film into the camera horizontally in order to capture a wider image spread over two 35mm film frames, giving VistaVision twice the resolution of regular 35mm film. In addition, Paramount spent well over 150 hours doing new color work and clean-up on the scan. The move to Dolby Vision created the opportunity to further improve the look of the film: blacks are enhanced and improvements were made to smooth out special effects mattes to create the most vibrant and pristine image possible.


That's an impressive sell on paper, but how does the movie translate to the screen in its finished 4K/Dolby Vision form? In short, it's heavenly. Here's one of the most fundamentally gorgeous UHD releases on the market, and as it's sourced from the same master used for the 2011 Blu-ray it's not at all a surprise; that was a fine bit of work a decade ago and it remains today one of the peak releases for the 1080p format. Here, the textural richness and color outputs are only amplified. The upgrade to this format is substantial, though perhaps not mind boggling; that's not to put the UHD down -- it's clearly one of the best on the market today -- but that is to praise the Blu-ray, sourced from the same master and a presentation that has not aged a day since its release. Indeed, the Blu-ray is still a beautiful presentation both in isolation and in direct comparison to the UHD. It holds up extraordinarily well but it, of course, cannot match the UHD for sheer cinema splendor.

FULL review at link above.

[NotANeocon]

1. What a waste of film!

Carlin got it right.

[Sibelius Fan]

2. I bought it. The visual aspect is fabulous.

The anti-Egyptian racism of the Buy-bull fiction on which the movie is based is still there for all to see and hear.