4d2b48a4   
   From: evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com   
      
   On Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 6:33:41 PM UTC-4, TBerk wrote:   
   > .   
   > ...   
   > An easy comment made many times is that these films could never be   
   > made today with the same grandeur and beauty, and while this may be   
   > true what does the future hold?- with HD and a mature use of CGI and   
   > (from _somewhere_) developed actors to inhabit characters both deep   
   > and wide.   
   > Perhaps not in our lifetime, but hopefully one day. Greatness will be   
   > achieved, achieved and surpassed.   
      
   Part of what makes THE TEN COMMANDMENTS great is that when Moses   
   leads 10,000 people out of Egypt, he is really leading 10,00 people out of   
   Egypt.  That is to say, there are that many real people in the scene.  (No,   
   I didn't count them, but the figure quoted for extras is 15,000; I'm   
   assuming not all of them were used in this scene.)  (In THE MAN WHO   
   WOULD BE KING, you see a huge crowd of people following the heroes--and   
   they're people, not a CGI construct.  It makes a difference.  SPARTACUS   
   used 50,000 extras.  GANDHI had 300,000 extras in the funeral scene.)   
      
   As for BEN HUR, I am among the (probably) few people who thinks the   
   chariot race in the 1925 version was more exciting than in the 1959 version.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)