Ben-HurEpic--if there is but one movie where this word is the most appropriately applied, it is Ben-Hur. Set two-thousand years ago, Ben-Hur begins with the circumstances and events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ. And while Ben-Hur is a religious film--described in the opening credits as "A Tale of the Christ"--our story follows a man born roughly around the same time, a man named Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston), and his seemingly implausible tale of betrayal, family, survival, vengeance, love, and--ultimately--redemption. There are few--if any--films that can even approach Ben-Hur for the sheer majesty of its vision.
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Ben-Hur was an ambitious project from the start; adapted from the novel by General Lew Wallace, and directed by the renowned William Wyler, the film is a watershed moment for monumental set pieces while being a unique perspective on the Gospels of the New Testament. In fact, the film is truly not from the perspective of the apostles, but of a man who is driven to hate by the betrayal of his childhood friend (now Roman tribune), Messala (Stephen Boyd). When Messala marches into Judea--in which Judah is something of a deposed prince--he attempts to use Judah to secure his future as a rising star in Rome...by asking Judah to betray his own people, and give up malcontents as an informer. Insulted by the suggestion, the two part on unfriendly terms; so when an accident puts the house of Hur in jeopardy, Messala capitalizes on the situation, imprisoning Judah's mother, Miriam (Martha Scott) and sister, Tirzah (Cathy O'Donnell), and condemning Judah to the galleys of a Roman ship. After years at sea and a radical twist of fate where Judah saves a Roman counsel, Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins), he is adopted by the man and acquitted of his former condemnation. And like Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights", Judah returns to Judea triumphant, to press Messala into relinquishing the knowledge of what happened to his family. Judah is also reunited with the woman he loves, Esther (Haya Harareet) and her father and his servant, Simonides (Sam Jaffe), now crippled for having to endure torture at the hands of Messala's forces. When Esther learns that Miriam and Tirzah have contracted leprosy from years of unfit living conditions in a Roman dungeon, and they beg her to tell Judah that they are dead because they do not wish for Judah to see them like they are, Judah fully commits to his quest for vengeance...by challenging Messala to a chariot race in the great circus of Jerusalem, in a dramatic action scene unlike any other in film history. The chariot scene was a massive undertaking, requiring three months of shooting and a cast of extras approaching fifteen thousand people. The set for the circus was carved out of a rock quarry at the cost of roughly one million dollars, with monumental statues and tons of sand brought into give the setting that unmistakable realism. The chariot race is one of the most significant scenes in Ben-Hur; it is also one of the best representations of "good versus evil" captured on film...Judah and his white stallions against Messala and his pitch black, Judah's skill and determination against his nemesis' cruelty and underhandedness. Richly shot on impressive 65mm cameras--which individually cost a fortune in 1959--the scope is a grand window into a time long since past, but so stunningly captured, you might be tempted to try to step into the landscape yourself.
Set design and subtle hints to the current events in the 20th century also make Ben-Hur a crafty film about the unsavory elements of tyranny and injustice, of oppression and imperialism. The Romans are presented as incursive reavers; take when Messala recounts his campaign in Libya, boasting of burning cities to the ground with pride. Their uniform and manners, their salutes and pageantry have unmistakable similarities to Nazi Germany, a haunting parallel recounted less than twenty years after the Holocaust and almost as long after the establishment of the nation of Israel. Another subtle flourish was to cast British actors in the role of the Romans, with a significant amount of American actors as Jews--the idea being that an American audience would draw conclusions about the Romans as being aristocratic, an arguably unpopular countenance for a democratic society. Also, though the film has Judah cross paths with Jesus Christ from time to time, we never see the face of Jesus. This choice allows us to project our own interpretations of how He should look, but also emphasizes the actors' reactions to the Messiah, and reinforces that the story is more about the impact that Christ had on the people of His time, rather than His gospel and passion directly. And while it is not always the case in biblical films, Ben-Hur highlights the political climate of Rome and the Middle East, and the implications of prophets stirring up the common folk, and the dangers it presents for an oppressive dictatorship when the populous subscribes to a new idea of religion and salvation...a fire that Rome cannot quench, though it makes martyrs of those who attempt to speak out against their interpretation of "civilization". In our minds, when we consider how much hardship Judah goes through, his suffering and the suffering of his family, we sympathize with his desire for vengeance, and his want to destroy Messala. Quintus proclaims to Judah while he is a slave in the galleys that "hate keeps a man alive". For Judah, this may be true to a point, since he has survived for so long, clinging to the idea of revenge against the man he thought he knew. But what is less obvious to Judah is that his life is guided--subtly--by God, reflected in the actions of others, and even directly when he is offered water by Jesus at his most desperate, a favor returned later. When he is confronted by Esther to abandon his hatred and he refuses, she tries to reach him by sharing with him the most important message of Jesus: that love is stronger than hate, and to love thy enemy, to forgive those who do us harm as we are forgiven...the fundamental message of Christ. And though there is much hardship that Judah must endure, and the need for a profound sacrifice to finally reach him, Judah does have his burden lifted as the word reaches him, and relieves him of his hate...taking the sword from his hand.
Recommended for: Fans of biblical tales, but also fans of outstanding action and riveting drama, with great characters and sets, filled with tension and excitement.
Set design and subtle hints to the current events in the 20th century also make Ben-Hur a crafty film about the unsavory elements of tyranny and injustice, of oppression and imperialism. The Romans are presented as incursive reavers; take when Messala recounts his campaign in Libya, boasting of burning cities to the ground with pride. Their uniform and manners, their salutes and pageantry have unmistakable similarities to Nazi Germany, a haunting parallel recounted less than twenty years after the Holocaust and almost as long after the establishment of the nation of Israel. Another subtle flourish was to cast British actors in the role of the Romans, with a significant amount of American actors as Jews--the idea being that an American audience would draw conclusions about the Romans as being aristocratic, an arguably unpopular countenance for a democratic society. Also, though the film has Judah cross paths with Jesus Christ from time to time, we never see the face of Jesus. This choice allows us to project our own interpretations of how He should look, but also emphasizes the actors' reactions to the Messiah, and reinforces that the story is more about the impact that Christ had on the people of His time, rather than His gospel and passion directly. And while it is not always the case in biblical films, Ben-Hur highlights the political climate of Rome and the Middle East, and the implications of prophets stirring up the common folk, and the dangers it presents for an oppressive dictatorship when the populous subscribes to a new idea of religion and salvation...a fire that Rome cannot quench, though it makes martyrs of those who attempt to speak out against their interpretation of "civilization". In our minds, when we consider how much hardship Judah goes through, his suffering and the suffering of his family, we sympathize with his desire for vengeance, and his want to destroy Messala. Quintus proclaims to Judah while he is a slave in the galleys that "hate keeps a man alive". For Judah, this may be true to a point, since he has survived for so long, clinging to the idea of revenge against the man he thought he knew. But what is less obvious to Judah is that his life is guided--subtly--by God, reflected in the actions of others, and even directly when he is offered water by Jesus at his most desperate, a favor returned later. When he is confronted by Esther to abandon his hatred and he refuses, she tries to reach him by sharing with him the most important message of Jesus: that love is stronger than hate, and to love thy enemy, to forgive those who do us harm as we are forgiven...the fundamental message of Christ. And though there is much hardship that Judah must endure, and the need for a profound sacrifice to finally reach him, Judah does have his burden lifted as the word reaches him, and relieves him of his hate...taking the sword from his hand.
Recommended for: Fans of biblical tales, but also fans of outstanding action and riveting drama, with great characters and sets, filled with tension and excitement.