Directed by William Wyler
1959/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing
#349 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Judah Ben-Hur: [after he is sentenced to the galleys] May God grant me vengeance! I will pray that you live until I return!
Messala: [ironically] Return?[/box]
This big-budget epic delivers in all the blockbuster categories. It is approximately 27 A.D. Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is a prince and the richest man in Judea. He was a childhood friend of Messala (Stephen Boyd), a Roman who has now returned to Judea as Tribune of the occupying Romans. Their friendship is soon severed when Ben-Hur refuses to inform on Jewish rebels. When a tile from Ben-Hur’s roof injures the Governor, he is sentenced as a galley-slave and his mother and sister are imprisoned.
Ben-Hur survives three years on the galleys and attracts the notice of Consul Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins). He rescues Arrius from drowning during a sea battle and earns the older man’s eternal gratitude. He becomes a victorious chariot racer in Rome. After Arrius formally adopts Hur, he returns to Judea to search for his mother and sister and exact revenge on Messala. Throughout the story, Ben-Hur encounters Jesus of Nazereth, who inspires him with his mercy.
As I have mentioned before, the epic is my least favorite genre and this film combines the sword-and-sandal variant with the biblical variant. I am also not a fan of Charlton Heston’s acting. I must obey the commands of the Random Number Generator however or I would never get around to many of the unseen movies on my List!
While I can’t say that I loved this movie, I must admit that as a pure spectacle it can’t be faulted. The famous chariot race is particularly thrilling and the settings and costumes are great. I enjoyed the commentary track on the Blu-Ray DVD I rented even more than the film. This movie was MGM’s chance at salvation from bankruptcy after the studio had taken a drubbing from television. It was also interesting to learn about the filming in Rome and the different techniques used to get the effects.
Did any one else not know that movie theaters really didn’t sell candy or popcorn in their lobbies until they started having to compete with at-home TV viewing? I had always assumed that popcorn was a permanent fixture of movie-going.
Trailer
I am also worlds away from being an “epic film” fan. They bore me, they’re tedious as all get out, and why make a scene 5 minutes long when you can find a way to make it 25? But (from what I remember of this one), it certainly has the spectacle thing down pat.
I’ve only watched this once all the way through and, get this, it was in seventh grade social studies class. We were doing a unit on Ancient Greece/Mesopotamia or something, and we spent however many class periods it took watching this whole… damn… movie. Probably a week and a half. The chariot scene on its own was at least an entire class period. I look back on it now, especially now that I’m a teacher, and can’t help thinking if my social studies teacher wasn’t a wee bit lazy making this his lesson plan for so long. Because did I really get anything out of it? No. I did not.
And if your teacher didn’t use the opportunity to point out the many times that the story was not historically accurate, s/he was doubly lazy! I excuse all inaccuracies because these movies really take place in Hollywoodland. What I have trouble with is the dialogue and some of the acting. It’s all so overly earnest and the emotion seems so forced.
I laughed at your “overly earnest ” acting comment. It is right on target. Like you, I’m no fan of Heston, although he is a lot less hammy here than he was in The Ten Commandments which is just horrible, although Ann Baxter is much worse than he is. Stephen Boyd as Messala is a disaster in this film as well.
I have always heard that one or more persons were killed making the famous chariot race. Do you know if that’s true. I could certainly understand it.
So you can guess that I am no lover of sand and sandals films or ones with religious themes.
The commentary says no deaths during chariot race. However, there’s one stunt that actually made the film where the driver doubling Heston jumps some debris with the chariot. That was meant to happen but he kind of flips head over heels, which wasn’t intended. He ends up landing inside the chariot. The commentary said he could easily have died if he had been thrown.
To me the most jarring Heston performance (not necessarily the worst, mind you) is his Mexican in Touch of Evil. Love the film but he is pretty bad.
Heston as a Mexican is about the dumbest bit of casting I have ever seen. I don’t know who came up with it but it was so wrong. But as you say, probably not the worst performance. I have to think that was in The Ten Commandments. I hadn’t seen that film for years and then watched it again fairly recently. I could not believe how bad all the acting was……..but Ann Baxter truly gave the worst performance in an “A” picture that has ever been filmed. And Eward G.Robinson, probably the only Jewish actor in the whole thing, looked like Little Caesar in a chariot……hilarious. Heston was pretty bad in “Soylent Green” as well. So I think we are agreeing that Heston is not one of our favorites.
Remarkable how closely your reveiw matches mine. I swear I did not read it before I wrote mine.
My version also came with a commentary, but Heston is doing some of the commenting and I sort of had enough of him in the movie. Wonder if it is the same commentary track as you followed…
I can’t really remember if Heston was on my commentary track. If he was, he was on there only in snippets.