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#729 - Ben-Hur
William Wyler, 1959
At the height of the Roman empire, the prince of the occupied region of Judea is made to endure many hardships following his rebellion against the Roman occupancy.
Ben-Hur is arguably the prime example of classic Hollywood at its most epic; almost sixty years later, it's still got plenty of marvellous quality to it. Of course, if there's one problem that threatens to undermine even the greatest of cinematic epics, it's that the plot and characterisation might just fail to live up to the awe-inspiring production value on display. After going through a prologue that details the birth of Jesus, the film skips ahead to a few decades later and shows Judean prince Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) reuniting with his childhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd), a Roman citizen who has just become a tribune. Of course, their friendliness is quickly worn down as their ideological differences are challenged by a series of unfortunate events. As a result, it's not too long before Ben-Hur is thrown into slavery, but his drive to seek revenge on Messala and reunite with his imprisoned family members grants him the strength to survive the most trying of circumstances.
On a technical level, Ben-Hur is quite the masterpiece with its deservedly award-winning art direction that shows in every aspect from the largest of sets to the least noticeable costumes, all of which are shot through with striking Technicolor cinematography. It's a shame that the film doesn't quite manage to provide a memorably definitive score to accompany the proceedings, though it's not noticeably bad so much as the least of a bunch of amazing qualities. The craftsmanship involved is most definitely on display during the elaborate action set-pieces - while one scene involving ship-to-ship combat is remarkable in its balance of colour and clever pacing, I really am amazed at the film's famous chariot race. It's one of those scenes that is hyped to the point where the high expectations threaten to work against it, but I was stunned at how well it delivered on its fearsome reputation. The fact that the film keeps going after it's over is virtually a formality, though the remainder doesn't become a lifeless dirge either. The story threatens to be a little too straightforward for its own good, but the acting is appropriately out-sized to fit the scale of the production. Heston's steely-eyed grand-standing works wonders in this context as he covers a wide range of melodramatic emotions ranging from righteous indignation to wordless awe, while other performers follow suit to debatable effect; Boyd's constantly-shifting interplay with Heston is a highlight, but I'm not sure what's going on with Hugh Griffith's boisterous brownface sheik. At least the seemingly ancillary romantic sub-plot with Haya Harareet's slave doesn't ring hollow.
While I can definitely respect the sheer scale of Ben-Hur, I'm still not entirely sold on whether or not I genuinely enjoyed it. The labourious nature of the production shows in just about every frame and, while I'm not entirely sure it really needed to be three-and-a-half hours in length, it at least manages to avoid descending into pure tedium. The film's infrequent references to Jesus, ranging from the opening sequence through to his own path intertwining with Ben-Hur's at several plot-relevant junctures, could have easily felt overdone and unnecessary yet they never do, and the ways in which his presence feeds into the film's main narrative never feel as forced or as cheesy as you might think. Even so, I definitely think that this has more on offer than the last couple of sword-and-sandal films I've seen and am willing to think that it's got room to grow on me. If nothing else, that chariot race definitely deserves to be seen by anyone with even the slightest interest in cinema.
William Wyler, 1959
At the height of the Roman empire, the prince of the occupied region of Judea is made to endure many hardships following his rebellion against the Roman occupancy.
Ben-Hur is arguably the prime example of classic Hollywood at its most epic; almost sixty years later, it's still got plenty of marvellous quality to it. Of course, if there's one problem that threatens to undermine even the greatest of cinematic epics, it's that the plot and characterisation might just fail to live up to the awe-inspiring production value on display. After going through a prologue that details the birth of Jesus, the film skips ahead to a few decades later and shows Judean prince Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) reuniting with his childhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd), a Roman citizen who has just become a tribune. Of course, their friendliness is quickly worn down as their ideological differences are challenged by a series of unfortunate events. As a result, it's not too long before Ben-Hur is thrown into slavery, but his drive to seek revenge on Messala and reunite with his imprisoned family members grants him the strength to survive the most trying of circumstances.
On a technical level, Ben-Hur is quite the masterpiece with its deservedly award-winning art direction that shows in every aspect from the largest of sets to the least noticeable costumes, all of which are shot through with striking Technicolor cinematography. It's a shame that the film doesn't quite manage to provide a memorably definitive score to accompany the proceedings, though it's not noticeably bad so much as the least of a bunch of amazing qualities. The craftsmanship involved is most definitely on display during the elaborate action set-pieces - while one scene involving ship-to-ship combat is remarkable in its balance of colour and clever pacing, I really am amazed at the film's famous chariot race. It's one of those scenes that is hyped to the point where the high expectations threaten to work against it, but I was stunned at how well it delivered on its fearsome reputation. The fact that the film keeps going after it's over is virtually a formality, though the remainder doesn't become a lifeless dirge either. The story threatens to be a little too straightforward for its own good, but the acting is appropriately out-sized to fit the scale of the production. Heston's steely-eyed grand-standing works wonders in this context as he covers a wide range of melodramatic emotions ranging from righteous indignation to wordless awe, while other performers follow suit to debatable effect; Boyd's constantly-shifting interplay with Heston is a highlight, but I'm not sure what's going on with Hugh Griffith's boisterous brownface sheik. At least the seemingly ancillary romantic sub-plot with Haya Harareet's slave doesn't ring hollow.
While I can definitely respect the sheer scale of Ben-Hur, I'm still not entirely sold on whether or not I genuinely enjoyed it. The labourious nature of the production shows in just about every frame and, while I'm not entirely sure it really needed to be three-and-a-half hours in length, it at least manages to avoid descending into pure tedium. The film's infrequent references to Jesus, ranging from the opening sequence through to his own path intertwining with Ben-Hur's at several plot-relevant junctures, could have easily felt overdone and unnecessary yet they never do, and the ways in which his presence feeds into the film's main narrative never feel as forced or as cheesy as you might think. Even so, I definitely think that this has more on offer than the last couple of sword-and-sandal films I've seen and am willing to think that it's got room to grow on me. If nothing else, that chariot race definitely deserves to be seen by anyone with even the slightest interest in cinema.