This movie is amazing with some neat effects! Other movies can't compare to this exciting plot! :D Thanks to Charlton Heston who made it as a greatest actor ever! May he rest in peace. :)
This is the movie that got me hooked on old films. William Wyler is up there amongst the best of all time. I dont particularly care about Charlton Heston but this film is a treasure. All time classic.
The sets, the acting and the music compositions by Miklos Rozsa is just breathtaking the directing is brilliant. A true masterpiece from William Wyler.
An excessively long movie. Took me two weeks to get motivated to watch the entire thing.
What I found most interesting was watching the parade of the charioteers sequence for the first time with Rosza's great march, clearly the highlight of the score.
classic. i'd recomend this one for someone who either loves good morals in old classic films... or if ur injured and can't get off ur couch... it just that long.
terribly long, but it grew me. i also enjoyed trying to be one of the characters in each scene, replying in my own words or trying to say the scripted spoken words as if they were my words.
One of the longest epics I have ever watched and undoubtedly the king of the genre. Charlton Heston is in top form as the fiery hero of this adaptation of the great Lew Wallace novel. He is surrounded by an incredible cast of actors who support him brilliantly as well as offer him some of the greatest challenges of his life especially his best friend Messala, played with an equal passion by Stephen Boyd. The pairs fight in the chariot race is undoubtedly one of the most memorable scenes in film history and still wholly engrossing. Add to this the sweeping scale this story which covers vengeance, love, betrayal, and part of the Christ story as well and this film packs a wallop in its three hours plus running time. But that is perfectly fine with a film that offers an intermission some of the greatest music in cinema history from Miklos Rozsa, one of the best composers ever not named John Williams.
I watched this in the 7th grade with my dad. Besides the raw chariot race scene (imagine what the pre stunt man days would be like?), I'll never forget how a burp after dinner shows one's appreciation of the bountiful meal (not disagreement)!
Personally not my favorite movie, but definitively worth watching (although extremly long, too long) . I don't think it deserves the 11 oscars it won, but that's just my opinion...
I just don't know what to think anymore. On the one side, there's a 20 minute chariot race which never seems to end, but on the other, I understand that everyone must be seeing something I don't and that first impressions are not always accurate. So, henceforth, this will be marked as 'Want to see' until I my final judgement is passed.
Ben-Hur tells the story of a man, Jonah Ben-Hur, who has been arrested along with his sister and mother. The story tells his journey to try and find his family. It is sort of like The Odyssey in the sense there is a long, epic journey across thousands of miles to do this. At nearly four hours in length, it is rather difficult to keep the plot going and this film does feel a little slow at times, especially in the first half of the film. After the entr'acte the film begins to pick up quite a bit.
The film stars Charlton Heston and a cast of several others. As is typical for an epic film, the lead has a very complex role to play and I'd say Heston played it well. The other actors, when present, also do a good job. While Heston deservedly won the Academy Award for best actor, I am a little surprised that Hugh Griffith won for Best Supporting Actor. While he did a good enough job in this film, he hardly had any screen time and even for a supporting actor his role seemed kind of minor. Then again, it seems like every time I see a film with a best supporting actor I question the decision so I'm probably not the best judge of who is deserving of that award or what a supporting actor actually is.
One area of the film worth mentioning specifically is the famous chariot race scene which runs for around eleven minutes. This scene, one of the most memorable in cinema history, is very well-done and along with the chase scene in Bullitt is probably one of the best race scenes I've ever seen. Even more amazing is the fact that there was no CGI or anything of the sort in 1959.
While I am not a religious person at all, I think the religion was presented in a subtle enough way as to not be distracting. I didn't really like the miracle at the end of the movie, but it is a religious story so I can't really complain too much about that.
Overall, this was significantly better than the only other Heston film I've seen, Soylent Green. Despite the fact the first half was tedious at times and it got a little overly-preachy at times for my liking, this is still a good movie overall and definitely worth seeing.
84/100 B
UP NEXT: Either I'll continue with Best Picture winners and move to the following year's winner, The Apartment or I'll go with Witness for the Prosecution.
When looking at this film its hard to believe that MGM was about to go bankrupt. And yet they were and they banked everything they had on Ben-Hur to save the studio, and luckily for them it worked.
William Wyler has been a favorite of mine ever since I saw Jezebel (1938). The man was a superb director, not something we see often in this day and age. Fellows like him seemed to have all but died out, with only a few fledgling directors capable of carrying on the once great legacy of the silver screen. He did a tremendous job here, he knew exactly how he wanted to make this film and he went out and made it come true. He was a perfectionist that demanded the very best from everyone involved in the film, if more of the youngsters in Hollowood would take that stance, we wouldn't end up with some the awful dreck we usually get. Of course if more directors today were like that, many many actors would be out of the job.
As for the cast, they were perfect for their roles, Heston was a masterful actor, something people tend to forget while hating him for his stance on gun control. Its hard to imagine anyone but him as Judah Ben-Hur, and there were alot of choices at the time.
Stephan Boyd was suitably menacing as Messala, Judah's boyhood friend turned enemy. After a certain point, every word he uttered simply dripped with venom. You could just feel his hatred. Very well done, they made the right choice with him.
Everyone was perfectly suited for their parts, Sam Jaffe, Haya Harareet, Jack Hawkins, all of them. I'm glad this was such a success, because the cast is now immortalized in cinema history, and they worked hard for that and deserve it.
As for the film itself, its simply magnificent. They spent millions on set design and creation, they built whole stuctures specifically for this film, including the Circus for the chariot race. If MGM was having financial trouble you'd never know it from this film, they spared no expense. If this gamble hadn't paid off, MGM would have been finished for good. I think the story is well told and has a pretty good pace about it. The most outstanding part about this film is that its all real, no cgi making everything so easy. This film took alot of hard work from every single person involved to make it this great. See this film and you can really appreciate what a great film can be made without computers taking all of the work out it
being a Heathen, you'd think this would be one of the last movies I'd ever like, let alone love. Its clearly a Christian movie, although most of the film has not much to do with Christ at all, just some cameo moments for the most part. However, One doesn't tend to think about it while watching it, The religious aspects were pretty toned down in comparison with the source material. This film can certainly appeal to anyone regardless of faith or beliefs. Its a tremendous story even without the Christian parts, and thats what matters.
The thing besides the religious undertones that would put young folks off is the length, its 3 hours long. But in this reviewers opinion its 3 hours very well spent.
one of the great epics of all time. re-watchability is effected by its 3 1/2 hour length, but other than this the film is nearly perfect. the chariot race is a stagering feat, the performances, locations, and cinematography are astounding, and the story is inspiring. great reverence is paid to Christ in making him voiceless and faceless and the imagery of his death bringing life is perfectly painted. worthy of its 11 oscars, this film is wonderful.
i could see it 100 times and never get bored!!! his has been for a long time my favourite movie....a story of belief,friendship,betrail,surpassing hardship,changing faith and revenge.....and a wonderful silver lining awating for you at the end
Ben-Hur is an amazing film, but I just can't give it4 stars because it dragged on and on all throughout. There were tons of enjoyable and entertaining parts. The best part was obviously the chariot scene. The stunts and the difficulty level were top notch and outstanding.
MCT:November 18, 2008
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