Ben-Hur

Year:  1959

Filming:  Color

Length:  212 minutes

Genre:  Drama/Epic/Inspirational/Religious

Rating:  PG (for battle sequences and intense thematic elements)

Cast:  Charlton Heston (Judah Ben-Hur), Stephen Boyd (Masala), Haya Harareet (Esther), Jack Hawkins (Consul Quintus Arius), Martha Scott (Miriam), Cathy O’Donnell (Tirzah), Sam Jaffe (Simonides), Finlay Currie (Balthasar)

Director:  William Wyler

Personal Rating:  4 Stars 

***

    Call me biased, but once again I have to reiterate my belief that older films are by and large superior to newer films. This holds true in the field of epics. Then, screen spectacles had to be shot in a way that was grounded in live action. Now, they usually rely on an unhealthy dose of CGI. Among the greatest hallmarks of screen achievement in any era is the emotionally intense Biblical saga, Ben-Hur.  

    Charlton Heston stars as Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish Prince whose boy-hood friend, Masala, played by Stephen Boyd, is a Roman tribune. Returning to Palestine to assume a local command, Masala tries to pressure Judah to reveal the names of zealots during their long-awaited reunion. But while Ben-Hur agrees to use his influence to discourage insurrection, he will not inform on his fellow Jews. This causes the tribune to become embittered against his old friend.

    When Judah’s sister, Tirzah, accidentally knocks a loose tile off their roof, hitting the Roman governor in the head, Masala uses this as an opportunity to take revenge and has Ben-Hur, his mother, and his sister arrested for high treason. Even though Judah insists on their innocence and begs for his family to be released, the tribune coldly refuses his entreaties and has him sentenced to serve as an oarsman on a Roman galley. During the long trek to the coast, Judah is not allowed to drink any water. When he collapses, dying of thirst, a carpenter in the village of Nazareth defies the Roman guards and gives him water from the nearby well.

    After years of rowing in horrendous conditions below deck, Ben-Hur’s ship is sunk by the enemy. His decision to rescue the Roman Consul Quintus Arius results in his being freed from slavery and raised to the position of his chief charioteer, and later on, his foster-son! But Judah cannot settle into his new life in Rome, and decides to return to Palestine in hopes of finding his mother and sister and killing his old enemy, Masala. Along the way, he meets one of the Three Kings who is in search of the Christ he visited as a little child. He also encounters an Arab sheik who, ironically, has plans to compete with Masala in a chariot race.

    Given the opportunity to act as the sheik’s charioteer, he goes head-to-head with Masala and orders him to relocate his mother and sister, or else dire consequences will follow. He also rekindles an old spark between himself and one of the serving maid’s of his household, the beautiful and pious Esther, played by Haya Harareet. She soon learns the secret that his mother and sister contracted leprosy in the Roman dungeon and are now living in the infamous Valley of the Lepers. But upon their instructions, Esther tries to hide this from Judah by telling him they are dead.

    In reaction to this misinformation, Ben-Hur, determined to avenge his family, heads off to the racing arena to have it out with Masala once and for all. After the bloody encounter, he repudiates his Roman connections and determines to join the zealots. But Esther has fallen under the influence of a traveling Rabbi who insists upon peace rather than the sword. It will later prove that the love of this gentle carpenter from Nazareth will be more powerful then his seemingly unquenchable hatred of Judah Ben-Hur.

    Ben-Hur is truly a masterpiece of the film industry and fully deserved its 12 academy awards. It’s a saga rich with detail and dimension, unlike the flat-footed Titanic which was the first film to beat its award record number.  It covers the “big picture” with so much pageantry and panache, from ancient naval battles to lavish Roman feasts to the break-neck chariot race to the power of the Crucifixion. The acting is taut and gripping, and Charlton Heston is at his teeth-clenching best as the wronged Judean Prince. To this day, the production still has the power to enchant and astound.   

  

    As far as the plot itself goes, there are many strong core values and an underlying excellence. However, I must admit there are a few elements that strike me as disjointed and dully predictable. For example, Masala’s unbridled hatred for Judah and his family seems sudden and extreme for their previously close friendship and the comparatively minor falling out they had. What could have been a complex relationship between the former friends quickly devolves into a clear-cut “good guy vs. bad guy” plotline and remains that way for the rest of Masala’s cinematic existence.

    If they had tossed in another bone of contention between the two in addition to Judah refusing to be an informer, I think that might have helped things. I know love triangles have definitely “been done”, but something like that could have beefed up his reasoning behind the actions to some extent. Even then, more misunderstanding and less malice would have made for much interesting developments. Plus, I can’t help but wish Masala had made some move towards at least a partial redemption before the end!

    Another part that I found lacking was Judah’s attitude towards his Roman foster-father, Quintus Arius. Instead of making the most of his new-found prominence by searching for his mother and sister through legal means, he has to complicate things by storming back east to deck it out with Massalah as a charioteer for an Arab Sheik, who I doubt would have hired a Jew for the task in real life! Later, Judah even refuses to heed Pontius Pilate’s perfectly reasonable advice and decides to send back the ring his foster-father had given him and, in essence, disown him!

    One immeasurably difficult stumbling block that all Biblical films set in the New Testament come across is how they will portray Jesus Christ. Admittedly, there is no way of making everyone happy in this. How can an actor possibly capture that miraculous “something” that people saw in Christ’s face that caused them to believe He was more than a mere man? What of his voice, that penetrated the soul? What of his cadence, his habits, his physical attributes? How does someone act who is supposed to be fully human, and fully divine? No film is going to be able to properly capture the reality.

    Ben-Hur, wisely, doesn’t even try. Christ’s face is never shown, and his voice is never heard. It is all left to the individual viewer’s imagination as we see the reaction of others who come into contact with the teacher from Nazareth. After all, this is not meant to be a biopic of Christ, nor even on his Passion. Nevertheless, He is what the entire plot depends on for a powerful outcome. Otherwise, the other elements of storyline deficiency would have eroded the movie and turned it into another lack-luster The Fall of the Roman Empire.

    The only aspect I didn’t like about the screen-writer’s depiction of Jesus was his reference to Him wistfully wandering in the hills while His foster-father, Joseph, is slaving away back at his carpenter shop! If the image on the Shroud of Turin is to be believed, Christ was indeed a “man’s man”, strong, robust, and muscled from hard labor. After all, after his “finding in the temple” at age 12, the Bible says “He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them.” This certainly does not indicate any shirking of manual work or responsibility.

      But these comparatively miniscule foibles are literally washed away by the climactic ending at The Crucifixion. Esther beams as the image of saintliness, helping Ben-Hur, his mother, and his sister go to see Jesus preach. The result is different then she thought it would be, and they ultimately watch Him be put to death instead. It is then that Judah realizes He is the same man that gave him water in Nazareth, and that his life has indeed been guided by Providence. Healing comes to all of them in different ways, all the earth quakes and the rain pours down and mixes with the precious blood. This is what ensures the undying, all-encompassing potency of Ben-Hur for generations to come.

Masala (Stepehen Boyd) and Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) share a glass of wine