Ben-Hur (1959)

Written by Karl Tunberg

Directed by William Wyler

I don’t consider myself a religious person.

I have no problem with religion (except when it’s entwined with politics), but I’ve never really considered myself a religious person. Sure, I tried when I was younger to “pray the gay away” and got baptized and everything, but for me, it never really took (I mean...obviously). Of course, I still respect those who do feel the call to faith: I think it’s great for them, and I’m happy that it brings them peace.

CHARIOTS!!

So why this little blurb about religion? Because, unbeknownst to me, Ben-Hur both is and is not all about religion. All I knew about the film was that there was a chariot race sequence, and...well, that’s it really. Chariots. So, imagine my surprise when the subtitle A Tale of the Christ came on the screen. I wasn’t aware I was going to be watching a BIBLICAL story. I thought it was just chariots.

As it turns out, I kinda DIDN’T see a biblical story. I mean, Jesus is there. The film starts with his birth. Then we have the title sequence (we’re still in the era of all the credits being before the film), and then...Romans. And Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish man living in Judea. There’s conflict between him and his best friend (the new leader of the Roman army garrison in that town), there’s a suspected assassination attempt on the new Roman governor, a wrongful-imprisonment-as-revenge, and wait a minute, I thought this was about Jesus?

Jesus (Claude Heater), whose face is deliberately hidden throughout the film, and Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston)

For A Tale of the Christ, the Christ really isn’t here much. He pops in and out of the story, doing a small deed here and there, then disappearing for another long stretch of time (and I mean long: this film is over three-and-a-half hours long). It all leads to the climax of the film, which features the cruxifixction, which is the longest sequence featuring Jesus in the film. I’m sure there’s some deeper religious connection as to the reason He keeps appearing and disappearing that I should be observing here, but unfortunately, it goes over my head. My lack of religious knowledge probably puts me at a disadvantage as a viewer of the film, but I will argue that this actually makes the film WEAKER.

There are other films on this list that I’m going to talk about this with, but here is a great example. A film needs to be able to stand on its own, without context to the world at large, or, in certain cases, its source material. The Harry Potter films, particularly starting with Goblet of Fire, are excellent examples. As a fan of the series, I enjoy the films (mostly), but that’s also because I can view them in context, both in relation to one another and their source material. Show someone who knows nothing about Harry Potter one of the later films, however, and you’ll find those films don’t stand on their own. Enjoyment comes from understanding, and understanding those films relies on the viewer already knowing the plot. The same can be said for Ben-Hur: while I understood the overall plot, there were many moments that I felt I was missing the point because I don’t have the religious immersion that many other viewers have which allow them to fully appreciate and understand the nuances within the film.

Okay. Mini-rant over.

The rest of the film isn’t terrible, it’s just LONG. And, for weird reasons. As I said, the film approaches four hours long (in fact, as I learned, at the time of its release, it was the third longest film ever made, only being beaten by Gone With the Wind and The Ten Commandments). Yet, barely 30 minutes into the film, Charlton Heston’s Judah Ben-Hur and Stephen Boyd’s Messala reunite, have a nice get-together at Hur’s home, have a debate, which turns into an argument, which turns into the dissolution of their life-long friendship. All in about seven minutes. The pacing of the film is weirdly uneven, with a lot of subplots that don’t really add anything to the story. For example: the leper subplot (yes, lepers). This subplot is needlessly extended with Judah being told his mother and sister are dead (when really they caught leprosy). His anger over this leads him to his revenge chariot race against Messala. Then there’s the inevitable scene in which he finds out that they AREN’T dead and instead just have leprosy (that was an EXTREMELY strange sentence to type). However, wouldn’t the fact that they caught leprosy while being incarcerated under Messala’s orders (which IS what happened) be enough to spur the revenge chariot? And shaved off a good 10 minutes from the film?

Just LOOK at that scenic design

A few other things: the film certainly is epic (I loved the scenic design), but also, boring. Heston as Judah Ben-Hur is incredibly over-dramatic, and the rest of the performances are just...there (I do want to point out that, despite my dislike of his performance, Heston does literally set someone’s face ON FIRE, which is pretty epic). I think it was a stroke of genius to never actually show Jesus’ face, which at least helps make the sequences featuring him feel not quite so...gratuitous. The cinematography during the chariot race was very impressive, even if it’s painfully obvious that the film has been sped up to look more impressive. The stunts in that sequence also were pretty daring for the time.

Finally, I laughed out loud at the LITERAL deux ex machina at the end of the film. I won’t spoil it, but if you don’t know, “deux ex machina” translates to “god from the machine” (or the shortened “god machine”), and if you’ve seen the film...you know what I mean.

Ben-Hur desperately wants to be a Big Important Film, and while in some cases it is, it’s too flabby for its own good. Sometimes less is more, and in this case, more is less. I suppose, too, that the same can be said of this review, so I might as well wrap up, because this is

FINAL GRADE: C+