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Rating:  - The Original and Re-Make on a one DVD set!!!!
BEN-HUR The Four-Disc Collector's Edition
It is an ignominious fate that the Original Ben-Hur by which I mean the 1925 silent version has appeared as a bonus feature on the William Wyler's Ben-Hur Four-Disc Collector's Edition.
The 1925 Ben-Hur was a huge success. To this day it is still the most successful silent picture ever made. The sensational chariot race as with the William Wyler re-make was at the heart of the movie. It was the first time a Cinema audience had seen such awe-inspiring images. Such as four stallions and a speeding chariot racing directly over the top of a Camera sunk in the Arena track. The first the time a Camera followed a team of horses in close-up and at full gallop. So many film techniques that we take for granted in Action Cinema today were first born in this silent epic and they would be remembered.
William Wyler remembered them 34 years later.
William Wyler had been an assistant director on the 1925 Original. He had witnessed its staggering success and when the time came for a re-make he was just the man for the job. Maybe you balk at my use of the word re-make? But that is exactly what the William Wyler version was. The studio knew they had a product that worked and did not want to divert from that winning formula. If it ain't broke....!
The Arena built in Italy was a virtual replica of the one built in the silent version. They utilized the original construction drawings. They used some of the same moulds for various statues. They even had a complete chariot from the 1925 Original that had already proved itself on film. They had the original designs and drawings of virtually everything that had been constructed 34 years previously and they all worked.
On the Extras Disc there is a rather lame documentary called "The Epic that Changed Cinema" where filmmakers repetitively praise the 1959 re-make. A Production Designer expresses his amazement at the imagination it took to design the Arena specifically those gigantic statues at each end of it. Had he seen the Original 1925 Film he would have seen that the Arena and particularly the gigantic statues are all but the same.
None of this is touched upon in the two documentaries that are presented on the special features disc. Nothing is mentioned about the suppression of the Original Version by MGM in the run-up to the release of the William Wyler's Ben-Hur or it's eventual burial.
The 1925 Ben-Hur is a rather melodramatic and histrionic affair. Most of the performances are over the top and it has the feeling of recorded theatre rather than a movie but what lifts this film into the realms of a classic is simply the chariot race. It is as good as the William Wyler version if not better. It has more chariots!
It is a shame that the Silent Original does not have any bonus features. A documentary by Kevin Brownlow could have solved this shameful emission, as the man is responsible for it's restoration and survival. He is also one of the best documentary filmmakers out there. Just watch his Thames Television series called "Hollywood" about America's early film pioneers or "Unknown Chaplin" and you will see what I mean.
As for the William Wyler's re-make the same seems to apply. The chariot race is the highlight of the film. The race is remarkably similar in structure, blocking and interpretation as that of the Original. Most of the shots and camera positions are an exactly the same.
The rest of William Wyler's epic never really elevates above pure melodrama. The exceptional performance by Hugh Griffith lends the film a much-needed sense of intrigue but generally the film plays by the numbers. The weak latter half of the film almost feels as if you are watching Monty Python's "Life of Brian". The film uses all of the technologies available at the time to best effect. It is beautifully shot in Camera 65 by Robert L. Surtees. It has incredible matt paintings. The production design is romantic yet faultless. The Hollywoodised costumes are beautiful.
Gore Vidal is acknowledged to have written the first half of the film up until the chariot race. He is disgracefully not even credited. These early scenes are far superior to the latter plodding religious pontificating. In the first scenes between Ben-Hur and Messala, he has cleverly interwoven a homosexual love affair gone terribly wrong. It explains clearly Messala's brutal reaction. He also has a poke at the waning Un-American Committee by having Messala demand that Ben-Hur name names.
The problem with the films as a whole is the source material that they are based on. The Novel is melodramatic, shallow and episodic. Even the title is incorrect "A Story of the Christ". It might be the most read book other than the bible but it does not mean that it is any good. It is simply a compelling adventure yarn with Christ thrown in and as with the films the best part is the chariot race.
Rating:  - New 4-Disc DVD is a treasure of sight and sound...brilliant achievement...
'Ben-Hur' is such a great film, it's a pleasure to report that the newly restored Wide Screen 4-Disc DVD version (which includes the 1925 silent screen film with Ramon Novarro) is right on the mark. The color has been restored to its original brilliance with every scene clearly in focus and the soundtrack gives full range to Miklos Rozsa's impressive score. More than ever, Rozsa's score seems to have an energy and force of its own, underlining all the drama inherent in a story of this kind. And Charlton Heston's work in the title role is sheer perfection. He captures the character so completely that he IS Ben-Hur.
Not often does such an epic have human characters that are not dwarfed by all the spectacle. The characters are all fully-dimensional human beings--particularly the two antagonists (Judah Ben-Hur and Messala), once great friends but now divided by political loyalties. Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd are outstanding in the leads (Boyd should definitely have won an Oscar as Messala for his chilling death scene alone!).
All the other important roles are flawlessly cast. The chariot race is the most explosive and breathtaking seventeen minutes ever given to such a spectacular event--and all of the stunts look perfectly real. It's hard to believe that none of the stunts ended with more than minor injuries.
The final scene, which follows soon after the chariot race, with Ben-Hur returning home and slowly climbing the steps to find that his mother and sister have been cured, still gives me goose bumps when I see it. As does the poignant scene in the leper colony where he insists on seeing their cave dwelling. Both scenes are strongly bolstered by Miklos Rozsa's brilliant score.
Fully deserved all the awards it won. Should be released theatrically to show folks that even in 1959, Hollywood had all the technical skill to bring something like this off--with spectacular results! But in the meantime, this newly restored DVD is a keeper.
Rating: - This is no young man's action movie, but . . .
It is obvious from the acting, camera work, and overall epic quality of this film, why it won 11 Oscars. This movie is a true classic.
That said my wife thinks it is slow and boring and so do most of my friends, however I think it is one of the greatest films ever made.
From the life of a prince to a galley slave our star Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is taken from his home in Israel and travels across the known world. He is despised and beaten by some and praised and honored by others along this forced journey. He meets everyone from Caesar to Jesus Christ along his path back to home where he must defeat his arch enemy and once best friend. He loses everything he has at one point, but at the end he receives a gift beyond any tangible possession that exists.
I wish I had the words to give this movie justice.
Rating: - Ben-Hur
For those who enjoy the grandeur of a cast of thousands and the drama of movies when movies were movies set back in time in history, Ben Hur will fill the bill, A truly magnifient movie and as you watch the movie you begin to realize all the preparation it took to make it happen. Like othe movies such as Doctor Zhivago, Ben Hur had a main character and has an historical theme about that period of time.The music is exquisite to say the least. I recommend Ben Hur because movies like this are not produced anymore. In 1959 there were no computers to enhance the scenes and to help make many of the scenes easier to pull off. Charlton Heston was the right person for the part, a strong character in the making who portrayed Ben Hur as a lie-like character.
Rating: - Ben Hur
I think it was a fantastic Movie that brings back memorable times when I was a youth. It opens my understanding to recollect the Lord's awesome nature.
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