Review of Ben-Hur (1959) by Kai82 — 21 Jun 2021

It is a timeless classic, the poster-child for „Epic Movies“, one of the most acclaimed movies with 11 Oscars and also one of the most influential movies in history. Many do not know anymore that it is based on a book with the same name by Lew Wallace.

Don't worry I have not read the book yet despite owning it so you wont get “The book is better” statement. The movie follows the fictional live of the Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur who lives in Jerusalem during the time of Christ.

At the time it is a Roman province and there are a lot of conflicts between Jews and Romans. When Judah’s childhood friend Messala returns from his service in Rome which changed him and also raised his ranks a chain of events is started.

This leads to Judah’s struggles a long journey through the movie (Wont spoil anything here). The story is excellent. It is a heroes journey with self discovery and lot of philosophical / political / religious themes.

Also Judah might encounter someone you might find familiar. All characters in the story have understandable motives, are relatable and never act out of character. It is filled with memorable moments and some have entered pop culture history.

Lets go to the actors and start with Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur. Believe it or not he was just pick number 6 for the role and delivered one of the best performances of his career that earned him an Oscars.

Fully deserved for me and one of the most memorable roles in all the movies I have seen. Sidenote: He was originally thought to play Messala. Stephen Boyd is an excellent Messala and delivers the conflicting character perfectly.

Of cause I have to mention Hugh Griffith as Sheikh Ilderim. He has a shorter but memorable role and owns every moment he is on the screen with his presence (Earned him an Oscar too). I shorten this a bit as I recognized the movie is full of great actors with equally good performances like Jack Hawkins as Quintus Arrius, Haya Haraeet as Ester and Sam Jaffe as Simodies to just name a few.

This movie has one of the best performances of its time and I will praise the whole cast. Also a good cast is worthless without a good director and producer. So I will equally praise director William Wyler and producer Sam Zimbalist.

For those who question to honorer a producer just look up how many movies were destroyed by the producer or production company (Today we have the term “Development Hell”). For the sets and visuals they took great effort into creating an epic experience.

Everything looks convincing and natural to a historical unfamiliar viewer (like me). Before you even ask it is not historical correct and a story is told that they asked a historian after building / creating all sets and costumes how they can improve the historic accuracy.

The answer was something like “Burn everything”. However this is an entertainment movie and not a documentary so it should work in the regard of convincing the audience and create an immersive experience.

The movie fully delivers in this regard so there is nothing to criticize for me. Then there are the philosophical, political and religious themes. The movie gives a lot to evaluate and think about if you look deeper.

So you can enjoy it casually and discuss about deeper meanings like for example the price of vengeance, power, what it means to be a good man, the greater good of your people or what you should aim for.

The rest is history as the movie became a hit, was critically acclaimed, won 11 Oscars (Still the record with now more categories) and entered movie history. Of cause you can find negatives as no perfect movie exist and some things are just preferences.

For example some wont like the religious motives, others hate historical inaccuracies and maybe it is too long for some with nearly 4 hours. Overall this is rightfully a timeless classic that every movie enthusiast should have watched.

An easy recommendation for / from me.