This film very rarely gets mentioned around here, maybe because people find its earnestness a bit hokey these days, I know some people really aren't huge Heston fans while for others, maybe its such a deadset classic it gets taken for granted, or maybe - you haven't seen it.
If not, you have to - the term 'they don't make 'em like this anymore' was almost invented for this movie...
Either way, I have and always will love the shit out of this film. One of the first great epics I got sat down to as a boy (the first being DeMilles Ten Commandments), I think this film helped foster my kitchen sink enthusiasm for everything related to Ancient Roman history from this era that survives intect to this day.
Where to begin with the mother of all epic features?
Do we start with Heston? Pretty maligned as an actor and even a movie star these days, this for me is the quintissential Heston performance, his Judah Ben-Hur is strong man pushed to emotional extremes. Does he pull it off? For me he definately does, so much so that he essentially carries the weight of this film on his back. He brought a gravitas and intensity to the part that helped ground the film, considering how pseudo-biblical it becomes by it's conclusion.
That said, I think the films secret weapon is to have an antagonist who only hates our hero because he's essentially a jilted lover. Stephen Boyd's Massala, and the way Gore Vidal wrote the character is brilliant. Boyd plays the part so that the character does everything barr snog his old best friend when they meet at the films opening, and looks like he'd love to anyway - and the jilted lover angle is the only real way to explain why Massala would turn so quickly and viciously on his childhood sweetheart, I mean mate.
Billy Wilder's (ETA: No dumbnuts - William Wyler!!!) direction is flawless, to be able to have the sort of breath-taking sequences to handle like the naval battle and of course the chariot race long before some computer geek was creating them in a darkened room while munching cheetos, must have been a logistical nightmare, and yet he's still able to ground the film with small beautiful little character moments to counter-point the epicness of it all.
I could go on and on about this film, but these threads are for you guys rather than to have me monologing. let me just give special mentions to the iconic beautiful score by Mikos Rosza and actor High Griffiths, Sheik Ilderim, who manages to skirt the limits of eccentric acting without ever descending into hamminess or parody.
...and I don't care how young or jaded you may be - the chariot race is still one of the greatest and most thrilling action sequences in the history of cinema. I've seen it so many times, yet, it still gets my blood pumping and me on the edge of my seat to this day.
I've been lucky enough to see this on three seperate occassions at the cinemas and will do so again. I don't know why an avowed agnostic lapsed catholic like myself gets caught up in this film like I do. Maybe it just got me while I was young, but at the end of the day its just a fucking ripping good yarn, regardless of what religious bent it may have.
For those chewers out there yet to see this, it really is one of those 'classics to see before you die' IMO.
There's a reason "bigger than Ben-Hur" is still a phrase used to this day.
