New DVD version is a full restoration of sight and sound...brilliant achievement!

Rating: 9/10 (5 May 2001)

'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.