The firstand for a long time the finestfilm spectacular

Rating: 10/10 (23 April 2000)

With his distinctive visual style and a taste for solemn material, William Wyler was meticulously individualistic director, triple winner of the Best Picture Oscar... As a devoted artist, he showed visual clarity and sensitive portrayal of character, dignifying melodrama, epic and Westerns... His "Ben-Hur" is a semi-biblical adventure set in the First Century AD, during the life of Christ...
In "Ben-Hur," Heston reaches the peak of his career winning an Oscar for his outstanding performance of Judah Ben-Hur...
Judah is a peaceful Jewish prince who stands the tyranny of Rome through the sadistic mind of Messala... Heston gives a spiritual performance of the title role... Judah is noble, aggressive, proud and warm... He is authentic, believing that his existence had a purpose, and that his God will free him to take revenge on his enemy... He is a man of terrific complexity and great courage and fortitude... From the land of Judea, to the galley of a Roman warship and to the Valley of the Lepers, Judah struggles for dignity and freedom... Judah's spirit is nearly broken until a hand reaches toward him with a ladle of water...
Judah/Messala friendship is great, but their relationship, damaged for ideological differences, makes them become bitter enemies... Messala (Stephen Boyd) sees only a Roman world in the future... Judah believes in the future of his people...
Tribune Messala had the same attributes, the same traits of Judah, but inverted upside down ideologically... Messala is an ambitious autocratic commander, and a despot ruler, who wants Judea a more obedient and disciplined province...
Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins) realizes much about Judah's character... After whipping his back, he told him: "You have the spirit to fight back but the good sense to control it. Your eyes are full of hate, forty-one. That's good. Hates keeps a man alive. It gives him strength." And that's why Judah can be called more a survival than a hero...
Sheik Ilderim (Hugh Griffith), is the wealthy Arabian horse trainer, who needed a real man to race his strong and magnificent Arabian team...
Haya Harareet is the Jewish maiden who tenderly falls in love with Judah...
Sam Jaffe is Simonides, Judah's loyal friend and keeper of the Hur fortune...
André Morell is Sextus, the pagan ruler whom Messala replaces...
With dramatic musical score, breathtaking sets and costumes, huge masses of people, a vigorous sea battle between Roman fleet and Macedonian pirates, a memorable and spectacular chariots race, this inspiring film is an unforgettable solid motion picture, more religious than "The Ten Commandments."