"How do you fight an idea, especially a new idea?"

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 2006)

The word that kept coming to me throughout my viewing of "Ben-Hur" was 'grand'; the film has a wondrous feel of grandeur even in it's most serene moments. The vibrancy of it's color comes through gloriously, perhaps in part due to it's treatment on the four disc DVD special edition. It's a film that one can easily use to describe the term epic, the type of movie that comes out perhaps once in a decade.
I'm particularly impressed with the way director William Wyler managed to intersperse defining moments of Christ's life in a way that did not detract from the character of Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston). Those include the Sermon on the Mount and the washing of Pilate's hands as the Judean governor turned Jesus over to the mob. In those instances, Ben-Hur is shown consumed by the urgency of his quest to oppose Roman authority. He is not a direct witness to Christ's mission, yet those pivotal moments come full circle when Ben-Hur realizes that the man to be crucified is one and the same who showed him a kindness as Judah was marched off, condemned to be a galley slave in a Roman war ship.
The scene in the movie that everyone calls to mind obviously is the chariot race. Magnificently staged in an era bereft of the kind of digital effects available today, the segment withstands the passage of time for excitement and believability. What I found particularly intriguing was the incredible stunt work that had it's birth in the early days of the Western film genre, most notably in the work of Yakima Canutt. To my surprise, Canutt's name appeared in the credits as head of the second unit, along with his sons who took up their father's mantle in the business. The scenes of chariot drivers falling victim to their reckless abandon has the indelible stamp of Yakima Canutt all over it, owing in large part to stunt techniques he developed back in the 1930's.
But back to the spiritual message. Judah Ben-Hur's ultimate victory does not involve hand to hand combat with an enemy, or leading a citizenry to revolt against a tyrannical Roman governor. It has all to do with the quiet power of Christ washing away the world's sins along with the disfiguring leprosy of Judah's mother and sister; the same power that compels Ben-Hur to give up his sword, instead of wielding it for hateful revenge.