One of the best big screen epics.

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2001)

I recently had the opportunity to see Ben-Hur on a 70ft screen and I have to say, if you have the chance, see it this way! The super wide vistas that is captured on film look puny on TV and even then, the whole movie is cropped to fit the screen. If you have a large screen TV, that may do the trick but it's still no match for a giant movie screen. The best example of this would be to watch the famed chariot race. Every inch of screen is used to pack in so much detail, your brain almost goes into an overload just trying to take it in. Having said that, the film still holds up after all these years. Charlton Heston is perfectly cast as the title character. Betrayed by his boyhood friend, Ben-Hur is sold into slavery and sent to die aboard the Roman galleons. During a spectacular battle, Ben-Hur rescues his Roman captor and is given a hero's welcome in Rome where is made a citizen. But, this cannot dissuade Ben-Hur from his personal vendetta against Messala. He gets his chance in the chariot race, and I have to say that the chariot race has not been matched. Ben-Hur, like Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Spartacus, is a film that needs to be seen on a large screen. That's the only way to take in the grandeur of those spectacular scenes that range from the highly intimate, to a frame that literally boasts a cast of thousands.