Intelligent, Beautiful Spectacle

Rating: 9/10 (30 March 2001)

The film won 11 Academy Awards, and deserved all of them, plus more. The script and Stephen Boyd (who wasn't even nominated) should have won. Actually everyone in the cast is superb. Boyd gives the performance of a lifetime and makes a magnificent adversary, for Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston). Their early scenes, scripted by Gore Vidal, exhibit a most settle homo-erotic behavior, featuring Boyd's eye glances, a "toast" scene where they wrap their arms around each other, culminating in a scene of two arrows (that they both shot) in a wall as phallic symbols. Later the relationship sours, Heston is a slave who becomes a hero, but his mother and sister are in prison, and he returns to see Boyd, now living with a blonde hunk (no female in sight). A towering chariot race ensues, ending their relationship, but sending Ben-Hur on a mission to locate his family, now in a leper colony. Haya Harareet glides in and out as a lovely potential love interest, but special mention must be made of Martha Scott, riveting as the mother, and Cathy O'Donnell, a sweet treasure as the daughter. Any doubts about Heston's acting abilities are forever erased with his sensitive, gripping portrayal of a man who finds Christ. And it is very touching that he's not looking for love, but his beloved family. A stirring masterwork, beautifully scored by Miklos Rozsa, wonderfully directed by William Wyler and co-starring stalwarts Jack Hawkins, Hugh Griffith, Sam Jaffe. Probably the best of all the Biblical adventures.