Do we remember anything except the chariot race?

Rating: 5/10 (14 April 2006)

Everyone remembers the blades on the bad guy's chariot, and how he whips the title character (Charlton Heston). But overall, "Ben-Hur" is basically a soap opera (well, how could a biblical epic not be?). And of course, there's a few things nowadays that change how we view the movie. Given how Charlton Heston's character wants revenge, wouldn't it make more sense for him to just get a gun? I mean, we're talking about the NRA president here! Also, there's that one character who it turns out was supposed to be gay (Heston thought that they were just friends).
All in all, considering that 1959 produced movies like "Some Like It Hot", "The 400 Blows" and "Anatomy of a Murder", was this really the one to give Best Picture? Not in my opinion. It's a classic mainly because of the chariot race.
I remember a comic strip where Hollywood decides to do dumb remakes of classic epics, resulting in "Gone with the Wit" and "Ben-Huh?". Also, Roberto Benigni said in an interview that this was the first movie that he ever saw in the theater, but his family didn't have enough money for a ticket, so they watched it from behind the screen. So, the first movie that he ever saw in the theaters was "Ruh-Neb"!