A Flawed Epic

Rating: 8/10 (29 March 2008)

Judging a movie from the 1950's by third millennium standards is always fraught with problems. Moral standards and censorship mores have changed so much, as indeed have viewer expectations. Half a century ago cinema was the primary source of entertainment; now it competes with many others.
'Ben Hur' has an in-built interpretational problem. Right from the outset we are warned that this is a story of Christ, when in fact; it isn't. It's a story of betrayal and revenge between two friends who become sworn enemies. Christ hardly gets a look-in.
The essential conflict that develops between Ben Hur and Messala is one that it as old as humanity - far older than Christianity. It is my belief that the director should have stuck to the one and abandoned the other. But as I say, perhaps the morals of the day wouldn't readily have accepted it. Observed at the human level, and stripped of all the theological face-ache, this is still a very engaging movie which has many parallels today.
The acting is a little florid and campy but you don't have to go back to biblical times to find people behaving with theatrical excess. The fact that today we tend to have abandoned 'ritual' in our behaviour in exchange for a rather contemptuous simplicity hasn't necessarily improved our society. It certainly isn't more polite or better-mannered. The pace of story-telling is set at a slower tempo, and you either get your head round that and enjoy it - or you don't. I'm old enough to have grown up with it, so I can. In fact I prefer it to the more frenetic cut, cut, and cut again style of modern movies.
'Ben Hur' is a sword 'n' sandals epic. One of the big five, which would include 'Spartacus', 'Fall of The Roman Empire', 'King of Kings' and 'The Ten Commandments'. The cast is top-drawer, they act well, there are some excellent lines and the costumes are lavish. There are also some spectacular set-pieces. The long shots of a naval battle have a slightly 'Airfix in the bath-tub' look about them which are sadly typical of the decade. Some CGI would certainly have helped them along. But the fights are well choreographed. There's a scene where some schmuck climbs out of the rowing gallery with a bloodied stump instead of a hand and that looks suitably gruesome.
And then, of course, there's the chariot race. It only lasts for a few minutes and is the climax of the movie. But what a climax! As a piece of kick-in-the-pants action this has never been bettered. You are right there in the arena, and it's mayhem all the way. Quite frankly, I cannot think of any way it could be improved. Even today, CGI would add nothing to the in-your-face realism, because this race really is happening. Stunt doubles never earned their money half so well. Very authentic dummies get trampled to death. An innocent Roman guard and the ambulance crews are all implicated in slaughter. I only hope that no horses were harmed in the production because they're all right there in the thick of it, live and galloping. This is an object lesson in how to film a race and is itself worth the price of the DVD.
Messala gets his desserts. The skin is practically trampled off him and his woulds look horrific and believable.
The movie should have ended with the final confrontation between BenHur and a dying Messala. Unfortunately it didn't. The director appeared to belatedly remember that this was supposed to be a movie about Christ. As a result, a long, turgid, appendix was grafted on, in which Ben Hur drags his leprous relatives to see the crucifixion, and they are miraculously cured. Miklos Rosza - who seemed to have cornered the market in providing music for the genre - really lets rip big time, with enough heavenly bombast to beat your eardrums limp.
I have no objection to theology in its place and several movies like 'King of Kings' and 'The Ten Commandments' leave you in no doubt what you are signing-up for. You can take it or leave it. But 'Ben Hur' is manifestly not a story about Christ and his inclusion simply muddies the water.
Stripped of the bible-beating excess and with a little more attention paid to the nautical battle, this movie would knock 'Gladiator' into a cocked hat. Certainly, as a tortured soul with an axe to grind, Charlton Heston makes Russell Crowe seem like a ventriloquist's dummy. As it is, with 'musical Micky' out to deafen you, ships like painted shoe-boxes, and the stultifying theological bi-line, it is more of a flawed epic than a masterpiece.