great epic film

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2003)

Ben-Hur is a classic epic film. The movie has it all. It deals with the concepts of friendship, betrayal, and revenge in between great action scenes and religious elements as well. For the few who do not know the basic plot, Charlton Heston plays Judah Ben-Hur a Jewish nobleman in Roman ruled Judea. Stephen Boyd is Messala a Roman, boyhood friend of Heston's character who has returned to Judea as a top lieutenant of the new Roman governor. Ben-Hur's refusal to betray Jews who are against Roman rule begins a long chain of events which brings him down to a slave than miraculously back to prominence and an opportunity to defeat his friend turned enemy in a chariot race.
This movie is filled with memorable scenes. The most notable, of course, is the chariot race that to this day is one of the best action sequences ever filmed. (For the younger viewers, this inspired for the pod race in Star Wars: Phantom Menace and the soap box derby episode of the Simpsons.) If one is inclined to nit-pick, I do believe the mother and sister characters are a little under-developed and a couple of scenes could have been shortened. However, those are minor quibbles. What makes this movie the best sword and sandal epic made by Hollywood is that it has heart along with spectacle. In certain times, the life of Jesus intersects with Ben-Hur. And tellingly, the movie ends with a miracle and a renouncement of violence not with a bloody battle. Ben-Hur is one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time.