One of the most memorable films of this century

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2002)

Benhur is a story about betrayal,revenge,forgiveness and faith.Masterfully brought to the screen by William Wyler from the book Benhur-A tale of Christ by Lew Wallace, Benhur is a moving epic which inspires, enthralls and questions our views about revenge, forgiveness and faith.The movie has excellent production values,an excellent script,an excellent caste and a very inspired score by Miklos Rosza who combines smooth,soothing scores in the scenes of christ to rousing battle scores to evoke the right emotional response from the audience.
Charlton Heston is Judea Benhur,a wealthy merchant,who is betrayed by his close friend Messala, an officer in the Roman legions played by Stephen Boyd, for all suitable reasons, believing in the message of the messiah and failing to recognize Caeser as the supreme ruler. On a trumped up charge of attempting to assassinate the Roman Governor,Benhur is separated from his family, stripped of all wealth and sent to work as a galley slave.
It is revenge that Benhur swears and it is for revenge that benhur lives every second of his life, to live for the day, the hour when he can meet Messala and avenge his family and himself.It is revenge and a desire to live and fight Messala that makes Benhur survive a shipwreck during a sea battle and by a stroke of luck manages to save the Roman consul Quintus Arrius(Jack Hawkins). Benhur finds himself adopted by Arrius and practices his charioteering , becomes a famous charioteer and finds his chance to contest Messala in a chariot race.
It is for this chariot race that the film is spoken of often and as a movie spectacle, it is simply magnificent.The race is taut, tense and extremely riveting.It took a reported 3 months in shooting and was shot by an assistant director and not by Wyler himself.The graceful white stallions driven by Benhur make a startling contrast to the magnificent black stallions driven by Messala.To see these splendid animals race themselves is an awesome, spellbinding display of strength, agility and power. The race turns out to be tragic for Messala who in spite of his false tactics is driven over, dies a few hours later,bitter and unrelenting.
Benhur finds not satisfaction but only a void and an emptiness from his victory. He finds his family living as lepers in a leper colony. It is now that he witnesses the crucification and finds his family cured. Parallels are drawn here between revenge and forgiveness. The scenes of Christ are extremely moving and will evoke an emotional response from all but the most cold hearted.
Although the movie is a bit long at 3 1/2 hours and slows down towards the end, Good acting, excellent sets, steady direction, a moving music score makes this one of the most memorable movies of this century.