What an epic is all about!

Rating: 10/10 (23 April 2011)

I've recently searched for a definition of what an epic film is, and found in Wikipedia the following: "a film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale" That says it all. In deed a human drama, with a character's achievements and ordeals in the central stage, generally within the context of an historical event for its background to give it the so called epic scope, and dramatized with big production values. That's what an epic film is, and Ben Hur is THE EPIC.
So that the reader can understand where "I'm from", the occasional epic (specially biblical epics like Samson & Delilah, The ten commandments, The robe, etc) where mandatory in Sunday school _when I was a catholic student_ and a delightful treat at home for Easter Sunday. Through them I got to know Victor Mature, Jean Simons, Kirk Douglas  and of course, Charlton Heston! So Ben Hur was an expected addition to the list when I discovered it fifteen years ago, on a Sunday afternoon. I watched it with my grandmother who served me the live "audio commentary track", through key moments in the picture like if she was watching her favorite novel, astounded on how much was cut in the old days due to Portuguese censorship. Ben Hur owes much to Cecil B. DeMille's productions, being also a forerunner (in a technical sense) for other epics like Spartacus or any of David Lean's stravaganzzas.
For a bit of plot summary: - Judah Ben Hur (Heston) is a wealthy man in Roman occupied Judea, just about the time of Jesus Christ's ministry. He reunites with an old boyhood friend, Messala (Stephen Boyd). They try to rekindle the old friendship, but find that they have grown in to absolute opposite young men, one being a passioned Jew patriot, the other a roman soldier with the will to make a career at the expense of the Jew people. Thus the short lived Idyll is broken. Just a few days later Ben Hur and its family are involved in an accident with the new roman governor, and are accused and condemned in moments notice by Messala who wishes to inspire fear by making an example out of Ben Hur. So the old friends became enemies, and Ben Hur's hate and quest for revenge gets started.
Lew Wallece's novel (on which the movie is based on) does a pretty good job leaving the ministry and passion of Christ in the background, giving it a strange role of mystical influence over the story unfolding in the central stage, which is Ben Hur's search for revenge and peace of mind. The two stories run parallel to each other in the movie, joining forces in the last act, giving it a very meaningful conclusion and thus shedding some light to the author's chosen subtitled (elapsed form this 1959 remake) A tale of the Christ. A storytelling technique resembling that of D. W. Grifith's movie Intolerence (1916).
Another interesting fact concerning the scale of the film is that Heston's character goes through enough events during the story, over a time span big enough to be called an Odyssey (in the Homeric sense ) thus the epic nature prevailing in the story. From the harsh and cruel scenes in the roman galleys and in the catacombs in Jerusalem, to the Shakespearian dialogs between Ben Hur and Messala during the falling out in the beginning of the picture, and right after the race in the circus _ "There is still enough of man here for you to hate. () The race, it goes on Judah!" _ and of course the classical, and ever since copied chariot race show down in the circus. Well, there are enough moments for you to cherish and too many for me to name. And without neglecting the technical aspects, like the huge (unrealistic) sets, many of them built on location, giving a sense of grandeur; Miklos Rosza's score, adding to the epic feel of the movie (tunes like the rowing in the galley scenes, the roman parades, or the final Hallelluya get stuck with you for a long time); Heston's (well deserved) academy award wining performance; Boyd's unforgivably unrewarded rendition of the tribune Messala If Wylliam Wyller wanted to tackle with a Cecil B DeMille special, I would say mission accomplished!
Drawbacks in the picture? Perhaps the religious motif in the story might not sink in with every one, and the viewer that's not sensible to it could feel somewhat detached. Being a catholic myself I must say that watching this movie always rekindles my faith, remembering some of the things that I cherish from the New Testament, like the role of forgiveness in our hearts, and that hate, while a convenient fuel, is a poor substitute for love.
So if my words have tantalized you, my advice is watch it! Take a Sunday afternoon off (preferably Easter Sunday) and watch it!