Current Formats Diminish The Film's Original Majestic Impact

Rating: 10/10 (15 September 2003)

In their determination to make the most spectacular movie ever made, and the blockbuster to top all previous blockbusters, MGM and company unintentionally created a work of popular art that could only be fully appreciated in its original, pristine print, 70mm, super widescreen glory. These are the screenings moviegoers who love this film remember. The astonishing depth of field. The saturated richness of the color. The almost demented attention to detail. The overpowering use of sound and motion, especially in the chariot race. Viewed in its original format, "Ben-Hur" was rightly hailed a masterpiece. The vast majority of moviegoers left theatres spellbound and drained. Unfortunately, all this shock and awe is diminished when experienced via faded prints in revival theatres or the miniaturizing trivialization of video or DVD. On TV, we might as well be watching ants; hence, in all but the most extreme closeups, the emotional connection with the actors is lost.
Furthermore, contemporary audiences tend to find the quasi-Shakespearean acting stodgy and old-fashioned. Charlton Heston, the lead, has been especially lambasted of late for either woodenness or overacting (though how he can exemplify both is beyond be). Younger viewers should remember that he and the rest of the cast have stage backgrounds, where deep, resonant voices, trick accents, and clear diction are the standard. Considered in this light, the acting's great.
Finally, the late '50s was not a time for Slouching-Towards-Gomorrah hipness. Still, the 1959 "Ben-Hur" was as contemporary a treatment of the antique novel as one could hope for. It carefully negotiates potentially explosive theological minefields with greater respect and aplomb than Mel Gibson's recent and controversial "The Passion." And its literate script is astonishingly timeless in delineating the power struggles of Middle Eastern identity politics--"These people are drunk with religion." "How do you fight an idea?" "With another idea." Sounds like CNN or Fox News to me.
There continues to be much to appreciate in this venerable classic, if people will give it a (four-hour) chance, and allow their mind's eye to imagine it as it once was, in 1959, on the big screen.