Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ, released in 1925, is truly an epic work of filmmaking. It had a cast of thousands (reputedly 125,000), a budget of almost $4 million (a phenomenal sum in the 1920s), and includes the most edited scene in the history of cinema (see the trivia notes at IMDb.com).
Seeing is believing. The script called for a sea battle, so what did the filmmakers do? They staged a sea battle. With actual triremes. (And actual combatants, for that matter — see the trivia notes.) When the script called for a chariot race, they staged a real chariot race (with a bonus offered to the winning driver). When city walls are shown collapsing, one could almost believe hundreds of extras actually perished in special effects that rival the most expensive computer-generated graphics of today’s blockbusters. They even filmed the religious scenes in Technicolor at a time when most films relied on mere tinting.
The film is, quite simply, stunning in its scope and its effects. It is monumental in a way that far surpasses the likes of Cleopatra, Troy, or Alexander the Great. Watching it is like taking a journey, marvelling all the while, and looking back in amazement at its completion. It is the quintessential epic.
I do not mean to suggest that the movie is perfect. The acting is mostly adequate, although it is consistently good on the part of several actors, whilst others fall back a trifle too much on pantomime. The directing sometimes appears lazy, yet at other times rises to levels of titanic achievement. I have not read the novel on which the movie was based, so I am unable to judge the faithfulness of the adaptation, but the screenplay seems pedestrian at some points, but inspired at others. I find the story’s lack of reliance on sterotypes to be especially interesting and one of the things that makes this movie an enduring classic, regardless of one’s religion. It is a cinematic wonder of the world, despite its flaws, and deserves to be seen.
- Writing: Fair
- Directing: Great
- Acting: Fair
- Cinematography: Great
- Special Effects: Superb
Overall Rating: Great
Tags: silent movies