Amazon.com Essentials:
Ben-Hur scooped an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards® in 1959 and, unlike some later rivals, richly deserved every single one. This is epic filmmaking on a scale that had not been seen before and is unlikely ever to be seen again. But it's not just running time or a cast of thousands that makes an epic, it's the subject matter, and here the subject--Prince Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and his estrangement from old Roman pal Messala (Stephen Boyd)--is rich, detailed, and sensitively handled. Director William Wyler, who had been a junior assistant on MGM's original silent version back in 1925, never sacrifices the human focus of the story in favor of spectacle, and is aided immeasurably by Miklos Rozsa's majestic musical score, arguably the greatest ever written for a Hollywood picture. At four hours it's a long haul (especially given some of the portentous dialogue), but all in all, Ben-Hur is a great movie, best seen on the biggest screen possible. --Mark Walker
Amazon.com Essentials:
William Wyler
(Wuthering Heights)
had directing duties on most of this 1959 version of the story by Lew
Wallace, starring Charlton Heston as the Jewish friend of a Roman
(Stephen Boyd), who inevitably become enemies during the time of
Christ. Stodgy but engrossing, the film has never lost its initial
value as an ambitious and entertaining historical epic. Heston looks
at home against the broad canvas, which leads through days of slavery,
loss, and triumph. Andrew Marton directed the climactic chariot-race
scene, a triumph of kinetic action and great editing. --Tom
Keogh
