The epic of all epics. The pinnacle achievement of Hollywood entertainment. A movie so grande and colossal in scale, and just so well done in terms of sheer entertainment, Ben-Hur is an achievement far greater then any other Hollywood picture has been able to accomplish. No other film can be so long, and yet so perfectly paced, well casted, well spoken, and can boast so an impressive production value as Ben-Hur.
This is the film project of William Wyler, who directed this entire involving, motion picture.
Other then the possible exception of his role as Moses in the Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur represents the crowning pinnacle of Charlton Heston's acting career. The three hour plus film recounts the life story of Judah Ben-Hur, a wealthy Jew living the good of life until he is betrayed and sold into slavery by a former Roman friend. What commences is a story filled with adventure, action, drama, and even a little romance sprinkled in here and there.
The production set on Ben-Hur is simply incredible, so awe-inspiring. 50,000 extras were reportedly used, and hundreds of movie sets. Here is a movie that can take all of that into accountability, and not waste it under useless circumstances. For a Hollywood film, that's a rare but great achievement.
The plot itself is of epic proportions in nice, Hollywood fashion. While clocking in at about three and a half hours in length, Ben-Hur never lets it's guard down in telling the story. We are given several, exciting scenes constistently throughout the movie. For one, there's a dramatic ship battle between Romans and Macedonians on the high seas, with Ben-Hur caught in the middle of it all, and more importantly, the half hour long chariot race scene that goes down as one of the most remarkable action scenes in Hollywood history.
Ben-Hur puts a lot of depth and development into it's characters and the plot, just as well as it does into the incredible production values. It immerses us into the story, keeping us involved all the way through. I watched this over a couple of days, as I would not recommend you watch this in one day, as you might turn it into an exhausting expierence. Even so, I might be wrong as the facts prove it. Ben-Hur became a box-office hit, grossing approx $40 million against a $15 million budget. And $40 million, while a small amount of a movie to gross in today's time, was a huge amount in the 50s, as any movie would be lucky to gross even half of that.
Ben-Hur works as a Biblical epic just as well as it does a pure piece of entertainment. The results are masterful. There are few movies since then that have been able to be such a colossus in modern filmmaking. Ben-Hur is an expierence. Arguably, hardly any movies yet have been able to capture the massive proportions that Ben-Hur did and turn into a vastly entertaining and engaging Hollywood film, and by the looks of it, no film in the future will be able to either.
*****/5
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