BEN-HUR (1959) watch along

Thank GOD no DC lol.. I’m glad u got a laugh.. sometimes I am lost for words lol glad you watched 😂😂 glad I got it ✔️

Amalia Wolf

Erwin please keep the comments positive. It's OK to have different opinions of movies but personal attacks are out of bounds.

AJ

Unlike the film-maker I'll try to keep this short. This is certainly one of the better spectacles of its kind. Would I put it in my top 100 American films? No. Then again I wouldn't put CEOTTK there either. Kind of why I think lists like that are dumb. See for yourself and judge according to your own standards. One note I have: When Judah gives Esther her freedom as a wedding gift your "gee, thanks" made me laugh out loud. Thank God there isn't a directors cut/special edition of this one. You might still be watching. Thanks for the marathon.

James Rogers

100% correct on everything you said bro. 100%. Also: the people in control of Hollywood, including most directors, had been around since the silent era, some as early as 1915. This is 1959, but stylistically it could have been 1939 in many ways.

Toc

Im excited to see that! And the new one with Zendaya by Denis V

Amalia Wolf

Excellent! Last time I saw this was like 1968. "Cleopatra" (1963) is also similar.

Randolph Tirazona

Literally looked so real I was in shock

Amalia Wolf

There is an old myth that a stunt performer who was run over in the chariot race actually died on set, and the director left the footage in the film, against the pleas of his widow. That, apparently, is not the case, but the stunt actor for Heston WAS actually tossed out of the chariot. He got up and walked it off like a beast. From what I've read, the real death of the stuntman came in the 1925 silent version, when the stand-in for Messala, actually did die from wounds (along with a few horses).

Shawn Goforth

Yes that’s beautiful!!!!

Amalia Wolf

Definitely felt a Star Wars vibe. And for Americans of the 1950s, the obvious parallel is the American Revolution (Britain = Rome).

JM63

Every film hits everyone differently. I didn't know what to expect revisitng it, but I feel like it ain't no dud! (Of course my feelings aren't hurt if that isn't the consensus here :)

JM63

Interesting. I mean, in a way he is spurned so it makes sense.

JM63

Intersting. This sounds like what happened to American cars vs Japan maybe a decade later.

AJ

The beginning of the end of the classic studio system emerges in the form of extravagant historical epics, armies of extras, and the largest sets ever built (and then usually burned to the ground), captured by 70 mm framework. This was the era of wasting resources simply to prove they were still there to waste. Public tastes were about to change, as audiences were catching on to tactics of being lulled into a coma by spectacle or the “reel them in and never let them leave” marketing campaigns. The scale had become uncontrollable, and the studios were unknowingly swinging their own wrecking balls. In the span of 5 years, we got Fall of the Roman Empire, Cleopatra, Spartacus, The Longest Day, El Cid, Zulu, The Alamo, The 300 Spartans, Genghis Khan, The Great Escape, How the West Was Won, Ben-Hur, and even It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which I group in as equally off the rails. Compare these to the quality and innovations in storytelling the Europeans began churning out on a shoe-string budget in the 60s under the leadership of Bergman, Visconti, Powell, Antonioni, Godard, Truffaut, Fellini, Bunuel, Bertolucci, Bresson, etc. and it’s easy to see how the new crop of filmmakers that would emerge in Hollywood by the end of the decade were influenced so heavily by international films from 1958-1968, and why they were so willing to allow Rome to fall. To clarify, I do appreciate this film very much. I do not, however, feel it deserves to be included in the top 100 American Films ever list.

Shawn Goforth

Erwin Quiachon

Erwin Quiachon

LOVE what you wrote. Couldn't agree more. This will not be the first time where you see a movie on the AFI list that will come up short for you. The majority of them, especially as the list goes on, i think you will find worthy. Not all!, but even those, you'll be happy to cross 'em off your list, like this one. And both the beginning and end of the list has the most "duds" in my opinion. However you feel about it, whatever your reaction to it.......it's yours and 100% correct! If it's an honest reaction, then it's a great one! I have no emotional stake in this one like I did with, say, Close Encounters or Paper Moon so.....my feelings sure won't be hurt! :P

Toc

Ames, it's really interesting you note an underdeveloped relationship between Messala and Ben-Hur. The writing/adaptation of this movie was done by several people and there is much debate about it,. One of the writers, however, was the very famous Gore Vidal who always asserted that he contributed an unspoken homoeroticism between the two characters, even going so far as to suggest to the director William Wyler that he should tell Stephen Boyd (Messala) to play it as if he is in love with Ben-Hur and his anger stemming from being spurned, yet never tell Chuck Heston this. Wyler denied it, and the debate about this will, apparently never end, but it does make that odd feeling relationship make sense. I don't know who's right, I'm just a simpleton who likes the chariot race (A LOT more than the rest of the picture).

VivendoBem

I did love the 2nd half loved the chariot race it was incredible!

Amalia Wolf

Ben Hur did hold the record for most Oscar wins until "Titanic", so they did something right. But you're correct in saying some of the religious themes are kinda laid on thick. This film could've easily been directed by Cecil B. DeMille; it has that same aura (for lack of a better word) as "The Ten Commandments". (With Charleton Heston getting top billing there too.) The Chariot Race sequence is thrilling and definitely is the climax of the movie but it happens only halfway through the picture. The second half still has to be endured showing Ben Hur's life paralleling Jesus Christ. But we all know how that turned out.

Jeffrey Schmidbauer