by Chris Marshall:
The first time I watched Ben-Hur,
it was over a full week in Coach Phil Webb’s 10th grade world
history class. I have some doubts about the veracity of many of the events
depicted, but it seemed like a good way to spend class time back then. When I
watched it this time, I only took three days, a marked improvement.
It’s not because I didn’t like it, but why oh why did it
have to be so long? Gone with the Wind
is officially the longest Best Picture winner, but it also had a musical
prologue, entr’acte, and epilogue, in addition to the intermission. Take all
those out, and I’m willing to bet it’s no longer than Ben-Hur, which clocked in at 3 hours, 31 minutes.
I know I complain about movie length too much. I just wonder
why the Academy has never realized that just because a movie is the longest
doesn’t mean it’s the best. I admittedly haven’t seen either (yet), but I’m
willing to bet that North by Northwest
and Some Like It Hot, both of which
came out in 1959, would both give Ben-Hur
a run for its money.
Incredibly, Charlton Heston won Best Actor for his
performance, I assume because it was one of those years where the Academy
decided to give every award to the same movie. As I’ve discussed before,
Charlton Heston only knew how to play Charlton Heston. It actually works fine
here, but it can’t possibly be considered the best (or even good) acting. If
they were going to give it to somebody from Ben-Hur,
why not give it to Stephen Boyd, who I thought played the evil Messala quite
well?
Heston, as Judah Ben-Hur, begins the film as a peaceful
Jewish prince who peacefully opposes Rome’s presence in Jerusalem. After a
misunderstanding, much like the one Delonte West had, he finds himself arrested
and sentenced to be a galley slave, an interesting choice since that wouldn’t
be common practice for over 1,500 years after the events of this film. He
escapes his sinking ship, saves an important Roman’s life, and is allowed to go
back home, where he finds out that his mother and sister have leprosy. Now did
that really have to take 210 minutes?
They didn't have much competition. |
Ok, I skipped some things, including the famous chariot race
in which (spoiler) Ben-Hur defeats Messala. It lasts almost 10 minutes and
features some very impressive (if unlikely) special effects and stunts. Some of
the scenes were so convincing that I had to stop and wonder whether studios
would actually let an extra get trampled to death, so long as it was for the
good of the movie. Regulations weren’t as strict back then, after all.
I do question the decision to try to shoehorn Jesus’s
crucifixion into the final thirty minutes of the film. When Ben-Hur was a slave
several years earlier, Jesus had given him a cup of water to save his life,
though he didn’t know it was Jesus at the time. After he decides to take his
leprous family members to see if Jesus can heal them, they got there just in
time to see him carrying his cross. Ben-Hur, realizing who the man is, brings
him a cup of water too, and we realize we’ve come full circle.
It all just seems like too much. I’m totally fine with their
first encounter, but their reunion, as it were, works out just a little too
perfectly. And besides, if we cut out that part of the storyline, we could have
ended in three hours. That’s a miracle I
would have liked to see.
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