The Oscar Project #32: Ben-Hur (1959)

by Chris Marshall:

The first time I watched Ben-Hur, it was over a full week in Coach Phil Webb’s 10^th 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.