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.

The Oscar Project #25: The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

by Chris Marshall:

The Greatest Show on Earth is definitely not great, and I’m not entirely convinced it took place on Earth. The circus is a bizarre, frightening place that shares only the most basic similarities with our planet; it is populated by humans, some of which look like people you’ve actually seen before in your life. Most do not.

1952’s Best Picture winner allows you to spend over two and a half hours with this collection of life forms, and I, at least, did not feel particularly enriched for having done so. The whole thing takes place within the confines of a traveling circus. While some children may dream of running away and joining circus, I wanted nothing more than to run away from the circus itself and never go back.

The best I can tell, the movie is just an excuse to show various unrelated circus acts in glorious Technicolor, but there is a main story holding everything together (very loosely). There’s a love triangle—just like every other Oscar winner, it seems like—except this one is a little different because it involves Charlton Heston[1] and two trapeze artists. Everything was going fine between Brad (Heston) and Holly until The Great Sebastian, the world’s premiere trapeze act, joined the tour. But Sebastian, quite typically for a Frenchman, ruined everything.