Ben-Hur - 60th Anniversary
BEN-HUR - MGM
Sixty years prior to today on November 18, 1959, cinema history was made with the release of the William Wyler directed and Charles Heston starring seminal-classic, Ben-Hur. Following the story of Judah Ben-Hur and his ultimate test of faith and revenge, this feature can only be described as one of personal, religious intimacy while still exercising its promise of ultimate grandeur.
That specific and outstanding element of grandeur is completely noticeable in its three core elements: The set design, the cinematography and the music.
The set design, whether it is the sprawling city of Rome or the dull and depressed leper-pit, is beautifully recreated to the very minute detail. Further exemplified by the costume design from Elizabeth Haffenden, which is distinct for each and every extra, the recreation gives more to its sense of realism and transportation to its era in fascinating attention to detail.
The cinematography by Robert L Surtees captures these seismic sets with utmost discipline. While capturing the vast beauty of its landscapes, it never loses the sight of its characters and is actually able to create such a conjunction between its main focus and background beauty that both the elements complement each other instead of cancelling the effect.
The exceptional cinematography is further exemplified by the brilliant musical score by composer Miklos Rozsa, which help to capture the vast, visual landscapes and character emotions by providing the appropriate score to generate emotions from its viewers. If the scene is grand — like the famous chariot race sequence — the music helps make the shots look grand and if the scene is personal, then the music helps make it personal. As if it is already not clear, the cinematography, set design, and music live in a beautiful, symbiotic relationship where each one of these aspects helps exemplify the effect of others to nothing short of a masterful standard.
The performances, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. While there are performances like that of Stephen Boyd as Messala, which is exceptionally three dimensional and emotive, there are also performances like that of Cathy O Donald as Tirzah, which is clearly miscast. Many of the supporting cast fails to provide primary human emotion. The most significant outrage for many is Huge Griffith's performances as the Sheik. While understandable for its time, is still unsettling to see today due to many of his brown-faced performances combined with a stereotypical accent and badly aged cultural jokes.
The most divisive element of this feature might be its story. It is necessary to understand that Ben-Hur is first and foremost a Christian film and considering its third act, is not in any way subtle about it. Nevertheless, unlike many of the contemporary Christian features — the horrendous God's Not Dead trilogy comes to mind — Ben-Hur is not entirely antagonistic towards its opposite ideology. Even with someone like its main antagonist Messala, who is a stand-in for atheism, it is not afraid to show his good-natured side and is clearly shown struggling with his faith rather than corrupted by the opposition. Same goes for the main protagonist, Judah Ben-Hur, who despite being the ultimate religious advocate in this feature is still shown struggling to give up on his morals to make sense of all the wrongdoings that had happened in his life. Still, it would be hard for many non-christian viewers to take the Christian elements of this film so seriously.
Even with its drawbacks relating to its story structure and some of the features performances, Ben-Hur is still an enjoyable enough ride to provide its audience with necessary entertainment and much more analytical viewers with impressive technical filmmaking; even with its tremendous runtime of two hundred and twenty minutes, it doesn't feel stale for even one frame and continues to build it's legacy forward years to come.
Ben-Hur - 60th Anniversary is released November 18, 2019