Ben-Hur revisited

Yesterday, I had the great opportunity to see Ben-Hur on the big screen, not only that, but in its original 70mm glory. That alone was quite an experience, but add in the fact that Ben-Hur is a truly great movie, and it becomes all the better. If you consider Ben-Hur to be a film about Jesus (Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ), then this is the greatest films ever made about Jesus. It tells the story of Judah Ben-Hur, played admirably by Charlton Heston, and his 4-year vendetta against his childhood friend, Messala who is now a Roman tribune. This all leads up to a spectacular chariot race in which the two adversaries duke it out. The chariot race is perhaps the greatest action scene ever filmed, and the fact that it is all real makes it all the more amazing. At nearly four hours in length, it never becomes boring.

My dad has a particular affection for one scene. Aften Messala has falsely sentenced Judah to the galley's, we see him haggared in appearance after years of rowing. One day, the Roman Consul, Arius boards the ships and takes notice of Judah. He tells the rowers, "We keep you alive to serve this ship. Row well and live." After a while, Arius senses something about Judah and his faith in God, and when a battle is about to erupt, he orders Judah's chains to be unlocked. During the battle, the ship begins to sink, so Judah frees the other oarsmen and escapes to above deck. There, he sees Arius, in full armor, knocked overboard. He jumps in and pulls Arius up and onto a piece of floating driftwood just in time to see their ship sink. At this defeat, Arius repeatedly attempts to commit suicide, but Judah will not allow it, "We keep you alive to serve this ship. Row well and live," he repeats to Arius. Soon a Roman ship discovers them and brings them aboard. To his surprise, Arius is informed that the battle was won. It was a great victory. He then turns to Judah and says, "In his eagerness to save you, your God has also saved the Roman fleet." That line has some unexpected depth. At times, God is willing to change the course of the world just to get the attention of one person. In this case, God was attempting to save Judah, but to do that, he saved the entire Roman fleet. It's an amazing concept.

In the end, however, Ben-Hur is a story of redemption and how a man is transformed from bitterness and hatred to love and forgiveness. Despite its length and scope, this film never manages to lose sight of its heroes journey. It's one of those films that represents everything I love about classic Hollywood: action, adventure, drama, amazing sets, cast of thousands, and all around good storytelling. You will probably never see a film like this ever made again. Now, it's just too impractical, expensive, and unfortunately no one wants to show a four hour movie anymore.