Film Review: Ben-Hur (1959)

“Epic” is the word that is, for most people, associated with films. This could be dated to 1950s, when Hollywood, faced with existential threat of emerging medium of television, tried to provide audiences with colour, new exciting picture formats, visual splendour, spectacle and other things that couldn’t be enjoyed as black-and-white images on tiny television sets. The result of those efforts was the series of “larger-than-life” films, many of which would leave lasting imprint on the history of cinema and become the part of popular culture. The largest and most successful of them was Ben-Hur, 1959 film directed by William Wyler.

It is based on Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, 1880 novel by American general and politician Lew Wallace. Film begins with prologue that depicts visit of three Magi to a baby that would later become known as Jesus Christ. Plot continues in Jerusalem in year 26 AD, when Judaea was under increasingly oppressive rule of Roman Empire. Protagonist, played by Charlton Heston, is Judah Ben-Hur, Jewish prince and wealthy merchant who is visited by Messala (played by Stephen Boyd), Roman who used to be his good childhood friend. Their friendship becomes strained when Messala, recently appointed as a military commander, demands Judah to betray his countrymen who might have spoken or acted against Roman rule, which Judah refuses to do. When stray tile from Judah’s home accidentally falls off during Roman parade and nearly kills governor, Messala uses this an excuse to arrest Judah and his family. Although his knows that his friend was innocent, he condemns him to slavery, while Judah’s mother Miriam (played by Martha Scott) and sister Tirzah (played by Cathy O’Donnell) are taken away. Judah is brought to Roman galley where he would be forced to serve as oarsman. His physical strength and defiant attitude would bring attention of Roman consul and naval commander Quintus Arrius (played by Jack Hawkins). When his ship gets sunk during battle with Macedonian pirates, Judah saves Arrius’ life. Despite the loss of his ship, Arrius’ fleet wins the battle and Arrius returns to Rome in triumph and expresses gratitude to Judah by adopting him as his son, giving him freedom, wealth and opportunity to train and become expert charioteer. After few years he decides to return to Judaea to reunite with his family. Esther (played by Haya Harareet), daughter of his family’s loyal servant Simonides (played by Sam Jaffee), discovers that both women contracted leprosy during imprisonment and were later banished from the city. In order to spare him from pain, Esther tells that both women died. That infuriates Judah who decide to get his revenge by competing against Messala in chariot race, during which he would drive quadriga provided by Arab sheikh Ildirim (played by Hugh Griffin).

Wallace’s novel, just like the film, was huge hit and became the most successful and most popular piece of American literature of 19th Century. It immediately brought attention of playwrights and, later, the emerging medium of motion pictures, resulting in two adaptations in silent era – short 1907 film and much longer 1925 version starring Ramon Novarro, which became the most expensive and most spectacular silent film ever made. The remake, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, one of the most celebrated studios of Classic Hollywood, was intended to tell this story not only by adding sound and bright colours, but also by providing spectacle the audience haven’t got opportunity to experience before. No expense was spared and new version of Ben-Hur became the most expensive film made by that point in history. Those huge resources are quite visible in the screen, but also a great effort to reconstruct worlds of ancient Rome and Judea as realistically as possible. Lacking CGI, modern special effects and other tools makers of such epic films today take for granted, producers had to use old school methods. It involved building immensely huge sets and employing tens of thousands of extras during mass scenes. The result was still impressive today and it could only be imagined how impressive it was for the audience six decades ago.

A lot of credit for that should go to William Wyler, one of the most respected and successful directors of Classic Hollywood. As a film maker whose previous hits were relatively low-key dramas like Mrs. Miniver or The Best Years of Our Lives, he might have looked like unusual choice for the project of such ambition and scale. But Wyler met this challenge admirably, handling huge resources at his disposal with great skill during the long and gruelling shoot that involved concerns of studio executives over ballooning budget and death of producer Stephen Zimbalist from heart attack. Wyler employs wide shots to stage nearly perfect scenes and give truly epic scope to the story. He was aided by good cinematographer Robert L. Surtees and veteran composer Miklos Rozsa whose score for the film was, like the film itself, longest in the history of cinema and later had huge influence on future authors of film music. Wyler also had great help in Andrew Marton and Yakima Cannut who directed famous chariot race sequence, one of the most famous and celebrated action scenes in history of cinema. The scene, which, somewhat unusually, doesn’t feature any music, was a mini-spectacle in itself, made on one of the most spectacular sets ever built and shot with the help of enormously talented and brave stuntmen, including Cannut’s son John, who received minor injury in a shot that would be ultimately included in the film. The scene itself represents Hollywood film making at its best and was enough Ben-Hur into undisputed classic, even if the rest of the film didn’t meet its high standards.

While the images and sounds were awe-inspiring, it was quite different story with the script. Original author Karl Thurnberg (who was the only writer officially credited) had first version not to Wyler’s liking and by the end of the production few more writers were hired – S. N. Behrman, Maxwell Anderson, Gore Vidal and Christopher Fry. The result of so many conflicting inputs into the screenplay, like in so many Hollywood productions, reflected on the general quality. The scriptwriters had difficult task, though. Like in so many Hollywood biblical epics, they had to manoeuvre between displaying splendour of ancient tyranny and decadence with strong moralistic stance in line with teachings of the Bible. This approach, which served Hollywood very well in first half of 20th Century, when the new medium had to win hearts and minds of religious conservatives, results in films occassionally losing its focus. Ben-Hur can be described as the classic adventure story very much like a The Count of Monte Cristo. Its protagonist is a man who has everything, loses everything, hits rock bottom but rises due to happy circumstances and gets his revenge. But, at the same time, Ben-Hur is also supposed to be unquestionably Christian film that promotes values of humility and pacifism. Wyler tries to solve this problem by intertwining general plot with scenes depicting Jesus (played by opera singer Claude Heater in uncredited role), who is depicted as truly larger-than-life figure in ingenious and effective way. The audience never sees his face, but his presence is shown through the reactions of other people, including protagonist. Those scenes are powerful, but in a way, become something of a distraction and the last thirty minutes, that feature protagonist’s interactions with Jesus before Crucifixion might make this film slow, especially for today’s audience and those who are familiar with Bible and have some what would happen.

Role of Judah Ben-Hur is often considered the most successful in the career of Charlton Heston, an actor who became something of the specialist for biblical and historical epics, following his role of Moses in Ten Commandments few years earlier. In this film Heston looks the part and uses his physique both to create charismatic presence and serve as credible protagonist in action scenes. Although he won Oscar, this isn’t the best performance in his career. This is partly because his character isn’t as complex as some of the characters he would play later, and partly because his skills at this point lacked proper range. This becomes evident during the short scenes featuring Stephen Boyd as his friend turned into mortal enemy. Boyd is much more energetic and believable in his role, and his performance allowed space for much more interpretations, the most notable being Gore Vidal’s (in)famous claim in 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet that he had written character of Messala as Judah’s former gay lover, and which created a lot of controversies, denials and debate that lasts to this day. There weren’t any such attention to the film’s main female role of Esther, mostly because obligatory romantic subplot looked somewhat redundant and partly because Heston lacked proper chemistry with Israeli actress Haya Harareet. The more memorable is the character of Sheikh Ildirim, played by Welsh actor Hugh Griffin, who serves as something of a comic relief. In today’s climate, Arab character played by white actor in dark makeup as offensive, but, on the other hand, even today, in the context of unending Arab-Israeli conflict, it is refreshing to see Jewish and Arab character being part of the same team, which underlines the novel’s and film’s message of universal brotherhood.

Despite some of the shortcomings, including its excessive length that might deter today’s less patient viewers, as well as some of too preachy and wooden dialogues, Ben-Hur is a still very good film. It became commercially most successful film after Gone with the Wind and its impressive box office success was followed by absolute triumph at the Oscars, when it won total of eleven statues, establishing record that won’t be matched until Titanic and Return of the King. Many might argue that such achievement is undeserved, but most of those that are patient enough to watch are likely to appreciate as a stellar example of films Hollywood doesn’t make any more.

(Note: Film’s Christian theme didn’t sit well with certain countries, like in Muslim Lybia which refused to provide locations to producers, or Communist countries, like Yugoslavia, whose official ideology was state atheism. In the latter, only shortened version, which edited out all references to Jesus and Christianity, was available for many decades. Citizens of Yugoslavia, including the author of this review, gained opportunity to watch integral version in cinemas only in 1980s. Many of its film critics, while happy about censorship being lifted, found 1950s Hollywood spectacle dated and somewhat underwhelming in the age of Lucas and Spielberg. That might explain why Ben-Hur doesn’t have an universal appeal and legacy its creators hoped to achieve.)

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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