Ben-Hur (1959)

First of all, I want to apologize for our lack of posts!  We actually watched Ben-Hur in Easter and we are just posting it now!  Ahh! As an update, since our last post, Tim finished out his school year AND Katie got a new job.  Tim has kicked Katie out of her non-blogging funk and we are jumpstarting this blog! 

Ben-Hur follows the story of a Jewish prince whom is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend. He regains his freedom and comes back for revenge in the time of Jesus Christ.  

Ok, I love this movie.  This movie is baller.  First of all, it really is an EPIC film.  The screenplay is brilliant.  It focuses on the life of Judah Ben-Hur and throughout his whole life, his story is entwined with Jesus Christ.  The film shows the plight of those who seek revenge and what is most important.  The film score, which I find to be very fitting and inspiring, was done by Miklós Rózsa in eight weeks.  As part of our family tradition, we usually have it playing in the background during Easter.  We start watching it as a family but my brothers usually don't make the whole movie... I mean, who can blame them? It's long- BUT it's SO worth it.  It was nice to introduce Tim to this little mini-tradition.  It was mostly just us watching it as brothers, parents, and grandparents came in for half hour stints.  It was nice to be back in Minnesota for Easter. :)

I was prepped for a real butt-numbing with the famously long runtime of this film (212 minutes!) but I wasn’t as ready for how incredible this movie is.  Sure, I have seen it before but I only remembered it in disconnected snippets and may have never seen the whole thing in one sitting. Following through on a minor tradition of Katie’s, we watched this film on Easter Sunday at her parent’s house while on vacation. Everything comes together in a film that truly deserves the overused term “epic” and there is not a minute from the 212 that I would want moved or rearranged. The story of Ben-Hur trying to gain his freedom and reconnect with his wife and mother lays the foundation for virtually every historical epic since (especially those of Ridley Scott; Ben-Hur is basically the blueprint for Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven) and the parallel telling of the story of Christ brings real gravitas and weight to an already deep story. Including sets and locations that are still impressive, action scenes that are sure to increase your heart rate (the chariot race is still one of the best scenes of its kind) and perhaps the greatest musical score of its time, Ben-Hur is a spectacular experience that even outclasses Gone With the Wind. If you have the time and patience for it, you owe it to yourself to experience this film… just make sure you’ve got plenty to drink and a bathroom break or two. 

Three lifelike dummies were placed at key points in the chariot race to give the appearance of men being run over by the chariots. The best of these was the stand-in dummy for Stephen Boyd's character that gets tangled up under the horses hooves and gets trampled to death. This resulted in a realistic death sequence that shocked the theater audiences of the time, and spawned an urban legend that this was a real death.  Only one stunt man was seriously hurt in the filming of the chariot race.  

Quintus Arrius: In his eagerness to save you, your God has also saved the Roman fleet.