Respond to these rapid questions in our Ben Hur quiz and we will tell you which Ben Hur character you are. Play it now.
The film “Ben-Hur,” which was directed by Timur Bekmambetov and was based on a screenplay written by Keith R. Clarke and John Ridley, is, if nothing else, a masterpiece of compression. The illustrious version of the saga that was released in 1959 and was once known as the film with the most Oscars awarded to it ran for almost four hours. Even though it wasn’t a marathon, the silent version clocked in at about two hours and twenty minutes, making it significantly longer than most films of its era. On the other hand, this film accomplishes everything it sets out to do in pretty much exactly two hours.
I found the brevity of this quasi-Biblical epic to be oddly invigorating, and that was just one of the reasons. This version of the strange novel concocted by Union Army General Lew Wallace in 1880 (a warrior’s apologia for Christianity that surpassed 1852’s previous record holder “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” on the best-seller lists) begins as Judah Ben-Hur (played by a steely Jack Huston) and his onetime friend Messala (played by Toby Kebbell) are competing in a chariot race against each The chariot race that takes place in the 1959 film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd serves as the film’s climactic event. Talk about getting things off to a good start! We then flashback, after a few expositional points in narration from Morgan Freeman (who, fear not, is also a character in the picture), to Judah Ben-noble Hur’s household in Jerusalem eight years earlier, and see Judah and his Roman adopted brother Messala (note the slight change in relations) riding horses together carefree, until an accident places Judah in the care of his friend. However, the scene is just a preview, so there is nothing to worry about It’s more of a one-step-forward, one-step-back moment, but it pays off in a big way further on.
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Ben Hur Quiz
This movie was produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, who have parlayed Burnett’s success with reality television into a production company dedicated to making films with overtly religious themes. The subtitle of Wallace’s novel was “A Tale of the Christ,” and the movie was produced by Burnett and Downey. Because of this, the most recent adaptation of “Ben-Hur” features Christ more prominently than any of the others. And the conversation is filled with a lot of deep thinking. At one point, a character opines, “You confuse peace with freedom,” and at another point, the ideal of a “civilized world; progress, prosperity, and stability” is proffered, which sounds like a setup for a takedown of secular humanism. Both of these statements are made by characters in the story. When Jesus (Rodrigo Santoro) is first seen, he is working on a piece of wood, and he is overhearing a conversation between Judah and his wife Esther (Nazanin Boniadi), who will later become a Christian. Jesus whispers to them, “Love your enemies.” “Love your enemies? “That’s very forward-thinking,” Judah retorts in response. Soon, when he’s been dragged away from his house and family and forced to work as a slave on a galley ship, he’ll have the chance to change his mind about those words.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Ben Hur quiz.
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There is a clear influence from Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which was criticized for (among other things) having the Apostles talk like they’d just hopped off the IRT. The characters all speak in a completely contemporary tone, which shows that there is an influence from that film. What do you know? As it turns out, this is not a problem that requires a lot of attention. Once the action gets going for real, it improves quite a bit, which is a positive aspect of the situation. The sea battle in which Judah makes his escape is a really impressive bit of action moviemaking. It is one of those scenes that makes you have to let out a sigh of relief when it is finally over. It is frantic and loud, but it is not particularly over-the-top, which is unusual for a Bekmambetov film. There is a lot of violent behavior in the film, but its depiction of that behavior is relatively restrained. This is another first for the film’s director, whose previous work, such as “Night Watch,” “Day Watch,” and the terrible “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” lacked a lot of positive qualities, nuance being one of the more significant ones. The film is also unusual because of the relatively restrained violence. There is a lot of violent behavior in the film, but its I have to give credit to Burnett and Downey for this; it is obvious that they had the intention of making the movie as “family-friendly” as it is possible to be. The chariot race is also completely watchable and makes sense; there are no broken bones, despite the fact that many of them could have been broken. The lead actors, Huston and Kebbell, both do very credible work; however, in the earliest iteration of Judah Ben-Hur, Huston does look a little bit like Jimmy Fallon doing Barry Gibb. Kebbell, on the other hand, looks more like the real Barry Gibb. And there are times when Huston and Kebbell look like they could just as easily leave the set and go see Sleaford Mods while they’re hanging out with each other, which is hilarious.
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Does the film make significant changes to both the original story as well as the version that became the most well-known of its kind? It most certainly is the case. However, I highly doubt that a significant number of today’s viewers regard either of those as scripture. It turns out that this “Ben-Hur” is not only of its time and for its time, but also a little bit better than its time. I am not in a position to comment on whether or not it is an effective delivery system for the Christian message that it contains, but I do believe that I am able to credibly proclaim that it is a good popcorn movie.
For more personality quizzes check this: Hell Or High Water Quiz.
