Dec. 05, 2002 - 6:06 pm
this finishes up my group of 5 films for this week that i nabbed from the IMDb list. this one today is number 109 on that list. it's also a best picture winner and one of the two most honored films of all time at the Oscars. it won 11 Oscars total. the only other film to do that has been Titanic (1997).
when the film begins, there's some sort of message telling us that it's "a tale of the christ." well, for the most part, it's not really about that. although the events do take place concurrently. it's basically about how Roman rule destroyed the life of one man, by corrupting one of his oldest friends. his friend became a high official for the empire, while he remained in Judea prospering as a businessman. but when his friend returned to Judea to aid in governing the area, he asks Judah Ben-Hur to inform on his own people. when he refuses, the old friend Messala lets Judah be imprisoned falsely. the rest of the film tells of how he rises again seeking revenge on Messala and Rome for what they have done to him. and then of course there's the awesome chariot race at the end.
really good movie overall. of course it's one of those huge productions from this era, so it has the overture, entracte, etc. i chose to fastforward through those this time, but i don't always do that with these types of films. i think this is also probably the best Charlton Heston film i can think of.
but like i said, the whole Jesus presence is not really felt very much until the last half hour or so of the movie. it's a pretty big deal at that point, but the rest of it is just sort of a "one man's struggle" story. and for it to be nearly 4 hours long, that's a lot of no Jesus to have that note placed at the beginning. anyway, it was very well made and the cinematography was ten times better than that in The Ten Commandments (1956). the acting, direction, and writing was much much better as well. which is why it gets a better rating from me.
oh and i also watched The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) again this evening. everyone should purchase a copy as i did.