directed by: William Wyler
written by: Karl Tunberg + Lew Wallace (book)
starring: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd
comment: 11th February, 2016
Even if I didn't have a brain of my own at all, there's still one gigantic reason why this film would never, never feel serious to me, and that is Monty Python's Life of Brian, of course. Another rather alienating fact is that Fellini was making his La Dolce vita at the same time as Wyler was shooting this "opus magnum". It isn't one of my favourite films and it isn't even set in the same millennium as Ben-Hur, but looking at the two and comparing the work with actors, with mise-en-scène and with basically everything, it's very much obvious which film became obsolete and which one paved the way for modern (or post-modern, should I say) cinema.
I consider Judah's bitter sarcasm to be the most impressive message/abstract of Ben-Hur, since his deliverance/salvation seems unconvincing to me. But it is entirely possible and even probable that I just/simply don't understad the subject matter.
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