Biblical epics can often be very stuffy and overwrought. I feel like it makes the film more accessible to nonChristians while Christians can infer what the wish. I rather enjoyed how the Christian themes are restrained-You never see Christ’s face, you only hear what he says second hand etc.-it makes the film feel about Jesus of Nazareth and not necessarily Jesus Christ. It is nearly 4 hours long but it is a fully fleshed out epic that engages the entire time. The story is richer, deeper and more personal as a result. There is clearly an emotional intimacy between the two. The erotic element is present if one cares to look but it is not needed. While it it is really easy to read an erotic love (especially on Messala’s part) between the two it is clear that spiritual love is present in anycase.
I think to dwell on that is to sort of miss the point. There is a famous dispute between Wyler and Vidal about how much of the Judah-Messala relationship was intended to have a subtext of a gay jilted lovers. Because we have seen them expressing deep kinship and spiritual love. But the sequence is filled with meaning because the film spends so much time building up the personal relationship between Judah and Messala their hatred for each other displayed in the chariot race is alive and bitter. There is nothing like simply seeing a chariot race unfold by actually filming a group a chariots. It is stunning, electric, tense and the so very exciting. Undoubtedly, that is the most famous sequence and for good reason. Review: This film is so much more than the chariot race. But Judah swears to come back and take revenge. Although Messala knows they are not guilty, he sends Judah to the galleys and throws his mother and sister into prison. During the welcome parade a roof tile falls down from Judah’s house and injures the governor.
At first they are happy to meet after a long time but their different politic views separate them. Together with the new governor his old friend Messala arrives as commanding officer of the Roman legions. Synopsis: Judah Ben-Hur lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. Film directed in 1959 by William Wyler, and starring Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet, Cathy O’Donnell…
0 kommentar(er)
