Ben-Hur

Over several weeks, Dave and I watched various segments of the epic film, Ben-Hur. We had to watch it in segments because it is LONG! It's 3 hours and 32 minutes long. I'll give a summary in this post, but a longer synopsis can be found here.

It wasn't until after I watched the movie that I found out that it was subtitled "A Tale of the Christ." I knew that the movie was famous for the chariot race scene and that it had Charlton Heston in it, but that's about all I knew. So I was surprised to see as much religion in it as it had. The movie details the life of Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston), a Jewish prince in Jerusalem under Roman rule. His life is paralleled by certain events in the life of Christ that influence Ben-Hur. He is falsely accused by the Roman tribune who was his childhood friend, and spends the rest of the movie trying to get revenge from him and from the Romans who enslave his people. But his heart is eventually softened by the teachings of Christ which are told to him by the woman he loves.

I've seen Charlton Heston in some pretty funky roles. Can anyone say Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes? Or Detective Thorn in Soylent Green? But I really liked him in his role as Judah Ben-Hur. He is such an intense actor, and this was one of his most well known roles. The movie won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and it won the Oscar for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it!