HCR Rates The Movies #18: BEN HUR

[DTM]

So, our next film, Classic or Crud, Hit or Miss, what say you ALL?

Our next film open for discussion, and ultimately an Overall RATING by you all:

BEN HUR
8SOT0ofuscU

Let the discussions flow. Likes, dislikes, classic film or overhyped trash, and DONT FORGET to place an Overall Rating when youre done.

Its easy, just give a Rating from 1 (Jaws 4:The Revenge) to 10 (Jaws), and thats it. Course I'd love to have you all give reasons as to why you feel it deserves this Overall Rating, and more than encourage discussions with us all about them.

So, what say you all?

Next Film: ??????

[Inbetweener]

When William Wyler decided to fullfill his dream in creating a masterpiece epic of a film he admired for so long but it had so many technical inhibitions in it's day (talking about the original 1925 version), he didn't pull any punches and delivered what is still to this day considered one of the greatest epic films for it's time...and it is just that. Ben-hur had an enormous cast, set and production altogether and it certainly didn't fall short in it's screenplay and direction. The performances were great as well...Heston got his Oscar here. This film also stands higher than many other epic films because it was innovative and paved the way for so much more freedom and expectations in filmmaking for years to come. In 1959, Ben-hur won almost a dozen academy awards...it was the Lord of the Rings of it's time and anyone who says it's better has a case. When I got my projector and huge screen set up, this and Lawrence of Arabia were soon watched and I enjoyed it more than ever.

Normally, because this is one of those great films that deserves a rating of 10 but doesn't get it because it doesn't hold my intrest as much as a 10 should (my fault, not the film's), I would give this is 9.8 or 9.9...but with the way we are rating here Ben-Hur is a 10.

[Maniac_nmt]

Ben Hur is almost the definition of Epic.

Movies today don't look as good, or carry the same weight. Today when we watch Troy, or Gladiator, we get a bunch of computer generated locales, and people. Ben Hur is all real people, real locations, real costumes, etc. Nothing can quite match the power of thousands of real people in actual stands cheering on the chariot race.

These old classics are almost impossible to duplicate today. The chariot race alone is worth watching this film. Fantastic cinemetography, solid acting, and a great story. Don't get me wrong, I love many modern films, but they lack something old films like this have. You couldn't get by with killer special effects, hordes of battle robots shooting up faceless clones on alien planets. You couldn't generate crowds and costumes with a couple key strokes. You didn't have to have nudity every 5 seconds, or overly gratuitous blood and gore (I mean, yeah we can enjoy it, but still I miss the classics). Actors really carried the film. There's also something to be said for Technicolor, a lot of films today have a washed out quality. Filters used to make it gittier, or grimy. Technicolor just captures the look and feel in whole different ways.

9.9/10 - I've seen this film many times, and I always enjoy it. This, along with the 10 Commandments is Heston's best work. A true, cinema masterpiece, and one that could not be satisfactorily made today.

[Maniac_nmt]

Yar! That should be grittier not gittier. Argh!

[Inbetweener]

Great point about the special effects...it's true. So few films (I was thinking of Troy and Gladiator specifically as well) are seemless in their effects...in other words, when I say "hey that movie had great effects" it means in most cases I acknowledged that I didn't feel it was as real as they wanted it to be. As good a movie as Gladiator is, there are times when I say out loud "wow those effects are so cool" and say in my head at the same time "wow, I guess I didn't buy into that as much as I should have." Very few films can pull CGI off without us actually seeing it's fake. Ben-hur is the quintessential example of just the opposite.

[Maniac_nmt]

I think many modern films have lost that capacity, or the willingness to do it. I mean, once you watch an old film with hundreds/thousands of real people, all dressed in period costume on period sets you won't watch modern films the same way.

10 Commandments, Spartacus, Lawerance of Arabia, Zulu (now there's a film that would never work with CGI Zulus), John Ford Westerns, etc.

Could you watch a John Ford film with CGI skies and deserts? Would Lawerance have ever worked without the best cinemetography of all time? Would we see Gone With The Wind as a classic if we had a steamy nude sex scene (and I'm not a Gone With the Wind fan, but it would not be such a timeless piece)?

There is a look and feel to Ben Hur you just can't replicate today.

[EmperorNorton]

One Easter morning I was up early and Ben Hur was about to be shown on TV.
I watched the opening scenes and then fell asleep for four hours.
I'm not sure if I should base my vote on that.

[Maniac_nmt]

Wow, I can't believe more of us haven't seen and can comment on Ben Hur. Trust me, if you haven't seen it, you should rent it and watch it at least once. It has to make the top 50 films of all time list.

[Gentlegamer]

Ben-Hur, A Story of Christ, is one of the best films ever. As Maniac said, this is a true epic that modern "epics" can't touch.

Rated 10

[Mjolnir]

I rented this once becuase I had to see what the hubub was all about, bub.
Boy am I glad I did. this is a fantastic movie. I'll give it a 9.5 just to be contrarian and also in those crowd scenes I see the bad acting.

I like the movie El Cid with Charlton Heston and a beautiful Sophia Loren and one day I hope they'll put it on DVD so I can add it to my collection but again, my only problem with those older movies are the battle scenes where the extra's are trying their best to swing their swords to meet in the middle and then repeat. maybe I need to watch this again because the last time I saw it was over 10 years ago.


But I'll stand by my 9.5 until I can see it again.

[d_knight7]

8/10, they don't make epics like that any more.

[torontcollectr]

It is without a doubt a great epic film. The first 3 hours are awesome. The spectacle, the themes, the pagentry.

Definately not religious nuts here, but aside from that aspect- the tale of Judah Ben-Hur ranks a solid 9

[deadshot042]

How could they ruin that perfext rating? I've only seen it once but I was on the edge of my couch for all three hours. Every performance, camera angle and line in this film is awesome (in it's real definition of awe-inspiring)!
11/10... wait, I can't do that?
10/10

[Gacy's Clown]

I didn't care much for it, but I had to watch it in 6th grade and hated every minute of it, except the chariot scene.
I'd give it a 2, but then again, I was in 6th grade, so I may appreciate it more now, enough to give it a 7 or 8....:)

[coyotejack]

Ben Hur! Man, they don't make 'em like this any more. Old-School and low-tech by our standards today but it has an epic feel that films today just don't have (with a few exceptions). Great story, great action, great characters.

9.5/10

[the itsy bit]

great epic classic 9.5/10 :classic:

[AlienFlanders]

One of the classics.

In movies Heston was always fun to watch.

9.5/10