Where the industry now embraces the trend of "too big to fail" superhero blockbusters, there was a point in Hollywood history where sprawling religious epics were the big ticket item, with "Ben-Hur" enduring as one of the most successful of its kind. It would be over 38 years until "Titanic," followed by "The Return of the King," would break the unprecedented Oscar streak set by William Wyler's 1959 epic, which took home 11 Academy Awards in one night.
Based on General Lew Wallace's 1880 novel of the same name, "Ben-Hur" stars former Hollywood megastar Charlton Heston as the affluent Jewish prince who is thrust on an epic journey of faith, friendship, and betrayal after his best friend Messala (Stephen Boyd) imprisons him for speaking ill against the Roman Empire.
Clocking in at over three and a half hours, "Ben-Hur" is as much an acting showcase as it is a spectacular display of scope.
Based on General Lew Wallace's 1880 novel of the same name, "Ben-Hur" stars former Hollywood megastar Charlton Heston as the affluent Jewish prince who is thrust on an epic journey of faith, friendship, and betrayal after his best friend Messala (Stephen Boyd) imprisons him for speaking ill against the Roman Empire.
Clocking in at over three and a half hours, "Ben-Hur" is as much an acting showcase as it is a spectacular display of scope.
- 9/19/2022
- by Matthew Bilodeau
- Slash Film
Jeanne Crain: Lighthearted movies vs. real life tragedies (photo: Madeleine Carroll and Jeanne Crain in ‘The Fan’) (See also: "Jeanne Crain: From ‘Pinky’ Inanity to ‘Margie’ Magic.") Unlike her characters in Margie, Home in Indiana, State Fair, Centennial Summer, The Fan, and Cheaper by the Dozen (and its sequel, Belles on Their Toes), or even in the more complex A Letter to Three Wives and People Will Talk, Jeanne Crain didn’t find a romantic Happy Ending in real life. In the mid-’50s, Crain accused her husband, former minor actor Paul Brooks aka Paul Brinkman, of infidelity, of living off her earnings, and of brutally beating her. The couple reportedly were never divorced because of their Catholic faith. (And at least in the ’60s, unlike the humanistic, progressive-thinking Margie, Crain was a “conservative” Republican who supported Richard Nixon.) In the early ’90s, she lost two of her...
- 8/26/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The chariot race remains one of the most stunning action sequences ever shot, but William Wyler's epic of first-century Judaea puts spectacle before specifics
Director: William Wyler
Entertainment grade: B–
History grade: C
During the first century Ad, the Roman empire took control of the Mediterranean. The eastern province of Judaea was ruled by prefects Valerius Gratus from 15-26Ad and Pontius Pilate from 26-36Ad.
Religion
Lew Wallace, previously a general in the American civil war, wrote his epic Ben-Hur in 1880, when he was governor of New Mexico territory. To the modern reader its appeal may be difficult to unlock, but Wallace's pious, turgid and contrived novel was a massive 19th-century bestseller. Despite the subtitle, A Tale of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth is an incidental character. The film's director, William Wyler, avoids showing his face. "The Christian world would not tolerate a novel with Jesus Christ its hero,...
Director: William Wyler
Entertainment grade: B–
History grade: C
During the first century Ad, the Roman empire took control of the Mediterranean. The eastern province of Judaea was ruled by prefects Valerius Gratus from 15-26Ad and Pontius Pilate from 26-36Ad.
Religion
Lew Wallace, previously a general in the American civil war, wrote his epic Ben-Hur in 1880, when he was governor of New Mexico territory. To the modern reader its appeal may be difficult to unlock, but Wallace's pious, turgid and contrived novel was a massive 19th-century bestseller. Despite the subtitle, A Tale of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth is an incidental character. The film's director, William Wyler, avoids showing his face. "The Christian world would not tolerate a novel with Jesus Christ its hero,...
- 12/22/2011
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
In 1993, audiences gazing on the truly imposing sight of dinosaurs come to life in Jurassic Park felt the same sense of jaw-dropping awe displayed by the movie’s human characters. Nothing in movie history could compare to what Steven Spielberg and his CGI crew were able to put on the screen: not the herky-jerky stop-motion-animated lizards of 1950s monster-on-the-loose movies like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), nor the pet store lizards made up to look like supposedly threatening beasts in Irwin Allen’s back lot The Lost World (1960), and certainly not a man in a rubber reptile suit rampaging through a miniature Tokyo in the original Godzilla (1954). But as impressive a sight as it was, once the novelty of Jurassic’s CGI creations wore off, so did some of their appeal.
Jurassic Park earned a whopping $350.5 million domestic gross, and while its sequels were, without question, major box office successes, none...
Jurassic Park earned a whopping $350.5 million domestic gross, and while its sequels were, without question, major box office successes, none...
- 1/2/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
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