Ben-Hur, the 1959 cinematic epic, is widely regarded as one
of the greatest films ever made. It is also three-and-a-half hours long, so
between my disliking of overlong cinema and general attention span issues in
general, I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet and I’m not even sure if I
will. Yeah, I may do my background research where I can, but even I have
limits. Not to say that I haven’t seen bits of it over time, just never in its
entirety. As such, I’ll be going into this as most young filmgoers of today
would and take this as its own work. So, now that it doesn’t exactly have a
pre-existing impression of the story to live up to, how is it?
The plot: Judean prince Judah (Jack Huston) has had a strong bond with his adoptive brother Messala (Toby Kebbell) since they were kids. However, cultural identities cause them to start drifting apart and, after an altercation during a visit from a Roman dignitary, Messala sentences Judah to slavery for a crime he didn’t commit. Five years later, Judah returns to Jerusalem to get his revenge against Messala, and not being able to get close enough to him normally, he sets up to go against his brother in a chariot race in the Roman circus to regain his honour by stripping Messala of his.
The cast list here is pretty decent, especially considering
their recent output has been less than impressive. Huston imbues Judah with a
certain affable and peaceful quality that, while initially making him out to be
a bit of a beatnik, allows for a good contrast once he enters full
bloody-minded vengeance mode. Kebbell, considering how his last antagonistic role turned out, adds some real humanity to the character and his chemistry
with Huston is very good. Honestly, if this whole film was them just slinging
playful but clever barbs at each other, I would be more than happy. Morgan
Freeman as Judah’s later confidante Sheik Ilderim, while going for a more morally
ambiguous role than we usually see of Freeman, gives what is essentially a
once-removed older mentor role the right amount of charisma to make it work. I’m
mention others in the cast, but quite frankly, I can barely remember any of
them aside from these three. Yeah, even for someone who likes taking time out
to highlight the smaller players, the supporting cast isn’t that noteworthy.
The film starts out setting up a decent conflict between
Judah and Messala, kind of like a live-action Prince Of Egypt in togas, but it
honestly comes across like Judah is the one at fault because he keeps making
rash and pretty dumb decisions, not thinking of who else will be hurt in the
process. He’s so bloody-minded about getting his personal revenge for what his
brother did to him (after he lied to him to make him do it) that the whole deal
involving how the Romans basically enslaved the Jews doesn’t even fall into
consideration. That lack of religious importance for the most part makes the Jesus
interludes, played nicely low-key by Rodrigo Santoro, feel really jarring as a
result. The fact that Jesus is an actual character here, in comparison to how
weak Judah is, it’s start to feel less like a Roman epic and more like a
dramatic remake of Life Of Brian.
Actually, more than anything else, this is a quick re-write
away from just another clone of the original Fast & The Furious. Man
betrayed by close friend, has to race him in a public arena to strip him of his
pride and defeat him; heck, add 80’s sports movie to that as well, given the
older mentor role of Sheik Ildarim who trains Judah for the finale sporting
event. Now again, since I haven’t watched any of the past versions of this story
in full, I can’t make any real guesses as to how similar this is to any of
them. But at the same time, I just have
to imagine that they didn’t go this route because, quite frankly, I doubt that
a story this tropey would make the stuff of film legend.
And within all of those younger film aesthetics, the story
loses its identity. I may not have seen the 1959 version in full, but I’ve seen
enough of it to know of the genuinely epic scope that its production allowed
it. Here, that same potential is just sent through the generic blockbuster
wringer and we get something closer to the 2003 animated version in terms of
making something so immense feel so small and unimportant. No worse is that
felt than in the climactic chariot race, where the effects work makes it
difficult to invest in. Not just because it’s CGI, but because the filmmakers
tried to film this at the actual Circus Maximus in Rome, and then were rejected
and just went straight to the soundstage. I refuse to believe that the
directors thinks that these are the next best thing to the real location.
All in all, just going by its own merits, this is a film
that feels stripped of a deeper meaning for the sake of including
self-righteous power fantasy. The acting is fine considering the characters
they’ve been given, and the start has a bit of promise but then it proceeds
with the mass homogenisation to make it just a standard sports racing movie
wrapped around 10 Minutes A Slave, which kind of makes sense considering this
shares a writer with 12 Years A Slave.
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