After his boyhood friend Messala's fanatic loyalty to Rome makes
him a powerful enemy, Judah Ben-Hur is found guilty of an
attempted murder he did not commit. His family is banished and he
is enslaved on a warship. Through his ferocity in a raging sea
battle, he is able to escape and become a horse trainer. To exact
his revenge, Ben-Hur decides to compete against Messala in the
Roman chariot races. They race, locked in a battle to the death.
Barely surviving, Ben-Hur forsakes the sword for Christ and
finally finds redemption. Winner of a record 11 Academy Award,
including Best Picture and Actor (Charlton Heston).
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Ben-Hur scooped an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards® in 1959 and,
unlike some later rivals, richly deserved every single one. This
is epic filmmaking on a scale that had not been seen before and
is unlikely ever to be seen again. But it's not just running time
or a cast of thousands that makes an epic, it's the subject
matter, and here the subject--Prince Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton
Heston) and his estrangement from old Roman pal Messala (Stephen
Boyd)--is rich, detailed, and sensitively handled. Director
William Wyler, who had been a junior assistant on MGM's original
silent version back in 1925, never sacrifices the human focus of
the story in favor of spectacle, and is aided immeasurably by
Miklos Rozsa's majestic musical score, arguably the greatest ever
written for a Hollywood picture. At four hours it's a long haul
(especially given some of the portentous dialogue), but all in
all, Ben-Hur is a great movie, best seen on the biggest screen
possible. --Mark Walker
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Additional Features
-------------------
This long-awaited release presents a glorious anamorphic print
complete with a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack spread
over both sides of a double-sided disc. The music sounds fresher
than ever, and both the theatrical overture and entr'acte are
included. There's an extensive and enjoyable documentary tracing
the history of the story by Lew Wallace through stage productions
to the first MGM version in 1925 and then to the 1959 production.
Charlton Heston provides an intermittent commentary, evidently
enjoying the experience of watching the movie again, and his
comments are usefully indexed so you can skip to the next bit
without having to sit through chunks of silence. (During the
chariot race he voiced his concern to second-unit director Yakima
Canutt that the stuntmen were better drivers. Replied Canutt:
"Chuck, just drive the damn chariot and I guarantee that you'll
win.") Also included are a couple of screen tests, one with
Leslie Nielsen in pre-Naked Gun days as Messala. A photo gallery
and theatrical trailers complete an epic DVD package. --Mark
Walker
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