Ben-Hur Has "Too Many Notes"

It is hard for me to describe why Ben-Hur (1959) is not one of my favorite movies. It is a great movie, no doubt. But when I think of "Ben-Hur", and I think of why it is not one of my favorite movies, the thought that usually comes to my head is, "Too much greatness in too great a span of time." Yes, you just read that. Too much greatness. I don't quite understand it either, but somehow, it is the case. Just about every moment of this movie is great. But the thing is, when I watch personal favorites such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Amadeus the span of time is short enough for me to be able to comprehend it all. This movie is three and a half hours long. That is really effing long.

I guess that gives a bad name to my level of intellect, or something. Oh well.

"Ben-Hur". This is one awesome, awesome movie. While the plot takes a good number of minutes to get into motion, the movie is riveting through and through, and it is always interesting to watch the evolution of characters' friendships and personalities. Judah Ben-Hur is this dude. He lives in this house with his mother and sister, and there's this chick Esther (whose father lives with them also, as I understand it) who also lives with them. With all of that said, they are a happy family. Judah Ben-Hur has had a happy life, and that is a good thing, especially if you're living in the 25 A.D. era, because back then, most people's lives weren't good. But, to put it quite roughly, at the beginning of our story, Judah Ben-Hur gets screwed. In fact, he doesn't just get screwed. Judah Ben-Hur gets #$%*ed in a very uncomfortable place to get #$%*ed in. Not literally; but very, very figuratively. And it's all because of an opportune decision a tribune (Messala) makes against him after a political disagreement. And getting screwed because of a political disagreement's grudging result is a very, very bad thing to have happen to you. Judah is sent to the galleys (which is where you row a boat on a slave-ship for hours and hours each day). His mother and sister are put at the bottom of a dungeon, which I've heard is a very, very dark place. Judah, having been screwed so badly, vows revenge, and hopes that he will have his vengeance by the time he dies.

That whole first paragraph is, roughly, a good one fourth of the movie. Maybe even a fifth. But we're speaking roughly here, so I guess that doesn't matter too much. Do you know what that means? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? That means this movie has a big, big, biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig, big big big big big B-I-G plot. BIIIIIIIG. B-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-G. Pretty gigantic. Which means that it has, simply put, too much greatness. "Too many notes," to put it another way. But does that means that this movie is not great? No, surely not. Does it means that it does not deserve favoritism? No, surely not! Certainly this movie deserves to be the favorite of a person who has far greater intelligence when compared to myself (and there are plenty of those types of people out there- I'm only in the top 12% of SAT-takers in this country, you know). But it is a big, large, gigantic, voluminous, heavy, well-endowed film (insert as many "big" adjectives as you'd like; they'll all apply).

Let us take a moment to congratulate William Wyler, the wonderful director of this movie. This man is good. Take the film's most popular sequence, the chariot race, for example. This is an intense, crazy, completely insane scene. When Judah's getting whipped by Messala's red whip, and that pict chariot starts to grind into Judah's non-pict chariot, oh man, is that crazy. The whole scene is just excellent- I love it when Pilate names all of the countries running in the chariot race, and the crowd goes strangely wild when Judah's is mentioned. And then, once it's all over, and we see the defeat of some of the racers, it is simply devastating, even if we already hated them before. But an even more intense scene, from my perspective, is where Judah serves in galleys, and Quintus Arrias comes down and makes the slaves row an increasingly speedier pace. Some of them keep going. Others die. Some are whipped for their weakness. It's sheer craziness, and the "dom, dom, dom, dom" hammering of the hammer just makes it moreso.

I like Charlton Heston. I really, really like Charlton Heston. When I watch Bowling for Columbine and I hear of the anti-NRA-activists in the audience snarling at him when he says, "YOU CAN PRY IT FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS!", I can't help but smile. I'd love to see the guy have some glorious sort of death where all of these anti-gun people try to take his gun from him, and he just attempts shooting them down until they finally take it (and kill him by beating his brains out). Yes, that would be a pretty effed-up death for Heston to die. But, I think it'd be suitable (not that I'm hoping for it or anything; just saying). Anyway, Heston is his great in this movie. He is right on tact with his deliveries, and when he pretty much tells Messala, "YOU CAN SHOVE THAT ANTI-SEMITIC OFFER RIGHT DOWN YOUR THROAT!", it's pretty friggin' sweet. He is very much a hero to cheer for, even in the few instances where it almost seems as if he's going in the wrong direction. But then we get around to Stephen Boyd, as Messala- Stephen Boyd is good. He's killer good. At his final scene, (spoiler!) when he's struggling for life, and all seems lost, the final words he gets out truly show his skills as an actor, and they give even more dimension to the film's emotional depth (end spoiler!).

But, sadly, when you get down to it, this movie really has "too many notes." Oh sure, it's great and everything, but really... it's too great. Too great for words. Too great for comprehension. It ranks pretty well on AFI's Greatest Movies of all time, and it's up there for a reason. I do hope that in my older age I'll be able to comprehend its greatness more, but I suspect that my maturity is starting to reach it's maximum, so I'm not too sure if that will happen. But this movie is about hope, and because of that, I do have hope in that I will be able to fully appreciate it. Heh.

Rating: A+