Starring: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O’Donnell, Sam Jaffe
Written By: Karl Tunberg
Directed By: William Wyler
Studio: Warner Bros
The religious epic Ben-Hur is available on 4K UHD for the first time, and it looks fantastic. The picture quality is colorful and saturated, and you even have to watch it on two discs since the movie is freakishly long. The film is worth watching just for the chariot race alone.
Ben-Hur is a remake of a silent film from the 1920s, but it is based on Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace. The movie follows Judah Ben-Hur (Charles Heston), a member of the Jewish nobility living in Jerusalem. He lives a religious life and peacefully opposes the Roman occupation of Judea. His boyhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd), returns to the region as a Roman official, and the two become estranged because of their opposing views. Messala fabricates a charge of treason against Ben-Hur, and his sister and mother are arrested by Roman soldiers.
I had never seen Ben-Hur before and did not even realize how religious it was. For the most part, it is about Ben-Hur seeking revenge on his former Roman friend, so it feels like a The Count of Monte Cristo inspired story. Then they cameo a compassionate carpenter, and it becomes more overtly biblical. To me, putting Jesus in this seems forced but what the hell do I know. For a movie made in the late 1950s, this is an impressive production, and you can tell how much effort went into making it. It is no wonder it won 11 Academy Awards at the Academy Awards.
I had only seen brief clips of the infamous chariot race before, but it is incredible to watch and still holds up as entertaining today as it must have been for audiences at the time. The stunt work, the massive number of extras, and even the matte paintings still look great, and the 4K presentation really highlights why it earned so much recognition. The final part of the film is when it becomes more explicitly biblical, and that section felt slower and less engaging for me since I am not religious.
The 4K release includes two new featurettes, while the rest of the extras are carried over from previous editions. The new featurettes are fairly short, so the main reason to upgrade is to experience the film in 4K.
Ben-Hur is truly an epic, in a category of its own alongside films like Gladiator, Dances with Wolves, Citizen Kane, The Ten Commandments, and Braveheart. While it is long and slow at times, it remains a fascinating movie that can still captivate new audiences who have never seen it before, like me.
Features:
Ben-Hur: Anatomy of an Epic (NEW)
The Cinematography of Scale (NEW)
Charlton Heston & Ben-Hur: A Personal Journey
Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic
Ben-Hur: A Journey Through Pictures
Screen Tests: George Baker and William Russell
Screen Tests: Leslie Nielsen and Cesare Danova
Screen Tests: Leslie Nielsen and Yale Wexler
Screen Tests: Haya Harareet and Make-Up Test
Commentary by Film Historian T. Gene Hatcher with Charlton Heston (2 Parts)
Music Only Track Showcasing Mikos Rózsa’s Award-Winning Score (2 Parts)
Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.76:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.75:1
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Note: DTS-MA 5.1=5.0
Audio descriptive
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish
Bottom Line: Incredible long epic and worth watching just for the chariot race
Running Time: 222 mins
Rating: G
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: