Ben-Hur
starring Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell, Nazanin Boniadi, Haluk Bilginer and Rodrigo Santoro
written by Keith Clarke and John Ridely
directed by Timur Bechmanbetov
Rating: ♦◊◊◊◊
Another film adaptation of the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, by Lew Wallace. Film adaptations include a 1907 silent film (directed by Sidney Olcott); a 1925 silent film (directed by Fred Niblo); the famous 1959 Academy Award-winning version featuring Charlton Heston (directed by William Wyler); and the 2010 Canadian TV mini-series (directed by Steve Shill), which I watched and mistook for a BBC miniseries. I keep looking for a re-make to match the 1959 classic. If that was the intention of the 2010 Canadian production, or this newest version directed by Timur Behmanbetov then they fail badly. I rented this one specifically because Morgan Freeman is in it, so I hoped it would rise to the level of his talent and reputation, and be better than the last one I watched (the Steve Schill version). Too bad. What is it? To challenge the magnificence of Charlton Heston’s version would require a fantastically large budget, and maybe that is dissuading movie studios. But without that kind of commitment all these re-makes unavoidably have a made-for-TV appearance and quality to them, which is not what I want. If anyone is interested in Ben-Hur I recommend reading the book and watching William Wyler’s 1959 extravaganza.
I remember as children my brothers and I excitedly acting out the famous chariot race in our home’s rec room. We had these 1970s-era pastel yellow swivel chairs that were removed from my father’s office waiting room when he re-decorated. We knelt on the chairs facing backwards and abused them like chariots in the circus until they broke. My parents weren’t happy.