Nonureva Really Surprised!

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

John T. Ryan LAST NIGHT, BEING Sunday, December 13th, was pretty typical as far as our usual routine goes. We started the day with Church, followed by a special, a good Olde-Fashioned, Sundae Home-cooked Breakfast. Then after a necessary trip to Walgreen's, we watched a whole lot of NFL. Our Bears took it on the chin from the hated rival Green Bay Packers 21-14. (It's been one of those years!) No hard feelings, Cheeseheads! WITH THE SUN punching out early from work these days, the itinerary calls for plenty of relaxin' round the 'bonfire'; which, in the case of us upper neolithic hunter-gatherers, has morphed into the Parlor TV. We usually gradually come down by reading the Sunday Newspapers, taking the dog for a little extra walk and viewing either a LAW & ORDER episode (any one on their family tree), maybe watching a movie on Turner Classic Movies or Fox Movie Channel.AND WHEN THE time for playing Taps arrives, it usually means to have a "spot of Tea" and make sure that the prescriptions for my friend Arthur Ritis are taken in proper numbers and dosage; all being washed down with that Tea (the only good thing the English did for we Irishers)! WELL ON THIS particular eve, the promos on TCM caught our attention. It announced that BEN-HUR would be shown on that Classic Movies Channel that night,late. Well, we were still "up n' at 'em" when the movie started, so we (just "I" actually) decided, what the hey, watch the beginning when young Mr. Charlton Heston and Mr. Stephen Boyd were portraying youthful Judah Ben-Hur and Massala.WOAH! HOLD ON now! This was not the 1959 MGM Big Screen version of 1959; but rather the MGM Big Screen Silent version of 1925. Well we still had the notion about just watching a little of it and then throwing in the towel. Well, Schultz can back me up on this one, there was no way that we were gonna walk away from this one early! FROM THE VERY first scenes portraying the Nation of Israel suffering under the oppression of their Roman Conquerers. Our attention is immediately drawn to the two young boys. One of them being a Jew, Judah Ben-Hur(Ramon Novarro) and Massala (Francis X. Bushman), a young Roman lad; each growing up together in the Holy Land. Neither one knowing or thinking about the realities of the real world; which would all too soon become all too real to them.WITH LITERALLY A CAST of thousands, this Silent boasted of some fine company of actors in support. We have May MacAvoy, Betty Bronson, Claire McDowell, Kathleen Key, Carmel Meyers, Mitchell Lewis, Frank Currier, Charles Belcher, Dale Fuller, Winter Hall and Rippy Hamlin*ADDITIONALLY, THE CAST boasts of having a roster of extras there to be spectators for the Chariot Race that included a veritable Who's Who in Hollywood. Also many of the uncredited players wit only bit parts were present to add a depth here to fore unseen. Among these are: Gary Cooper, Janet Gaynor, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Carole Lombard, Tom Tyler and Sally Rand. There was also a couple of actors who would have done it all in their lives by careers end. Those being Leo White, who supported Chaplin and The Three Stooges, and Nigel De Bruller, the many times screen Cardinal Richilieu and future Wizard Shazam in THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL (Republic,1941).WE CAN ONLY guess as to why the Silent Film form holds such a firm hold on our imaginations. Perhaps it is that the absence of sound, words and dialog on a soundtrack compels a viewer to devote all his attention to the screen. One has to concentrate, read title cards, follow the action and absorb the storyline in relative silence; with only the accompanying musical score to occupy the auditory sense.** ALTHOUGH THE FILM is mainly filmed in glorious b&w, there are several important scenes rendered in the old, 2 strip Technicolour process. Bright and even a bit on the gaudy side,it is nonetheless quite impressive.THE WHOLE PROCESS of viewing a Silent Film,especially a feature length one, requires a special skill unto itself. And we are convinced that the dream-like quality of the Silent Screen leaves the viewer with a deep feeling of having truly witnessed a real life occurrence. In this case, it is the life of Christ and some of his contemporaries.WELL, DIDN'T WE? Schultz says so! That's good enough for me!NOTE * We wuz jest pulling' yer leg on this 'un. Ain't no movie actor in no pitcher show with that handle.NOTE ** Far from being truly and completely silent, all Silent Movies had at least a piano or organ as an instrument of accompaniment. The Bigger Productions, like this BEN HUR: A TALE OF THE Christ, had a whole score; which had whole orchestral accompaniment when it played the big houses downtown.

DKosty123 Believe it or not, this film was the second attempt to do the film but the first one to be authorized. The 1907 silent was done without Lew Wallaces heirs permission, which went to the Supreme Court & helped create todays copyright materials which has helped make Bill Gates a rich man.If you want to sit for almost 3 hours or take the trouble to read the original novel, you will find out that Judah Ben Hur is converted from Jew to Christian by his encounters with Christ. That change of Judah is ignored in 1959 which is William Wyler being influenced by the rewrite work of the script by Gore Vidal which loses this from Wallaces novel.This version has some major influence from being one of MGM's earlier releases as a corporation. It did not make money until it's re-release in 1931 with added sound effects because it was the most expensive film made in it's time.The Roman Galley sequence in this movie was shot in Italy. It features 6 very expensive rebuilt actual ships. When one starts on fire here, it is really on fire. This fire was an accident, but sure adds to the realism of the film as the extras are literally jumping from the ship to save their lives.The cast features everybody in Hollywood, literally. The great chariot race was filmed in California as the production unit in Italy wound up being fired & replaced by Irving Thalberg, MGM's boy genius who literally replaced everybody in order to finally finish the film.Nararro & Bushman are classic silent folks who do well in their role. I don't think the parade of topless women includes any of the most famous silent actresses of the 20's, but if your into silent actresses, you might want to check this sequence carefully.It is hard to imagine now this being done as a live Broadway show for more than 20 years, but it was. Broadway wasn't subject to censors in that era either. It would be interesting if there is any record of what a live performance of Ben Hur actually looked like. This film gets as close to one of those as is practical.

John W Chance This film is a must see; it's a stunning visual achievement. The most expensive silent film ever made. The staggeringly elaborate sets, the camera-work, the Technicolor segments, and the special effects are absolutely spectacular.The sea battle and chariot race sequences are better here than they are in the more famous sound version. 'Breezy' Eason, the race's second unit director had 62 assistant directors working on the fantastic chariot race sequence, one of whom was William Wyler, who made the sound version of 'Ben Hur' in 1959, and who repeated much of what we see in these two seminal parts of both versions. The chariot race camera work is amazing: it's exciting, tight, fast and expertly edited, even including shots of horses seen from the ground looking up. No wonder the race's editing was so remarkable -- 200,000 feet of shot film was cut to 750 feet! Action director Eason was notorious for his cavalier treatment of animal safety, so much so that as a result of so many wounded or killed horses on his 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' (1936), the Humane Society started monitoring animal safety during film shooting. Here, at the end of the race we see a massive pile up of chariot teams of horses, like cars on a freeway. The only really grim moment.Ramon Novarro does more than a creditable job as Judah, Ben-Hur, if you can get that image of the huskier Charlton Heston out of your mind. Actually, Ramon does a better job-- he's not playing his own stereotype. He didn't have much later success in films, though you can find him in an episode of Boris Karloff's 'Thriller' (1962) TV show. May McAvoy, who plays Esther, left films when sound came in, but returned in the forties to only uncredited parts. Betty Bronson, after her star turn 'Peter Pan' (1924) appears briefly here as a beatific (but very unpregnant looking) Mary mother of Jesus during the opening Nativity sequences (some in color!). You can see her still playing pixie girls as Gene Autry's love interest in 'Yodelin' Kid from Pine Ridge' (1937).The person who had the most continuing success was Francis X. Bushman (Massala), whom we are used to seeing as an old man in 50s and 60s TV shows and junk movies. As the villain, he was not in this movie enough, or was bad enough, as was Stephen Boyd in the sound version. Here his face and makeup reminded me of Al Lewis as 'Grandpa' in 'The Munsters.' He can be seen as the police chief in the first self-titled Dick Tracy serial (1937).A real bonus to the film, in the crystal clear four disk set from M-G-M is the new magnificent music soundtrack by Carl Davis, composer of not only the TV series 'World at War', but of original scores for 'Intolerance' (1916), 'Greed' (1924), 'The Thief of Bagdad' (1924), 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1924), 'The General' (1927) and 'Napoleon' (1927). Needless to say he knows how to fit the score to the film; knowing when to put it in the background, as he does in the extended touching emotional scene where Judah's mother and sister discover him sleeping, and when to pump it up into the foreground as he does for the chariot race. Great placement and use of music! A cast of 125,000 people. Almost two and a half hours, that go by quickly. The whole story told as in the remake, but with a little more added here. This version emphasizes the expectations the Jewish people had for a Deliverer, and it also adds depth to the revolutionary message of Christianity. Unbelievable sets, great camera-work, action and visual story telling. You've got to give it at least an 8.So why not a 10? Ultimately it's not up to the great 10s of Silent German Cinema. Here we get a film about Ben 'Horatio Alger' Hur's fall and rise to fame and fortune told in easy and continuing coincidences, especially in the final ten minutes, with a lot of overwrought acting not very much controlled by silent film director Niblo.But still, this a definite must see silent film for the magnificent achievement that it is. I give it an 8.

Michael_Elliott Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) **** (out of 4) Eye opening and visually stunning original about Ben Hur (Ramon Novarro) who is thrown into slavery only to eventually take on the Romans. It's been over a decade since I've seen the Heston remake so I won't compare the two until I see it again but this thing here is a really amazing achievement of the silent era. The costume design is flawless and the sets are really unbelievable and mammoth. The chariot race here certainly matches the one in the remake and that film's director was also one of sixty(!) director's who worked on the race here. The famous ship battle here is also a lot better because it was real, not faked. Apparently a fire really broke out on the sets so a lot of what we're seeing in the slave quarters are the actors really freaking out and not just acting it up. The visual effects are also quite nice especially in the opening sequenced in Bethlahem. The 2 ½ hour running time flashes by very quickly and smoothly so hopefully more folks will watch this version of the film.