Ben-Hur

Rating: 4.85/5

Ben-Hur, though incredibly long in runtime, does not feel as if you're watching a movie that is close to four hours. In fact, when the intermission appeared on the screen, I was genuinely shocked. I could not believe that I had already made it to the halfway point.

To be perfectly honest, Ben-Hur was not a film in my Oscar marathon that I was exactly eager to get to. I knew it was going to be well made and a movie that I would likely appreciate from a technical standpoint, but I didn't expect to genuinely like it as much as I did. It's not that I thought it would be bad, it's just that I've never been overly drawn to the more sword & sandal related epics.

Ben-Hur is impressive from beginning to end, but let's talk about its most famous moment; the chariot race. What. A. Scene! Twenty minutes of action, that to me, feels more dangerous than almost anything I've seen in modern filmmaking. Yes, today's movies have intense car chases and people jumping from building to building, but with all the strict rules and guidelines movie sets have to follow, the element of imminent danger just doesn't feel quite as present, plus when you add in CGI, it makes it even less so. The chariot race in Ben-Hur feels wildly unpredictable and insane to me that this sequence was able to be filmed without anyone being gravely injured, but also in such a spectacular way. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume Charlton Heston wasn't a trained chariot racer prior to making this movie, but somehow he, and his fellow actors, were able to learn and seemingly master this ancient skill. It's truly incredible. I rarely, if ever, talk or yell at a movie while watching it. In fact, it is one of my bigger pet peeves when people do this, but I couldn't help myself with this scene. I was so enveloped into every moment of action, every turn the horses made around the track, that I couldn't help but gasp or comment whenever something seemed as if it were going to go devastatingly wrong. A master scene of filmmaking.

Ben-Hur is not a movie you just decide to throw on the tv on a whim. It's one where you have to know you can carve out a good day's worth of movie watching time in order to get through it. Yet, with that being said, I know it's one I'll be watching again sometime in the near future.

1960 Best Picture Winner - Ben-Hur

1960 Best Actor in a Leading Role Winner - Charlton Heston

1960 Best Actor in a Supporting Role Winner - Hugh Griffith

1960 Best Director Winner - William Wyler

1960 Best Cinematography, Color Winner - Robert Surtees

1960 Best Art Direction - Set Direction, Color Winner - William A. Horning, Edward C, Carfagno & Irene Hunt

1960 Best Costume Design, Color Winner - Elizabeth Haffaenden

1960 Best Sound Winner - Franklin Milton

1960 Best Film Editing Winner - Ralph E. Winters & John D. Dunning

1960 Best Effects, Special Effects Winner - A. Arnold Gillespie, R.A. MacDonald & Milo B. Lory

1960 Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Winner - Miklos Rozsa