Ben-Hur is one of the most iconic films from the golden age of Hollywood, but does it get the appreciation it deserves in 2022?

We find out why this classic deserves more love, and while you should watch it today.

#BenHur #ClassicCinema #VideoEssay
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Transcript

Ben-Hur. It’s odd to say that this film deserves more love – it still holds the record for most Oscar wins (now tied with Titanic and Return of the King), it was the second highest grossing film in its time (only surpassed by Gone With The Wind), and to this day it’s regularly placed on Top 10 list of the best epics of all time. Regrettably, time goes by, and since its release in 1959 the film’s relevancy has declined steadily. Nowadays, outside of ‘filmy circles’ I don’t know many people who’ve even heard of Ben-Hur, and if anything, the 2016 remake only helped to push it into history (take a drink after clip).
I’d make the case that, bar a few things, this movie is as enjoyable now as the day it came out, and you should absolutely go and watch it if you haven’t already. Sure, it clocks in at 3 hours 45 minutes (there’s even an intermission, which I think we should bring back), but everybody supressed their millennial attention spans to sit through Endgame. An upsetting amount of you invested 7 hours of your lives to watch two Justice Leagues – just stick it out.
Besides, this is a great movie to get chores done to. When I was a kid, my parents described this as a “Sunday afternoon film”, which means my dad had a nap, my mum got a heck of a lot of ironing done, my sisters read a book or something, and I stared blankly at the screen not understanding a single word being said. There’s a fine, Netflix-sized line where something is simultaneously background noise and really engaging at the same time.
Setting aside the length, which I stress again is totally worth it, Ben-Hur is huge in every single other way. It’s one of those historical epics that spent a ridiculous amount of money building gigantic sets, designing lavish costumes, and hiring thousands of extras, and the effect is genuinely immersive – there’s not a single moment that you notice a matte painting background, or a cardboard cut-out for instance. It’s a cliché, but they really don’t make them like this anymore, since you can achieve a similar effect with smaller sets and VFX at a fraction of the cost – a tendency that maligned cinema for a good couple dozen years. They didn’t have the benefit of those circular screens on things like The Mandalorian to bodge a larger environment, so it’s kinda crazy to think of what an endeavour it was to make something like this.
The plot spans the 5-ish year journey of Judah Ben-Hur (played by the late Charlton Heston) as he goes from riches to rags to riches again, swapping roles throughout the story as a Judean prince, a Roman consul’s adopted son, a galley slave, and a chariot racer. For the most part, it’s a classic revenge tale, with Judah and his family being betrayed by his best friend, the Roman tribune Messala (no relation to Chicken Tikka), and him earning his way back home through selflessness and charioting.
The relationship between Judah and Messala is one of the best reasons to watch the movie, and I want to emphasise the word ‘relationship’ because this is one of the most homo-erotic movies ever released – there’s more sexual tension in a single scene of Ben-Hur than all of Brokeback Mountain combined. I’m not even shipping, the main scriptwriter literally wrote Messala as if he were a spurned lover, and suggested to the actors that they perform their first scene as if they were a reuniting couple. I love seeing movies nearing the end of the Hay’s Code days see how far they can push things, like “They embraced for more than 3 seconds! Scandalous”. There’s a real sense that these are tragic Romeo and Juliet-esque star-crossed lovers, with the Jewish Judah and Roman Messala forbidden to be together. It genuinely breaks your heart to never see them hit the sheets.
But the sexual tension continues all the way through the film – a scene when Judah is a galley slave is particularly memorable, when Roman consul Arrius comes to inspect the rowers and notices a spirit that separates Judah from the rest. In the scene that follows, he tests the rowers’ endurance by ordering them to row at increasing speeds, all the while making intense, unbreaking eye contact with Judah as he gets all sweaty...