Ben-Hur: The Stories Behind the Story

Everyone knows the story of Ben-Hur, how it begins with the birth of Jesus Christ, tells the story of Judah Ben-Hur and his family during the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and the oppression of Jews during this period, as well as the events of the life of Jesus Christ. Of course, most people know Ben-Hur as Charlton Heston and his childhood friend turned enemy Messala as Stephen Boyd. What many do not know is that the bilblical epic Ben-Hur from 1959 is not first or only version of the story.

The original story was written by Lew Wallace, a Union general in the civil war, statesmen, lawyer, and author. Wallace’s book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ was originally published in 1880, making the story close to 130 years old. The book was the bestseller of the Nineteenth Century and has never been out of print since it’s first publishing, though more people know the story of Ben-Hur than they do anything about Lew Wallace. Later, in 1899, the book was turned into a Broadway play, literally setting the stage for it to be filmed when the technology came along.

The first film version of the movie was made in 1907, titled simply Ben Hur. Most versions made of the biblical epic are at least two hours long, since the book is around 575 pages long. Not this version. Canadian director Sidney Olcott managed to condense the film down to a mere 15 minutes, which is some serious talent. You can read two reviews I have found for this version, the first one at the Bible Films blog and another thanks to absoluteastronomy. I have also posted the films below here divided up into two parts. The first is a mere eight minutes and the second is a little over three, so it isn’t a long drawn out film to watch.

The next version is yet another silent one, from 1925, titled Ben-Hur. It followed a similar plot to that of the book and the more famous 1959 version. This version has been preserved by the National Film Registry. You can get some film stills and history on this page and you can access some of the music from the film here, thanks to You Don’t Have to Visit blogspot.
Below is a trailer from this 1925 film.

And finally, we come to the famous 1959 version, which for a long time held the record of the most Academy Award nominated film. If you want more information on this flim, you can access this page, thanks to Filmsite.org, or this one, thanks to reelclassics.com. For a good review, you can read this article, thanks to Associate Content.If you notice, the one thing all of the film versions have in common is that they all include the chariot race scene, perhaps since this is action not to be missed out on. Below is an original trailer from this Ben-Hur for some entertainment.

A Bio Pic of Biblical Proportions

With a name like The Greatest Story Ever Told, your film pretty much has to be guaranteed good. Of course, with a cast as star-studded as this one, it was pretty hard for director George Stevens and writer Henry Denker to go wrong with their 1965 biblical epic. The film was based on a book of the same name by Fulton Oursler, who wrote several novels, plays, and short stories. The film chronicles the life of Jesus of Nazareth from birth until death.

The cast, as I mentioned before, is one of the greatest assemblages of acting talent in motion pictures. The leading role of Jesus was portray by Swedish actor Max von Sydow, an acclaimed actor who has done mostly foreign language films. Michael Anderson Jr. played John the Baptist, Carroll Baker as Veronica, Pat Boone as the Young Man at the Tomb, and Charlton Heston as St. John the Baptist. Mary and Joseph were respectively played by Dorothy McGuire and Robert Loggia. I won't name every single part, but the cast list continues on with such fine actors and actresses as Claude Rains, Martin Landau, Roddy McDowall, Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Ed Wynn, John Wayne, Angela Lansbury, Van Heflin, Sal Mineo,Telly Savalas, Paul Stewart, Harold J. Stone, Joseph Schildkraut, Victor Buono, Jose Ferrer, Robert Blake, Donald Pleasence, Richard Conte, Jamie Farr, David McCallum, Ina Balin, Janet Margolin, and Cyril Delevanti. This film figures in at Christmastime not just because of the Jesus element but also because of his retrospective on faith and its meaning.

Darryl F. Zanuck was the one who acquired the rights for the film from Oursler, who was then a senior editor of Reader's Digest. Zanuck, as many of you know was working for Fox and now the film is in the hands of MGM. George Stevens at the time was directed the film version of The Diary of Anne Frank (which we'll get to on Hanukkah) and since the studio wasn't doing anything with the rights, decided he wanted to produce the epic of biblical proportions. The American southwest was chosen for many of the films locations, since Stevens wanted to give a dramatic look to the film he did not think he would find in the settings of the Middle East. The film took years to right and an estimated $20 million to make. Critics were divided when the film was released, though Stevens thought the film was a masterpiece.

You can watch the film divided up into short segments here thanks to YouTube and Google Video. MGM now owns the film and has a site for it with trailers, info, and still shots from the movie, which can be found here. Some wonderful screenshots from the film can be found at the Movie Screen Shot Blog and more info and a synopsis can be found here, thanks to Mahalo.com. You can read two reviews, one from The New York Times and another from soulfoodcinema.com. And if you want to see the film on your TV rather than your computer, Turner Classic Movies is running the film on Christmas Day, which you can read about here.

Biblical Epics: The King of Kings or King of Kings?

Biblical epics have long been a part of film culture, from the classic Charlton Heston The Ten Commandments to the controversial and oft protested The Last Temptation of Christ. Modern biblical epics have even been made, such as Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ and religious doctrine has been even turned into musicals, i.e. Joseph and the Amazing Techincolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar. Still, biblical topics in film and on stage are not new. Today I was like to cover the film King of Kings, my only problem was choosing which one.

You see, there are two versions of King of Kings, the more popular biblical epic from the 1960s by Nicholas Ray and the 1927 version by legendary director Cecil B. DeMille. Both films are spectacularly done, considering the techonology available for the time. Then again, doing a biblical epic doesn't require a lot of fancy machinery and special effects. Still, both films cover the same topic: the birth, final days, and ressurection of Jesus Christ. Using the material available, I am going to try and compare these two films.

We'll go with oldest first, starting with the DeMille 1927 version of the film. Properly titled The King of Kings, this film would get points if we had a longest title category. Even though it is a silent film, DeMille took full advantage of what effects that were available at the time. The entire resurrection scenes were done using technicolor for extra awe.   However, this film does have a lot of Anti-Seminitism and further encourages the falsehood that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Filmfanatic.org discusses the redeeming qualities of the film and does a brief review. The site decentfilms.com explores both the good and bad of this film in this review. DeMille claimed that The King of Kings was his favorite of all the films he had made. Before the invention of video, The King of Kings held the record for most screened picture on earth, had been seen by over a billion people, and was shown somewhere on earth every day. The Cecil B. DeMille site also offers a brief bio and synopsis of the film, which can be read here. The story has very human elements to it, though it isn't for everyone. A great history and synopsis of the film can be read here, thanks to cinemaweb.com. For some good trivia about the film, check out this part of the IMDB site.

Now we will be moving on to the 1961 Nicholas Ray movie. The second film takes a lot from the old one but is much more political. Barabbas plays a major role in this film, though he doesn't typically in biblical films about Christ. This was one of the first major films to show the actual face of the actor portraying Christ. The narration was written by science fiction author Ray Bradbury which was read by Orson Welles.   Filmfanatic.org does another review for this film, which can be read here. The Ferdyonfilms blog does another great review about the entire film. This film version is particularly popular among Christians, as exhibited by this entry on the Bible Film Blog, which discusses the Christian elements of the film.

Of course, in the end, I have to leave it up to you. If you can't find the films, watch these clips I have provided and make up your own mind. First, here is the trailer for the 1927 version by DeMille:

And secondly, here is the trailer for the 1961 biblical epic version of the film.

And as a very special Christmas treat, here is a colorized scene from the DeMille film: