Ben-Hur 1959

Wasn't sure if I was going to be able to find 4 hours to sit down and watch this movie. But then is snowed any my plans changed and I had a whole night to watch it. At almost 3 and half hours it is the 4th longest movie to win best picture. But I will never understand why a movie that is long to begin with needs to have entrance music, and exit music. It starts with a long musical introduction then goes into a musical opening sequence. I can understand having an intermission but maybe if it didn't have such long musical introduction it wouldn't need the intermission.

Ben-Hur is about a prominent Jew in Judea in the time of Christ named Judah Ben-Hur played by Charlton Heston. He is falsely accused then betrayed by his friend and sentenced to a life of slavery in the Roman navy. He vows revenge for himself and family and manages to stay alive and win the the affection of a Roman commander and finally wins his freedom. When he returns home he seeks to find out what has happened to his family and the guy that betrayed him. Along the way he crosses path with Biblical characters including Jesus.

What is amazing about this movie is how well it stands up over time. The story of betrayal and revenge is not an original story but Charlton Heston really shows many levels of pain. As a peace loving man by nature the hate that he feels after being betrayed brings lots of inner conflict and you can see this in Heston's performance. Probably one of Heston's greatest performances. For a man who to me growing up was just the head of the NRA and active in politics it is kind of cool to see he was a great actor. I also like the integration of Biblical figures into the movie. Its an interesting perspective to see how people went about their normal lives around the time of Jesus. Its something that we don't think about much.  Along with the acting and story the movie also has some cool action scenes. The chariot race scene is probably the most known and before I had seen the movie for the first time that is all I knew about it. At 11 minutes long it is one of the coolest action scenes and doesn't feel old. I always figured that it would just be one of those scenes that was cool for its time but it does hold up and really keeps the suspense during the scene. The other action scene is a big sea battle which is also pretty cool.

The movie won 11 Oscars the most of all time. It still holds the record but is now tied with two other movies Titanic and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The only Oscar it lost was Best Screenplay which was won by Room at the Top. It also had a surprise win for  Best Supporting Actor for Hugh Griffith for his role as Sheik Ilderim one of the more colorful supporting characters. The favorites to win were one of the supporting actors from Anatomy of a Murder either George C. Scott or Arthur O'Connell.  William Wyler won his third Oscar for his record 11th Best Director Nomination(he would go on and be nominated one more time for a record total of 12 nominations). He beat one of the other great directors of the time Billy Wilder who had a total of 8 Best Director nominations and only two wins. Wilder directed another classic movie Some Like it Hot which topped  AFI's List of 100 Greatest Comedies. Another classic movie that didn't get nominated for any of the top Oscars is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies North by Northwest.

Ben-Hur by the Numbers
At 3 hours and 20 minutes it is the 4th longest movie to win.
With 11 Academy Award wins tied for the most wins.
Ranked #72 on AFI list of Greatest Movies of All Time in 1997 and #100 in 2007
Currently ranked #156 on IMDB Greatest 250 Movies.
A remake of Ben-Hur from 1925 makes it is the only remake to win Best Picture.