Ben-Hur: Review By MovieWiz001

Now, I know that most of you know that I created a forum, for you to give me 3hr long movies that I've seen before. I chose to watch this film next, Ben-Hur. I've heard of this film for a long time, and yes, I always wanted to watch it. I never knew what this movie was exactly about, but I did watched the trailer and became more interested. I noticed that Charlton Heston is in the film. He played as Moses on The Ten Commandments of 1956 and Taylor in Planet of the Apes. Looking at the cast and the awards it received, I went ahead and watched it. And I was amazed by this masterpiece. This is, so far, my 4th favorite movie. I was glued to my seat for the whole 3 hours 32 minutes, watching such a fantastic epic.

When Prince Judah Ben-Hur hears that his childhood friend Messala has been named to command the Roman garrison of Jerusalem, he is thrilled. He soon finds, however, that his friend has changed and has become an arrogant conqueror, full of the grandeur of Rome. When Judah refuses to divulge the names of Jews who oppose Roman rule, Messala decides to make an example of him and sends him off as a galley slave. Through fate and good fortune, Judah survives the galleys and manages to return to Jerusalem in the hopes of finding his mother and sister, who were also imprisoned, and to seek revenge against his one-time friend.

Heston plays as Judah Ben-Hur, alias Quintus Arrius the Younger, which I thought he done a fantastic performance on his role. And I really loved Haya Harareet's performance also. Such a beautiful actress. The film is loaded with a great memorable cast. I'm a big fan of these type of films because I just love the large cast and performances. Sometimes they even change their original accent or language, like The Passion of the Christ, which I thought was marvelous.

Now the best reasons on why I love this film so much is 1, The stunts and the visual effects. The stunt sequences are awesome, like that scene when Judah's chariot bumped some wood, I think, and he nearly fell off the chariot but caught back on to it. I literally gasped and cheered through that whole chase, like I'm watching Nascar. Awesome job, Andrew Marton. And the visual effects for it's year is fantastic, like the scenery some places and the ship battle sequence. And 2, the style of the film. I like how things are well lightened, darkened, edited and how the sets are made, and I just really loved every single bit of this film. A job well done Wyler, God is pleased.

To tell you the truth, I never knew that the film also deals with Jesus. Which tells you, I never heard Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. I know it began with the birth of Jesus, but I was very surprised to see him when he gave Judah some water. I said "Oh my g-" *slapped my mouth closed* LOL! I promise, this was a time well-spent. As you as my overall quote that I will get a poster to this film. At first, I was about to get Star Wars, but I'll get Ben-Hur for now. It's hard organizing these posters.

I totally recommend this film. If you have seen The Ten Commandments, Spartacus, 300/300 Spartans, Clash of the Titans (1981) and you have not seen this film, then I should slap you like I slapped myself.

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The film won an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards, a number matched only by Titanic in 1998 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004.

Best Motion Picture;

Best Director for William Wyler;

Best Leading Actor for Charlton Heston;

Best Supporting Actor for Hugh Griffith;

Best Set Decoration, Color for Edward C. Carf*gno, William A. Horning, and Hugh Hunt;

Best Cinematography, Color;

Best Costume Design, Color;

Best Special Effects;

Best Film Editing for John D. Dunning and Ralph E. Winters;

Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture; and

Best Sound.