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And I heard his voice take the sword out of my hand
Ruminations on Ben-Hur
“I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands”
If a mental picture of Charlton Heston hasn’t formed in your head, we have some catching up to do.
DVDs, the latest “worthless” cultural artefact. They’re practically giving them away at the local second hand store. Ben-Hur for $1? My subconscious is telling me I need this one.
Ben-Hur is a 1959 epic. So epic in fact, it coined the expression “bigger than Ben-Hur” as the only appropriate moniker from something so huge that any other superlative is insufficient.
It stars Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince living in the time of Jesus of Nazareth.
With a running time of three and a half hours, its breadth and scope is enormous, even in comparison to the computer generated universes that today’s action movies inhabit.
The chariot scene alone boasts an execution to rival the Battle of the Bastards.
The achievement seems greater when I consider another recent rewatching — 1962’s The 300 Spartans. Compared to Zack Snyder’s 300 it looks thoroughly dinky.
