Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Impressive filmmaking and the story actually fits together better than in the remake. It's still a tad long and the Christ parts are a bit superfluous, but at least it's enjoyable and the general thrust of the film is effective.

this one has some undeniably great action sequences, but all of the bible crap is yawn worthy. sadly that bible crap takes up a good chunk of this movie and the chariot race is just not enough to compensate for that.

Every bit as good as the 1959 version. Even better in some respects (though not as good in others). The action was intense and immersive, thanks to the grand scale and real danger. The sea battle in particular was better than in 1959, and the chariot race was crazy good. I didn't like Messala much in this version; he was one-dimensional. I got to see this in the theater (albeit cut down, unfortunately) with a live orchestra, and it was definitely a treat.

A superb film, much better than the remake.

Excellent adaptation of Lew Wallace's book. And the battle scenes are better than the version of 59.

Takes about halfway to really get going but once it does you have a great story, impressive use of location/amount of extras & some brazenly [real life] dangerous battle/disaster scenes to occupy your time. it can get a little silly too - I couldn't stop laughing at how they cut around Jesus, who never fully appears (is he a muslim prophet now? idgi), out of the Last Supper reenactment/scene. To be honest, almost all of the technicolor scenes could probably have been left out.

renkli kisimlar, hikaye, araba yarisi, deniz savasi

# 959

This is an amazing spectacle, the fights are brutal, trilling and grand. Even tho this movie is 2 1/2 hours long it never gets boring, way too much going on for that. Also features some pretty good restrained acting for a silent film. Of course the chariot race is simply amazing and well worth the wait. Not as good nor as thrilling as the 1959 version but still a must see.

Great effects for 1926. It's funny, in this version, Ben Hur is tiny and the villain is huge, in the Heston remake it's the other way around. The action scenes prove much more entertaining than the emotional ones.

888

I'm impressed...first movie I watch from the twenties and didn't expect it to be this good.

The production value shows on the screen: the chariot race and the pirate battle are especially astonishing, and there's a lot of other impressive stuff too. The story is much more complex and nuanced than a typical silent, and moves at a pretty good pace most of the time. I could have done without the magic fairly tale Jesus aspects, but it does contain some of Christianity's better teachings. Also, for a story set largely in the Middle East, the cast is lily-white, none more so than Jesus.

How on earth this manages to be less hammy and more enjoyable than the Heston version I will never know ... well actually I know exactly why, it's because of Heston, but nevermind. This manages to feel far greater and more important than the other version, which by comparison looks like a roided up chimpanzee middle child trying to get our attention.

The scale is enormous and impressive and the storytelling is efficient given the length. It's an hour and 40 minutes shorter than the more famous William Wyler remake, but it essentially effectively tells the same story. The chariot scene is still breathtaking nearly 100 years later and I have no idea how they got some of the shots they did given the technological limitations at the time. Also interesting to see the early color scenes. Very good, and a bit better than the remake.

After three years as a galley slave, Judah confronts Messala and we saw that Messala more muscular than Judah. (http://www.silentfilm.org/assets/images/BenHur_720x500.jpg) Messala on the left.