Ben Hur 1959

The Film:

It's Ben Hur. I'm not sure what else I need to say by way of introduction here. If Gone With The Wind counts as the first big technicolor epic to sweep the boards at the Oscars, then this one (twenty years later) probably counts as the second.

It took home eleven awards (and we'd have to wait nearly forty years for another film to match it) so it didn't leave much room for anyone else to get a look in - except in the female acting categories. (There weren't many women in Ben Hur, and most of them had leprosy....)

My own view of this film before watching it again is probably the same as most people of my age. I remember this one being on telly quite a few times when I was younger. I remember watching some of it on a couple of occasions (and I may have watched the whole thing once before, but probably not) and I remember deliberately turning the TV over or off to avoid it on several occasions. Partly because it was a bit too serious for a child, and partly because I've never really being willing to commit three and a half hours to it. However, that is precisely what we are going to do this weekend. (And I keep telling myself, as a reward for my endurance I then get the next two films on the list, which are both wonderful!)

The Ceremony:

As the poster says, the awards were given out on Monday April 4th 1960. The format was pretty much unchanged, except that they went back to just one single host - yes, you've guessed it, Bob Hope! By all accounts timings etc ran a lot smoother than in the previous year.

There doesn't appear to be much else to say about things - except it was the usual parade of stars, only this time all they will have had to do was come on, say "Ben Hur", applaud a bit and then leave.

The two Honorary Awards given out that night were a nice pairing. One was for Buster Keaton, one of the greats of silent cinema. The other was for Lee de Forest, one of the great pioneers of sound in film.


Other Notable Winners That Night:

Looks like Mr B Blank has spotted someone slightly more
appealing to him than the charming Melle Signoret!

There weren't many other winners that night. Ben Hur took pretty much everything it was eligible for. 

The female acting awards did go elsewhere though - to Simone Signoret (Room at the Top) and Shelly Winters (Diary of Anne Frank). They looked remarkably similar to each other on the night in the way they were dressed and had their hair etc - possibly why I can't find any photos of the two of them together.

Seeing as Rock has sneaked into this particular photo, I will mention that Pillow Talk got the Best Screenplay Award that year (and Doris and Thelma both got nominations as well) - and Room At The Top was the only film to steal an award from Ben Hur, by winning Best Adapted Screenplay.


Best Song:

I think I've always known this song ("High Hopes"), but I have absolutely no recollection of the film it comes from ("A Hole In The Head"). It's a nice little song though, and this bit of film is cute. Ooops there goes another rubber tree plant....

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

The general hype surrounding Ben Hur, along with the sheer scale of the thing, makes it difficult to

There are several things in this picture that may have
put the Academy off giving it their vote

argue that a different film should have won Best Picture. However, there are some very good contenders to mention (most of whom I would have much preferred to be watching now!). The other nominees were quite a varied bunch - A Nun's Story, The Diary of Anne Frank, Room At The Top and Anatomy of a Murder. I've seen all of them except Room At The Top, and I'd pick Anatomy of a Murder. It's a great courtroom drama with great acting and direction, and it was ground-breaking in its day for it's gritty realism (which got it temporarily banned). In many ways, it is a long way from Ben Hur!

Two of my favourite films were released in 1959, neither of which were nominated for Best Picture. Some Like It Hot got a Best Director nomination (and six others) - but Billy Wilder had to wait another year to cash any of these in. North By Northwest only received three (fairly minor) nominations - so nothing for Hitchcock again!


Our Verdict:

Extras - lots of them!

I was expecting this to be an endurance test - and in some ways it was. Despite what I do for a living (or possibly because of it) Biblical Epics are really not my thing. I was very good at not pointing out too many historical/ theological problems as we watched - although I did rip into the crucifixion scene more than was absolutely justified.

Having said that I have to admit that, taken in the context of the late 50s, this is a very good film. Charlton Heston is as wooden as the chariot he's racing but that doesn't seem to matter - he does fit the part well. There is so much money thrown at the whole thing, but you can see where it's been spent and it all adds to the overall story and spectacle (rather than distracting from it, as Cleopatra did a few years later). People generally remember the spectacle, but the plot is a good one. Judah Ben Hur is Jewish and grows up with a Roman best friend, Messala. As adults, politics inevitably tear them apart and this leads to Messala condemning Judah to be a slave on a galley ship. During an attack at sea, Judah saves the Roman commander, Arrius, and is basically made an honorary Roman as a reward. But he still wants to go back to Jerusalem to find his family (and his girlfriend) and make things right for them. And he has a big chariot race against Messala along the way....

Horses - lots of them!

The story itself is fictional, but it is set alongside the events of the Gospels. Jesus is there (although we never see his face - a clever move!) and Judah bumps into him on a couple of significant occasions. However, I would dispute the idea that it is, as the subheading says, "a story of the Christ". I'm not sure how much of the storytelling can be attributed to the original author and how much to the writer of the screenplay, but it does a very good balancing job of presenting a fictional story with a fictional character whilst still being bound up with one of possibly the most controversial stories and figures that has been put on screen. Whenever you portray Jesus, chances are you're going to offend someone, whether deliberately or accidentally. (This whole idea is explored to great comic effect in a scene in The Coen Brothers' Hail Caesar! where the film makers are trying to please Catholics, Protestants, Jews etc in their portrayal of Jesus. Actually, our viewing of Ben Hur was greatly enhanced by our knowledge of Hail Caesar!). Apparently Ben Hur is still the only film that is specifically classed as religious that is on the Vatican approved list of films - whatever that actually means, it does mean that it got a good few things really right in the eyes of those that could have been its fiercest critics.

Fanfares - lots of them!

There are two key set pieces in the film - the battle at sea and the (very famous) chariot race. Both are really impressive, especially when you consider the technical constraints at the time. Absolutely no CGI of any description - not even to touch up or blur out or slightly modify the overall look of any of it. Just a few good prosthetics, some deftly edited dummies here and there, a lot of very clever camera angles and a LOT of extras. The chariot race in particular was enthralling and hasn't lost any of its excitement or tension over the years. The treatment of the horses is slightly questionable for modern audiences, but otherwise it is beautifully shot and cleverly paced and I couldn't take my eyes off the thing for the 30 minutes or so that it lasted. (Which says a lot, as this sort of action film is really not my thing at all.)

Shots of the back of Jesus' head - lots of them!

Overall, the film was definitely too long and some of the quieter scenes, particularly where there is just dialogue between two or three people, were let down by them being too stagey, or by unconvincing acting (sorry Mr Heston!). The last half hour or so, where the story does start to become "of the Christ" was far better than I was expecting. They just about get away with the change of tone and pace from horses and chariots to leprosy and crucifixion. In the end, I must admit, the whole thing was quite satisfying.

I'm not sure whether I'll ever watch Ben Hur again - whereas I'll definitely watch Some Like It Hot several more times over (I think I average once a year for that one!) Having said that, Ben Hur is a very worthy Best Oscar winner and deserves to be remembered and revered as much as it is - particularly for the chariot race, but the rest of it is worth watching as well.