The guys and me, (or as my Mom would make me say, the guys and I,) went to see Ben Hur tonight. The crowd was thin for an opening night, possibly due to the critics’ low opinions, but, we ignored them as usual and left fully satisfied that we got our money’s worth.
The movie opens with 2 brothers, Judah and Massala, goofing around like brothers do, until Judah gets hurt and Massala saves him. They celebrate when Judah gets well, but later, Massala leaves his family to fight alongside the Romans in a way to find himself. He rises up in command pretty quick, so when he sees Judah betray both him and Rome, he condemns Judah to live out his life rowing oars in the galley of a war ship.
2016 
1959 
Let’s leave Judah in the warship a minute and talk about the movie itself. Now, as some of you know, and some of you figured out with the pictures of 2 different Judahs, this movie is a remake of the 1959 Ben Hur. So after we left the theater, I decided to do a little online comparison. I found Ben Hur: A Tale of Christ won 11 academy awards and was praised as the best movie of 1959. And, the ORIGINAL, original was a silent version filmed back in 1925, where costumes had to be extravagant and the acting huge.
I bet you don’t even need me to tell you which picture is from what year…
Now, back to Judah. Judah’s later freed and found by Morgan Freeman, Ilderim, a gambler who owns a chariot. Judah is full of hatred with only thoughts of revenge against Massala. Ilderim shows him a different way to get even.
Since chariot races are Rome’s number one sport, much like football is for America, Ilderim uses his money and smarts to get Cesar to allow Judah to race a chariot, where there’s only one winner and usually only one survivor.
The overall movie was historic, and the cinematography (see Natalia, I can use big words too, lol,) along with the costumes, made you feel like you were really in ancient Jerusulem. The main theme in Ben Hur is to love one another, even your enemies. This is taught to Judah through a couple of encounters with Jesus Christ himself, as well as by his ex-slave wife, Esther, who is a follower of Christ.
Bet you didn’t need my help in picking the year of these photos either! So, you see now how really old movies can still be a good watch even today. The old Ben Hur (not the old, old one) is a classic (57 yrs old) and still says something to us as human beings. So go see it! Then come back and let us know – is it a thumbs up? or a thumbs down?
See ya, Jacob
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