Medved: Watch the original ‘Ben-Hur’, skip the new film

People who love the story of Ben-Hur will better invest their time in the original film than the most recent cinematic attempt.

I wanted to like it. There are artistic touches to the film, but the performances are never more than adequate. And it’s largely a no-name cast aside from Morgan Freeman. I give this Ben-Hur two stars out of four. Two stars because the special effects and the chariot race are fun to watch and well-staged.

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This bears some resemblance to the original 1959 film. It’s all based on the 1882 novel of the same name. One thing that most people remember from all versions is the chariot race. The race is a big deal in the novel, and it was a big deal in the 1925 silent film, and it was big deal in the 1959 version starring Charlton Heston. Heston’s Ben-Hur film set an all-time record – winning 11 Oscars.

“Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ” is arguably one of the best-selling novels of its time. It was a better seller than “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” or anything Dickens did around the same time. Ben-Hur is a prince of Judea in 30 A.D. He has an adopted Roman brother, which is silly, but OK. They become rivals and ultimately bitter enemies. The brother works for Pontius Pilate. But Ben-Hur becomes a slave, and later a charioteer, and meets his brother again.

The updated chariot race is different but also very exciting. They did something very interesting with the race this time as they actually strapped cameras to the participants as they were racing around.

But the film that surrounds the chariot race is not so good.

This recent version is rated PG-13 for violence and scenes of pain, such as the crucifixion.

I suspect there has been a tremendous push ever since the success of “Passion of the Christ” for more successful Biblically-themed movies because this novel and other films had an appeal to Christian audiences. This is an attempt to do that.

In the first film, when they show Jesus, there’s a wordless choir and a flash of light. But here it’s played by an actor, and it has you thinking “Really? This is supposed to be Jesus?” And in this modern version, they have a very elaborate crucifixion scene, but it’s not done well.

I think people may come out of the film knowing less about this period than when they went in.

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