So I'm sitting in my Religion course typing this column. Well, by now I've been booted from the class and am writing my next column with all the spare time I have now. But Religion is a pretty cool subject to take in college. You spend an hour learning how much better death is than life. Not only that, you learn about all the blessings in life. This column is certainly one of them. I get so many great complements now that I write for this site. I receive great comments like, "What are you selling again?" "Who are you and why are you talking to me?" and "Yo, tell that Lance Norris he's hilarious!" Anyway, like I said, I'm in Religion now and what better film to talk about than the ever-accurate BEN-HUR (1925/1959)? What most people don't know is that this film is, indeed, a remake. BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST was a silent picture that was released in 1925. The Charlton Heston version that we all know came out in '59. Both versions, by the way, are available on the 4-disc BEN-HUR DVD in stores as of last Tuesday (this is the part where Warner Bros. gives me loads of money for plugging their set...still waiting Warner...)
We'll start with a look at 1925's BEN-HUR. It was directed by Fred Niblo who was the vision behind many of lesser-known silent films including one called SEX (1920). Cool. Ben-Hur, or "Benny," as his friends used to call him, was played by Ramon Novarro. Novarro, not an actor of Heston's fame, can be seen in MATA HARI alongside the great Greta Garbo. The big name in the original BEN-HUR was Francis X. Bushman, who played Messala. Bushman, just "fyi," was Mr. Tyson in SABRINA (the original, and then in the remake when Harrison Ford re-animates his corpse). The film, though not an Academy Award mega-winner like its remake, did establish MGM as a big-name studio. The extravagance of its sets (including a chariot race that wasn't at all bad), lavishness of the costumes, and pretty good cinematography all proved that the early Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios had what it took to rank with the filmmaking elites. The acting was, in some cases, a bit over-the-top, but such was necessary in silent pictures as the actors relied on facial expressions over words.
Fast forward to 1959, BEN-HUR the second impresses audiences across the world. This film was directed by William Wyler, a director well-recognized in the film community for not only this picture, but ROMAN HOLIDAY, MRS. MINIVER, HOW TO STEAL A MILLION and many more. Charlton Heston, needing no introduction, starred as big Ben-Hur in this one. The film won 11 Oscars, a record for the time. Even today, the movie's chariot race is remembered as one of filmdom's finest sequences. Interesting to note, Italian director Sergio Leone (discussed in last week's column) played a minor role in the filming of this scene.
All in all, see both films. No need to do it in chronological order (the story is roughly the same), but do watch both. If you really get into it, you can read the book, which was also popular at the time of its release. But no one wants to do that. That's why we have movies (spoken like a true college student). There was also a play made of the novel that did gain some acclaim. Reassembling the actors would be, to say the least, tough, though. Alright, that's it for me. Now I need to get back to Religion. Not the class, I mean actual Religion. To pray for either academic success or to win it big on a really trendy game show. (By the way, sorry for all the parenthetical remarks, I know they're there, I just don't want to do anything about them)
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For anyone who's ever been told "You should have seen the original," this column provides insight into any film that’s been remade, rehashed, or re-envisioned.
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| Jonathan Alexandratos |
Jonathan is a college student in New York. He is already an accomplished writer, having completed 3 full-length plays and numerous poems. He is also working on his first book.
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