Ben Hur

Directed by Timur Bekmambetoz

Based on a novel by Lew Wallace

Starring: Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, and Rodrigo Santoro

Review by Tamera Lynn Kraft

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

In the movie, Ben Hur, Judah Ben Hur is a Jewish prince who lives a life of privilege and trying to keep his countrymen from rebelling against Rome. He knows it will only end in bloodshed. His adopted brother, Messala, who never felt he belonged in Judea, goes off to prove himself as a Roman soldier. When Messala returns, he falsely accuses Ben Hur of sedition and has his family executed. Ben Hur is sent to die as a galley slave, but he doesn’t die. He returns to seek revenge on the man he once called a brother.

I am an old classic movie fan. The old Ben Hur (1959) starring Charleton Heston, is one of my favorite Biblical sagas. Because of this, I doubted I would like this Ben Hur as much. I was wrong. The new Ben Hur is so much better than the old one. Jack Huston has done the impossible by making me forget about Charlton Heston. He came on the screen larger than life with a believably that Heston didn’t even have.

The chariot race is awesome with all of the special effects, but that isn’t what drew me in. The screen writers and actors did a top notch job of creating characters that seemed real. Even Messala wasn’t pure evil but had motives that made his actions understandable even if they were reprehensible. The best part was how Jesus was portraying. He didn’t have harp music playing in the background and everyone awestruck every time he came on the scene. There were no glows or halos, and he didn’t have blond hair or striking blue eyes. He showed what Jesus must have been like to the every day people living in that time. He wove in and out of the life of Ben Hur in a way that made sense.

I can’t say enough good about this film that really is a Tale of Christ as was the subtitle of the earlier movie. This one is a must see.