BEN-HUR (2016) – Review

© 2016 Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The movies have long been fascinated by BEN-HUR, Lew Wallace’s 1880 bestselling novel – two silent versions, a 1907 short one and a spectacular 1925 feature film, and the familiar 1959 Technicolor classic with Charlton Heston. This will be at least the 4th movie version.

The 1925 version has the most thrilling chariot race, with a raw energy and real sense of danger – very real danger as the director hired Italian men skilled with horses to essentially run a chariot race, with all the inherent dangers (if you have never seen it, you really should). Memories of that gripping, cinematic chariot race helped prompt director William Wyler to remake BEN-HUR in 1959, in full color and sound, with a top-star and all the epic “cast of thousands” grandeur of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Now a new technology has its say with the old story -with CGI effects and 3D. Director Timur Bekmambetov, best known for NIGHTWATCH and ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, certainly has the knack for action and effects but might not be the director you think of for BEN-HUR. You just know it is going to be all about the chariot race.

In fact, the film does begin with the chariot race, but then flashes back to an earlier point in the story, when the two young men in the race still regarded each other as brothers.

To Bekmambetov’s credit, he does not simply remake the 1959 film but tries to make the story his own. The story goes back to when Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) and Messala Severus (Tony Kebbell) are grow up like brothers in Jerusalem in the Ben-Hurs home with Judah’s widowed mother Naomi (Ayelet Zurer), sister Tirzah (Sofia Black-D’Elia), and family servant Esther (Nazanin Boniadi). Even under Roman rule, the family lives well. The two boys are close but very competitive. As close as they are, Messala never forgets he is an outsider, a Roman orphan, while Judah is a Jewish prince. Messala leaves to make his own way in the Roman Empire, and rising through the ranks, returns to Jerusalem as a protege of Pontius Pilate (Pilou Asbaek), and a very different man. An incident occurs and Judah is accused of rebellion. The family is imprisoned and Messala has Judah sentenced to a Roman slave ship.

It all leads up to the big highlight of the film: the chariot race. This version wins the prize for highest body count – drivers, support staff, spectators, even horses. Bodies are trampled, chariots flipped or shattered, panicked horses bolt for the stands. Yet even with all the CGI tools in play, – and in 3D too –  it really is not as thrilling or as immediate as either of the two previous races with their live stunt work, just more gruesome.

Bekmambetov tries to reshape the story a bit from the 1959 version, mainly by rounding out the Messala character and making the film more about the relationship between the two men. Details of the story change and a theme of revenge and forgiveness are added. It is a good plan but basically brought down by the wooden acting by the two leads, Jack Huston and Tony Kebbell. The film never becomes very emotionally involving or develops much dramatic heat. Too often Huston ends up saying something like “I’m a Hebrew prince, you’re a Roman, but we’re brothers, so let’s race.” Morgan Freeman comes in and weaves his magic in a supporting role as an African chariot team owner Ilderim, but even his efforts are not enough to save this film.

The film is not quite all about the chariots. The full title of Wallace’s book is BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST and unlike previous versions of BEN-HUR, Jesus Christ has a much larger role in this film. While we never get much sense of Judah Ben-Hur’s Jewish faith, Christian content is far more present. Unlike earlier versions, we get full view of Jesus, played by Rodrigo Santoro, and even little bits of sermons and scenes from the Gospels, not just the Crucifixion scene usually featured. The increased Christian focus should please Christian audiences but maybe less so non-Christian ones.

Ever since GLADIATOR, it was inevitable someone would remake old Hollywood’s historical epics in  CGI, even more so now with 3D. BEN-HUR is better than the other recent remake of a Hollywood “cast of thousands” epic, EXODUS, but it in no way rivals either the 1959 Technicolor version or the great 1925 silent one.

2 out of 5 stars