Ben-Hur

We are approaching the 60th anniversary of the 1959 film. The film of course was based on Lew Wallace's 1880 book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Both are extraordinary in at least one respect, and it's the one respect that most matters to me. Wallace's Ben-Hur is a historical novel more than a religious one. It does not, for me at least, elucidate any biblical themes or messages. What it does do is recreate biblical times in a way that is truly astonishing. This is true of the film too. Both are feats of noble imagination that seem to resurrect a dead civilisation, blowing off the dust and sand under which it is buried. Reading Ben-Hur gives one a newfound sense of place when reading the bible.

I am admittedly the sort of person who doesn't care much about plot. I love setting above all. When I watch a film I enjoy the visuals, the style, the facial expressions, the silences more than I do the action. When I read a book I enjoy most the descriptions not the events. I tend to linger a lot when reading. In this respect Ben-Hur is second only to those magical opening chapters of The Talisman in the Syrian desert, or perhaps those extraordinary descriptions when Waverley first enters the highlands. Or Vodolazkin's almost fantastical medieval Russia in Laurus. Those novels are somewhat better than Ben-Hur -- Wallace's prose is not as strong as Scott or Vodolazkin, though it nonetheless works. And for many, I suspect, Wallace is much easier to read than Scott.

One other thing that is great about the film of the score. This was a time when films had overtures and entr'actes. Miklós Rózsa's music for the film is the epitome of Hollywood musical grandeur. It's fantastic: