Lightly visceral, occasionally lurid and violent, the odd tender moment - the best that you can say about this Ben-Hur remake is that it's satisfactory and passes two hours pleasantly enough
Timur Bekmambetov's Ben-Hur remake was perhaps the most ignominious of summer flops, debuting to a meagre $11.4 million (€10m) with audiences staying away in their droves. The failure has been attributed to a number of possible factors. The critics piled on derision and scorn, comparing it unfavourably with the 1959, Oscar-winning version starring Charlton Heston.
That take on the tale boasted the largest movie sets of the era and was epic in every sense - shooting took place for 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week. One hundred wardrobe assistants made the costumes, while 200 artists and workmen built the hundreds of friezes and statues used in the movie.
Some believe that this latest Ben-Hur was specifically targeting viewers of devout religious affiliation, given that the Jesus story is woven in as more than a sideline plot. However, too much could be made of this as the producers - including Derry actress Roma Downey - could very reasonably be following the lead of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel, whose full title, after all, was Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Nevertheless, it is interesting that the movie performed better in the Bible belt than elsewhere in the United States.
Whatever it doesn't have, this latest stab at the story, features a company of extraordinarily healthy-looking young actors, with white teeth and great hair, full of volume and sheen. They speak the lingua franca of the epic, a vaguely RADA-accented English, with a dash of London East End for the generic brutish soldier. “On your feet!” bellows one chap, to a crowd of frightened Jews who had earlier been told to lie on the floor. But no expletives, naturally, to alienate Evangelists or anyone else God-fearing.
Whatever else about Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ, you can see where he was coming from with his efforts to use a language from the era in his particular adaptation of a Bible theme. English just isn't great for the purpose, and accents, be they American or English, seem incongruent in the ancient desert.
Then if you speak a neutral English it sounds po-faced and somehow stilted. Gibson settled finally for Latin, although Koine Greek would have been spoken at the time. However, he discovered that there were no actual sources for Koine Greek from which to craft a screenplay.
Wheels and Thrills: Jack Huston as Judah Ben-Hur
Anyway, to the plot. Ben-Hur - which, incidentally, runs to over two hours - is the tragic tale of estrangement between two brothers, one of whom is Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) who has the confidence that growing up in a wealthy Jewish family imparts. His brother is an adopted Roman boy, Messala (Toby Kebbell). They grow up as intimate buddies in Jerusalem.
That is until Messala decides to join the Roman army, where he quickly progresses to high-ranking officer. Following an attempted assassination on the visiting Julius Caesar by a Zealot - the Zealots are militarily active against the Roman regime - Massala accuses Judah Ben-Hur of harbouring the would-be assassin.
Jack Huston as Judah Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur is sent off to the port city of Tyre and ordered to spend five years as galley slave, the punishing, claustrophobic conditions evoked vividly and well in sweaty, sweltering scenes in Bekmambetov's treatment.
Ben-Hur has a lucky escape when the ship disintegrates following bombardment. Later, the the kindly horse dealer, played by Morgan Freeman, offers the young nobleman the means of revenge on the arrogant Messala - a chariot race in the Roman circus where either could lose their lives in the wild scramble of horses and men. Thus the culmination and grand show-piece of the movie, as in the 1959 version, starring Heston in the eponymous role.
This is, in fact, the fifth film adaptation of the 1880 novel, following the 1907 silent film, another 1925 silent film, the Academy Award-winning 1959 film and a 2003 animated treatment. This one isn't as bad as you might expect at all, in fact it is reasonably entertaining. However, at over two hours, by the time the chariot race comes around you may be vaguely glazed-over.
Paddy Kehoe
