VIEWING A SCENE FROM THE 1959 FILM VERSION OF BEN-HUR

“The grown man knows the world he lives in.”

Though it won eleven Academy Awards when it came out, today the 1959 movie version of Ben-Hur is ridiculously underrated by film critics and historians. In visuals and sound– including a best-ever film score by Miklos Rozsa– it provides one of the great cinematic experiences. Including the best-ever movie action sequence, the famed chariot race. But it’s also the most literate film epic ever made, with the possible exception of 1963’s Lawrence of Arabia. Contributors to Ben-Hur’s script included Karl Tunberg (who received screen credit), Christopher Fry, Gore Vidal, Maxwell Anderson, and S. N. Behrman– outstanding talents all.

The talent is shown, in my opinion, in one scene in particular, which, with everything happening in the world today, is more relevant than ever. This is the encounter between Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, and Judah Ben-Hur after Judah has won the chariot race. The subject being what path for an individual to follow when facing the cruel complexities of this world. To choose the big-picture reality of Empire– or move to the side of personal tragedies which may be indirectly or directly caused by Empire.

It’s a dilemma I notice taking place right now regarding the same part of the world, between America’s pro-Palestinian left, and those left-leaning liberals supporting President Biden on the issue, who are taking a broader, Pax Americana view– the view outlined in Biden’s October 19, 2023 televised speech. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Hopefully it won’t take 2,000 years to figure it out.

Anyway, the scene–

NOTE: The film is based on the novel by Lew Wallace, published in 1880, before the United States was considered an empire. Wallace had been a general on the Union side during the American Civil War. The reigning world empire at the time, Great Britain, had tacitly supported the South during that war. Did this influence Lew Wallace’s novel? One wonders.

-KW