BEN-HUR (2016) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

ben-hur (2016) movie

Genre               |   Action Drama

Classification   |   M

Running time   |  123 minutes

Released         |   18 August 2016

cast

Jack Huston ... Judah Ben-Hur
Toby Kebbell ... Messala Severus
​Ayelet Zurer ... Naomi Ben-Hur
Pilou Asbæk ... Pontius Pilate
Sofia Black-D'Elia ... Tirzah Ben-Hur
Morgan Freeman ... Ilderim
Rodrigo Santoro ... Jesus
Nazanin Boniadi ... Esther

director

Timur Bekmambetov ​

writer

Lew Wallace ... (based on the novel by)
 
Keith R. Clarke ... (screenplay) &
John Ridley ... (screenplay)

cinematographer

​Oliver Wood

music

​Marco Beltrami

film editor

​Dody Dorn
Richard Francis-Bruce
Bob Murawski

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box office result

Worldwide             $​ ​94,061,311  

Australia                 $​​1,741,912

North America        $26,410,477 ​

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the best dialogue

Messala Severus: You should have stayed away.
Judah Ben-Hur: You should have killed me.
Messala Severus: I will.

Judah Ben-Hur: [to Dismas] How many Romans do you even know? Have you ever had a conversation with a single one in your life? Don't spit your hate for all when you don't even know one.

Jesus: Hate, anger, fear. Those are lies they use to turn you against each other. When you set aside the hate they force you to carry, that's when you know love is our true nature.

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BEN-HUR (2016) STORY SYNOPSIS

​​BEN-HUR is the epic story of Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell), an officer in the Roman army.  Stripped of his title, separated from his family and the woman he loves (Nazanin Boniadi), Judah is forced into slavery.  After years at sea, Judah returns to his homeland to seek revenge, but finds redemption.  Based on Lew Wallace’s timeless novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.  Also starring Morgan Freeman and Rodrigo Santoro

BEN-HUR (2016) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 16 August 2016
​Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐½

Those familiar with the 1959 William Wyler version of BNE-HUR will find it difficult to reconcile Timur Bekmambetov’s 2016 feature film adaptation of the Lee Wallace novel with the film that won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. While central character’s names and the narrative of Keith Clarke and John Ridley’s screenplay are taken from the Wallace book, this new version of Ben-Hur fails to provide the necessary spectacle and scope to its settings, its costuming and action to make it entertaining enough for audiences to come away feeling satisfied that this new version is a compelling stand-alone movie that also provides a passing nod to its 1950s namesake. While supporting players deliver solid performances, the film’s lack of impact extends to Jack Huston’s Judah Ben-Hur, making it difficult for audiences to relate to the titular character’s predicament.

​This new film stays with the original story and examines the relationship between Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) and his adopted brother, Messala Severus (Toby Kebbell). Judah is a Jew, who is the Prince of Jerusalem,  and Messala, an outcast, is a Roman. As privileged young men, an air of arrogance informs their behaviour and, because of this, events early in the film bring Messalla to question his place among the family who have taken him in. The young Roman opts to join the army and serve Caesar’s Empire in an effort to find his true place in the world. In the meantime, Jerusalem is subjugated under Roman rule, leading to the emergence of the Zealots; a group determined to inflict as much violent mayhem upon their oppressors as possible. Messala’s return to Jerusalem, combined with the increased attacks upon the Roman army, create a perfect storm for Judah; torn between affection for his “brother”, the love for his family and duty to his people.

Bekmambetov’s Ben-Hur is well intentioned, but there is an unrealistic quality about the film that makes it hard to engage with. It feels like the performers are doing what they need to do without investing completely into their characters. Jack Huston does enough not to make the audience feel as though his take on Judah isn’t disingenuous, but, his performance feels quite light and it never feels as though the pain his character has endured is as earnestly portrayed as it should be.

​Toby Kebbell is better, but the Messala character is diminished by the film’s denouement and many viewers will be left scratching their heads as to why the makers chose to finish the story in the manner they have. The two stand-out performances in Ben-Hur are Nazanin Boniadi as Judah’s wife Esther and Rodrigo Santoro as Jesus Christ. The sub-plot that runs through Ben-Hur detailing the exchanges between Judah and Jesus are the film’s most interesting. The film could have benefited greatly in exploring the relationship between these two men.

Surprisingly, BEN-HUR works best when it is focussed on events other than those depicting the relationship between Judah and his family. The film’s strongest sequence is his time spent aboard a Roman warship as a galley slave. While the depiction of the suffering aboard the vessel is not the most graphic ever committed to film, Bekmambetov, Cinematographer Oliver Wood and the three-person editing team (Dody Dorn, Richard Francis-Bruce & Bob Murawski) do an outstanding job of capturing and piecing together the close-quarters action when the Roman and Greek fleets go head-to-head in battle.

Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the film’s signature set-piece: the chariot race. As with many movies these days, the sequence relies too heavily on computer-generated effects and diminishes the intensity of the sequence with images that are completely unrealistic to the human eye. If that had been BEN-HUR’s only problem it would have been a great movie. Too many other production problems exists for the film to live up to the advertising hype: “First to finish. Last to die.”

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