Very best movie i ever watch

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Comparable in scope and grandeur to the famous 1959 version, 1925's "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" is an epic imaging of Lew Wallace's story of the fall and rise of a Jewish prince during the days of Christ on Earth. While showing its age, the cinematography remains outstanding, with tranquil scenes that look like images from vintage Christmas cards juxtaposed with the magnificent sea battle, the dramatic entry into Jerusalem, the dramatic earthquake that accompanies Christ's crucifixion, and the iconic chariot race. Like most silents, there is a touch of histrionics to the acting but that doesn't detract from the film (although the scene where a servant is being throttled does looks a bit like Homer strangling Bart). There is no need to repeat the history of the film here, but the stories of its production are almost as interesting as the film itself. All-in-all, another outstanding work from the early days of movie making – well-worth watching both in its own right and from the perspective of its place in cinematic history.

Directed by Fred Niblo, and co-written by Bess Meredyth and Carey Wilson, among others, this outstanding film is actually a remake that was later remade, winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1959. Though primarily a B&W film, this silent features several 2- strip Technicolor scenes (e.g. those with Jesus Christ, including his birth and the Last Supper) which help to make this a must-see classic. It was added to the National Film Registry in 1997.Ramon Novarro plays the title role of Judah Ben-Hur, a wealthy Jew and boyhood friend of the powerful Roman, Messala (played by Francis X. Bushman). When an accident leads to the title character's arrest, Messala makes sure he and his family are jailed and separated; Ben- Hur is sent to work in the galley of a Roman warship. Along the way, he unknowingly encounters Christ, the carpenter's son who offers him water.Once aboard ship, his attitude of defiance and strength impresses a Roman Admiral, Quintus Arrius (Frank Currier), who allows him to remain unchained, unlike the other slaves powering the mighty vessel. This actually works to the Admiral's favor because, when his ship is attacked and sunk by pirates, Ben-Hur saves him from drowning. Arrius then treats Ben-Hur as a son and, over the years, the young man grows strong and becomes a victorious chariot racer many times over.Of course, this eventually leads to a climactic showdown with Messala in a visually spectacular, incredibly exciting chariot race, perhaps only surpassed by the later filmed version of this story.May McAvoy plays Esther, the daughter of the Hur family's former servant Simonides (Nigel De Brulier). Though she was instructed to hide the fact of their existence from Ben-Hur earlier, she eventually leads him to his sister Tirzah (Kathleen Key) and mother (Claire McDowell) who, when they were finally released from prison, discovered they were lepers.Betty Bronson plays Mary, the mother of Christ; Winter Hall plays Joseph. Mitchell Lewis plays Sheik Ilderim, who supplies Ben-Hur with the horses he needs to race Messala.Clarence Brown, who would go on to earn seven Best Director Oscar nominations appeared uncredited as an extra in the chariot race scene, as did actors/actresses Marion Davies, Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, Lillian Gish, Harold Lloyd, and Mary Pickford, and Chinese Theater owner Sid Grauman, among others. Myrna Loy also appears, uncredited, as a Hedonist!

Not even an immaculate restoration job can hide the wrinkles on this epic, silent 'Tale of the Christ'. What was once the most expensive and spectacular film ever made is now, after more than eighty years, a colorful but outdated catalogue of silent film anachronisms. The collision between high spectacle and histrionic melodrama is more obvious today than it must have been in 1926. Jazz Age audiences no doubt didn't mind that Ramon Novarro's emoting in the title role was more furious than even the famous sea battle, or that his rendering of the heroic Prince of Hur was downright effeminate next to Francis Bushman's burly he-man Messala. The centerpiece of the film is of course the chariot duel, still thrilling after all these years, although the surviving print unfairly inflates the edge-of-seat excitement by including thundering hooves and audience cheers on what should have been a silent soundtrack. The sequence was so effective, however, that with the exception of a few added stunts William Wyler's 1959 remake copied it virtually shot for shot.

This film is a must see; it's a stunning visual achievement. The most expensive silent film ever made. The staggeringly elaborate sets, the camera-work, the Technicolor segments, and the special effects are absolutely spectacular.The sea battle and chariot race sequences are better here than they are in the more famous sound version. 'Breezy' Eason, the race's second unit director had 62 assistant directors working on the fantastic chariot race sequence, one of whom was William Wyler, who made the sound version of 'Ben Hur' in 1959, and who repeated much of what we see in these two seminal parts of both versions. The chariot race camera work is amazing: it's exciting, tight, fast and expertly edited, even including shots of horses seen from the ground looking up. No wonder the race's editing was so remarkable -- 200,000 feet of shot film was cut to 750 feet! Action director Eason was notorious for his cavalier treatment of animal safety, so much so that as a result of so many wounded or killed horses on his 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' (1936), the Humane Society started monitoring animal safety during film shooting. Here, at the end of the race we see a massive pile up of chariot teams of horses, like cars on a freeway. The only really grim moment.Ramon Novarro does more than a creditable job as Judah, Ben-Hur, if you can get that image of the huskier Charlton Heston out of your mind. Actually, Ramon does a better job-- he's not playing his own stereotype. He didn't have much later success in films, though you can find him in an episode of Boris Karloff's 'Thriller' (1962) TV show. May McAvoy, who plays Esther, left films when sound came in, but returned in the forties to only uncredited parts. Betty Bronson, after her star turn 'Peter Pan' (1924) appears briefly here as a beatific (but very unpregnant looking) Mary mother of Jesus during the opening Nativity sequences (some in color!). You can see her still playing pixie girls as Gene Autry's love interest in 'Yodelin' Kid from Pine Ridge' (1937).The person who had the most continuing success was Francis X. Bushman (Massala), whom we are used to seeing as an old man in 50s and 60s TV shows and junk movies. As the villain, he was not in this movie enough, or was bad enough, as was Stephen Boyd in the sound version. Here his face and makeup reminded me of Al Lewis as 'Grandpa' in 'The Munsters.' He can be seen as the police chief in the first self-titled Dick Tracy serial (1937).A real bonus to the film, in the crystal clear four disk set from M-G-M is the new magnificent music soundtrack by Carl Davis, composer of not only the TV series 'World at War', but of original scores for 'Intolerance' (1916), 'Greed' (1924), 'The Thief of Bagdad' (1924), 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1924), 'The General' (1927) and 'Napoleon' (1927). Needless to say he knows how to fit the score to the film; knowing when to put it in the background, as he does in the extended touching emotional scene where Judah's mother and sister discover him sleeping, and when to pump it up into the foreground as he does for the chariot race. Great placement and use of music! A cast of 125,000 people. Almost two and a half hours, that go by quickly. The whole story told as in the remake, but with a little more added here. This version emphasizes the expectations the Jewish people had for a Deliverer, and it also adds depth to the revolutionary message of Christianity. Unbelievable sets, great camera-work, action and visual story telling. You've got to give it at least an 8.So why not a 10? Ultimately it's not up to the great 10s of Silent German Cinema. Here we get a film about Ben 'Horatio Alger' Hur's fall and rise to fame and fortune told in easy and continuing coincidences, especially in the final ten minutes, with a lot of overwrought acting not very much controlled by silent film director Niblo.But still, this a definite must see silent film for the magnificent achievement that it is. I give it an 8.