Biblical Best Picture Ben-Hur Makes For A Thorough DVD.

The Good: Looks good, Timeless story, Amazing DVD presentation.
The Bad: All the blood looks quite fake
The Basics: With generally likable characters engaged in a search for family and revenge, Ben-Hur is a long movie with a surprisingly intimate focus on the title character.


As I make it through the final few films I have yet to see for my ambitious Best Picture Project (check it out by clicking here!), I find myself watching a number of older movies that I might not have otherwise watched. The real surprise for me in sitting down to watch some of them, though, has been the fact that I have seen some of them. As it turns out, "Ben-Hur," which I thought was going to be new-to-me is actually a film I had seen once before in syndication on an Easter in my childhood. In fact, the only thing that surprised me in the four-disc DVD presentation of Ben-Hur was that the mammoth film opened with seven minutes of nothing happening (no kidding, it's an overture with artwork from the Sistine Chapel and the MGM logo for the first seven minutes).

For those unfamiliar with Ben-Hur ("A Tale Of Christ"), the film is set in biblical times as something of a parallel story to the rise of Jesus Christ. While Jesus is off teaching and gathering support for his philosophy, Judah Ben-Hur encounters trials and tribulations in Rome with moments that are tangential to Christ's story. This film is based upon the bible as well as a novel by General Lew Wallace, but as always it is worth noting that this review is solely of the film, not the source material upon which it is based.

Twenty-six years after the birth of Christ, Messala is made the tribune of the Roman province of Judea. There, he calls upon his childhood friend Judah Ben-Hur to find out who the rabblerousers in the province are. Ben-Hur declines, despite their old friendship, and he returns home where he flirts with his slave's daughter, Esther. When the new Roman Governor arrives, a tile falls off the roof at Ben-Hur's estate, spooks the governor's horse and Ben-Hur and his family are arrested as traitors to the Roman Empire. After three years rowing as a slave on a Roman ship, Ben-Hur's ship encounters a Macedonian fleet and when his ship is destroyed, he saves the life of the ship's captain, the Consol Arrius. In saving his life, Ben-Hur earns a place as Arrius's slave, as opposed to a criminal outside his mercies.

After a year, adopted by Arrius, Ben-Hur returns to Judea, where Pontius Pilate replaces Messala as Governor. Messala, in the meantime, has become a champion in the Roman circuses as a chariot-racer and Ben-Hur is challenged to race against his old friend and win. Learning the fates of his sister, mother and Esther, Ben-Hur decides to race in the chariot races and defeat Messala and regain all he has lost.

Outside the setting and the occasional references to Judah being Jewish instead of Roman, Ben-Hur is a remarkably average character story of a man whose life is stripped away from him and he must work to take it back. Over the three hour, forty minutes of Ben-Hur, the scope and scale of the character work are sometimes distracted from, but essentially the movie stays focused on the title character. As a man of wealth and privilege, Judah's character arc is simple; all he has is stripped away and from his lowest point, he works to restore himself. The process of restoring himself to his prior state is a painstaking process and one that makes for an epic-feeling story, even if the scope is so much smaller than that.

Ben-Hur is focused on Judah Ben-Hur, with random moments that Jesus Christ appears and the characters around Judah stand in awe of him, even when he does something as simple as offer Ben-Hur water in defiance of the Roman soldiers. But Jesus is only a peripheral character for the bulk of the film, so those coming to this as "A Tale Of Christ" might be a bit disappointed, despite the little Christian-focus pamphlet that came in the four-disc version (which tries to emphasize the four scenes with Jesus out of the entire film - perhaps fifteen minutes out of the epic). Far more iconic from this film are elements like the chariot race that occupies the bulk of the second half of the movie.

To be fair, Ben-Hur's story is one that fits in well with the ideas of forgiveness and personal growth. It is Ben-Hur's anger that supposedly sustains him - though this is not evident through Charlton Heston's acting at the time, rather as Arrius, he reveals it in dialog with Messala - and after all he is put through, he ultimately must work to let go of his anger. But for those looking for a strong Christian message, Ben-Hur is a bit garbled. Judah Ben-Hur takes the time to turn the other cheek . . . while plotting revenge. And he has forgiveness for his enemies . . . after he has his revenge upon them. The point here is that Ben-Hur is not the ultimate Christian hero the viewer's guide that accompanies the four-disc set truly want him to be.

And while the story is a tale of a man pulling himself back up to the status he was wrongfully stripped of, there are many predictable elements that have the feeling of being contrived. The Ben-Hur and Esther love story is fair, but offers no conflict or strength for Ben-Hur's story. In other words, Esther doesn't challenge Ben-Hur to be a better man or to not seek revenge upon those who wronged him, nor does she actually help him get revenge. Because the romance has no effect on the character, it seems more Hollywood Standard - gratuitous - than actually integral or special to this story. Far more compelling than the love story is Ben-Hur's devoted hunt for his mother and sister (who contract leprosy while in a Roman prison).

Despite the character flaws or lack of development in the writing of the characters, Ben-Hur has appropriately great acting. Charlton Heston plays Judah Ben-Hur and he portrays the character as a natural leader and a man who has kindness and anger at and under the surface, respectively. Heston has on-screen gravitas in this role and it is one of the performances that gave him a reputation, rightly, as a dramatic powerhouse. The viewer feels the anguish of Ben-Hur when he is told his family is dead and Heston has a great physical presence as Ben-Hur. Indeed, some of the best moments of Heston's acting in this film come from the moments when Heston must perform solely with his eyes, casting powerful gazes and emoting without words.

On-screen, Heston has great on-screen chemistry with Haya Harareet, who plays Esther. Harareet is an average actress and she plays less well against Heston. Particularly bad is the moment Esther lies to Ben-Hur about the state of his family and there Harareet is utterly unconvincing. Fortunately, Heston is facing away from the camera, so if he winced at her portrayal of lying, it is not shown. Generally, the acting is good and even better is the casting. In fact, the attempt to cast people who could be passed off as Arab - as opposed to actors who are clearly American or European for a piece set in the Middle East - was so effective in some cases that I was surprised when I read the cast list (most notably that Ben-Hur's Sheik sponsor at the chariot race was played by Hugh Griffith).

On DVD, Ben-Hur is presented as a magnificent four-disc special edition. While the Best Picture winner is presented on the first two discs with a commentary track from a film historian and Charlton Heston, the third disc features the 1925 version of the same film (which was not even nominated for Best Picture, because the award did not even exist when it was made!). The fourth disc is a virtual orgy of featurettes for fans of "Ben-Hur. That final disc features two documentaries on how the movie was made, as well as newsreels that were played in theaters before the film. There is also an extensive photo gallery on the disc as well as the theatrical trailer. As one who has watched a lot of Best Picture winners, fans of Ben-Hur will be pleased that many of the presentations from the Academy Award ceremony are presented on this disc as well! This is a treasure trove of information for those who like the source material and film scholars especially will enjoy going through the various materials. There is a surprising amount of educational value to the documentaries and commentary tracks. Also in the four-disc set is a photo album and viewer's guide (intended to guide church groups and the like) and these offer even more value for those who like the movie.

Despite some simplistic elements - and the fact that the chariot race burns a chunk of time out of Ben-Hur longer than the podrace sequence occupied The Phantom Menace (reviewed here!) - Ben-Hur earns its status as a classic film with a timeless feel to it. In fact, the only enduring surprise for me is that the movie is not alluded to even more often.

For similar films, please check out my reviews of:
Priest
Gladiator
"Bread And Circuses"

8/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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A Timely Picture With Timeless Messages, The Best Years Of Our Lives Remains Worthwhile!

The Good: Great character development, Decent acting, Generally good plot
The Bad: Light on DVD bonus features, Slightly overbearing soundtrack (when there is one)
The Basics: A superb character study, The Best Years Of Our Lives explores the post-World War II experience as seen through the eyes of three families, all broken from the separation.


With my relentless pursuit of movies these days, there are surprisingly few movies that I get excited about. Most movies I see these days I either go into completely blind or having heard rumors about it. In an effort to (usually unsuccessfully) include my wife in my endeavors, I actually read the back of a few DVD boxes in my cache to try to let her choose the next film we might watch together. None of the backs sold her on watching with me. However, the DVD case for The Best Years Of Our Lives sold me on it, so the next time my wife was at work, I popped it into the Playstation 3 (reviewed here!) and watched it.

The Best Years Of Our Lives is one of those films where it is impressive to look back on now and see how perceptive it was. Considering World War II ended in 1945, the fact that in 1946 a film was accurately detailing the post-war experience is impressive. In addition to having a strong perception about social relations and the changing post-war economy, the movie also explores personal relationship issues like shellshock and the varying effects each person's war experience has on them. The Best Years Of Our Lives is based upon a novel, which I had not read, and is remarkably close to being a perfect film.

Three U.S. servicemen return home from World War II to Boone City, Michigan on a plane together. Meeting for the first time as they fly home, Captain Derry, Sergeant Stephenson, and sailor Homer Parrish return to their respective homes with a great deal of trepidation. Homer lost both hands in the war and encounters a family that is insecure about the hooks he has in the place of his hands. The Sergeant arrives to find his son and daughter all grown up and his wife unsure how to act around him. Fred Derry returns to even more murky situations as he discovers his young wife is no longer living with his parents and she has a job at a nightclub. Fred goes out to a local bar that Homer and Al are drinking in and he hits it off with Al's daughter, Penny.

The first night, Fred and Al both have difficulty sleeping and Fred crashes on Al's couch after he cannot get into the apartment building his wife lives in. But the three men quickly discover circumstances are not what they remember or want. Homer is pressured to get a job before the war boom disappears, Al and his wife do not know how to speak to one another and Al finds it tough to deal with his children being adults. And Fred, when he is finally reunited with his wife, discovers that the young relationship they had before he left may no longer be as strong. Fred struggles to find a job without returning to the soda fountain he worked at before the war. Fred and Al's daughter, Peggy, begin to develop a relationship, despite Fred's marriage. As each family adapts, it becomes clear that all of their lives have been changed by the war.

The Best Years Of Our Lives is a character study, so it is not so much a movie chock full of events as it is a worthwhile movie exploring how people relate to one another and try to figure their lives out. While there are some obvious - and appropriate - literary elements that translate into the film, most notably the name Homer Parrish, an allusion to The Odyssey. Homer's story is also the most obviously broken one and Harold Russell is amazing in the role. Despite clearly working around the hooks, Russell makes the role absolutely believable and there is never a moment the viewer does not feel empathy for Homer as he insists on doing things for himself. Homer's struggle accurately explores the difficulty of being left alive and requiring special assistance as a result of war wounds. It is hard not to feel a tug when Homer has to have his father help him get ready for bed and it is painful to watch Homer try to negotiate the doorknobs when he is frustrated.

Conversely, Fred's wife is entirely impossible to empathize with. As Fred tries to get a job, she burns through Fred's money and resents him because he does not want her to have to work at the nightclub. Unlike other characters who try to be sympathetic to their family members, Fred's wife wants him to "snap out of it" and get over his wartime experiences. Fred, unfortunately, is plagued by nightmares and his wife is bratty and annoying, even if the very traditional gender roles intrude upon Fred continuing to be a fully realized and decent character.

Al's story is a more subtle arc at first and in some ways, he does not get over the war in that his new job keeps him working with G.I.s and their finances. Returning to the bank he worked at before the war, he is surprisingly promoted, but finds himself having difficulty adjusting to loan applications and the hard numbers of banking when dealing with former military men. He finds himself unfulfilled and listless, especially as he has to deny many people's request based upon bank risk.

What truly works, then, is how the three men bond and continue to collide with one another. They find themselves able to relate to one another better than they can their own families and that has both a timeless and historical element to them. The specifics of each character's struggle are surprisingly universal, despite details of prices and American culture that may have changed since.

For those who have served, The Best Years Of Our Lives becomes an easy way to illustrate the problems of reassimilation to those who have not. For those who have not served, it becomes a cautionary tale of how to be tolerant of those who have served. But regardless of the viewer's status, the movie has a rather universal resonance as all people struggle and the idea of how people survive their struggles (or don't) can be compelling to watch. All three of the main protagonists are worth watching and have compelling stories.

On DVD, though, The Best Years Of Our Lives is unfortunately lacking in bonus features. The movie only comes with the original theatrical trailer. There is no commentary track or other bonuses to entice viewers and that is somewhat disappointing.

This film is both entertaining and dramatic and anyone who likes drama and character studies that are unafraid to be complex will enjoy this one.

[As winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this is part of my Best Picture Project which is available here!]

For other war films, please visit my reviews of:
Charlie Wilson's War
Wizards
Battlefield Earth

9/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Life During Wartime: Mrs. Miniver Explores The Outbreak Of World War II In England!

The Good: Surprisingly engaging story, Interesting characters, Decent pacing, Interesting DVD bonus features.
The Bad: One or two little acting issues, Could always use more DVD features!
The Basics: A worthy winner of the Best Picture, Mrs. Miniver explores the human cost of World War II just as it was actually breaking out!


One of the things that continues to surprise me most about classic films is how on top of reality they were at the time they were made. So, while our documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11might give future generations the hope that we were not all living in ignorance of the Bush Administration's abuses of power, contemporary films are likely to be viewed as startlingly neglectful of our reality. By contrast, it is hard to argue how the world was not aware of the danger of the Nazis with films like Casablanca going so far as to mention concentration camps. In a similar vein, movies like Mrs. Miniver might seem like propaganda today, but they opened American eyes to the reality of the fight that England and France was having with Germany while the United States generally kept to its own.

Released in 1942 and the winner of the 1942 Best Picture Oscar, Mrs. Miniver is a surprisingly astute character drama set in 1939 England. Exploring the early days of World War II from a British perspective, Mrs. Miniver illustrates a strong anti-Nazi story that does as much to show how strong women are than it does to show how bad the Nazis were. The film works both as a period piece for the time that even the writers knew was already gone and an enduring piece about the strength of one woman and her family.

In the spring of 1939, Mrs. Miniver is preoccupied with the joys of splurging on a new hat when she is pulled aside by a ticket collector and shown a rose he has bred in her honor. At the same time, her husband Clem is spending his money on a new car and the two are very much in love. When their son, Vin, returns from Oxford with a strong socialist leaning and the desire to learn all that he can, he spars with a neighborhood gal, Carol, who comes to ask Mrs. Miniver to have the rose in her name withdrawn from a contest in town so her grandmother might continue winning. After a summer apart, Vin and Carol are reunited and their passion begins to grow anew. It is at that point that the Germans invade Poland and England declares war on Germany.

Vin joins the Royal Air Force and returns to propose to Carol before he is called off to fight the Nazis. As the war begins to turn against the British, Clem is called off to help with the boat rescue at Dunkirk. In his absence, Mrs. Miniver encounters a downed German pilot, disarms him and turns him over to the police. Advocating with Carol's grandmother, Mrs. Miniver encourages Vin's marriage to Carol and she waits for Vin to return from the war. As the war goes on, the family adapts to constant bombings and the turmoil of war.

Mrs. Miniver is an intriguing piece and one based upon a novel (which I have not read). In addition to having a delightfully strong female protagonist - when the film is not focused on Vin and Carol - there is a strange lack of resolution that comes out of necessity. Because the war was still well underway, there was only optimism about how it might be resolved and as a result, Mrs. Miniver rightly focuses on the characters. It also realistically captures the changing times and the difference between Clem and his wife at the outset of the film and as it progresses is compelling. Mrs. Miniver goes from a lighthearted tale about splurging to spending money on fans that keep those in their bunkers alive. There is a delicious sense of wryness to the film when Clem shows off the indicator on the fan of gas attacks when he illustrates that when the sensor indicates gas coming through the vent, the solution will lead those inside the bunker to eventually suffocate.

What Mrs. Miniver does best is what the best Modernist works do, which is to illustrate the changing world and the contrasts of life before and during World War II. The inclusion of Alice In Wonderland accurately expresses the feeling at the time that people were living in a surreal world that was unsettling and watching Clem and her husband cling to one another and the hope that Vin will return is both compelling and heartwrenching. Particularly unsettling is the first bomb attack the family survives in their new bomb shelter.

Carol and Vin have a charming love story that offers an enduring sense of hope through much of the movie. Again, women are presented in an enlightened and worthwhile light in that Carol is a realist and holds her own intellectually and emotionally with Vin. Defying the stereotypes, Carol is not just bubbly or an accessory, she is a fully realized character and she has as much charisma as Vin does, making her very easy to watch.

The film also works because of the contrasts between the war story and the simple story about a rose-breeding competition. Put off because of the attacks, the flower club delays meeting and giving their awards, which the Lady Belden has consistently won. The normalizing of the event opposite the war scenes provides a sense of what the British tried to do - psychologically - to survive the war. It is both informative and entertaining now to watch. Similarly, the intrusion into the resolution to that scene by the war creates a very real sense of the impact and power of the war.

As for the acting, one need not know the backstory of Greer Garson and Richard Ney to know that Garson's acting for her on-screen son is not quite right. When Vin kisses Carol goodbye and then kisses his mother the same way, it seems more odd than dated. That said, most of the film Ney has great on-screen chemistry with Teresa Wright, who plays Carol. Similarly, Garson and Walter Pidgeon make a decent on-screen couple as Kay and Clem Miniver. Pidgeon especially peppers his performance with looks at Greer that create in his character a sense that he is still seeing the woman he initially married and fell in love with.

Even so, Mrs. Miniver is not flawless on the acting front. Greer is caught at several times looking at Ney on-screen in a way that a mother does not typically look at her son. Ney carries his scenes as Vin with a natural charisma that is exciting to watch and makes it fairly obvious how he was cast as Vin. Ney's scenes are enjoyable to watch and he embodies young love quite well.

But much of the film ends up hinging on the performance of Greer Garson, who won the Oscar for Best Actress. Garson is good at playing both the freespending wife and the empowered woman who realistically captures a German soldier. Garson is also able to play strong emotions opposite nothing but a sound effect and this is where she earns her pay. Garson is brilliant when she must play Kay simply listening to a bomb falling and the look of terror in her eyes is compelling.

On DVD, Mrs. Miniver features Garson getting her Oscar as well as the original shorts that preceded the film in theaters. The trailer for Mrs. Miniver is also included and while these are all enjoyable, one finds themselves wishing there were more to this DVD presentation. I, for one, would have loved a commentary track.

Even so, Mrs. Miniver is a wonderful film that stands up over time, creating a timeless character study and setting it opposite a real, budding and immediate war.

[As a winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this film is part of W.L.'s Best Picture Project, which is available by clicking here! Please check it out!]

For other films where warfare plays a big part, please check out my reviews of:
Charlie Wilson’s War
Dear John
The Men Who Stare At Goats

8/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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