This tale about faith, devotion, and courage originated in the 1880 Lew Wallace novel, “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ”. Set in a supersized world that richly brings this period in history to life, “Ben-Hur” is one moving and massively absorbing adventure. At the hand of “Messala”, events uproot the lives of “Ben-Hur”, his mother, and sister, and the bulk of this epic follows “Ben-Hur’s” enthralling search to find his mother and sister and wreak vengeance against the power-hungry “Messala”. Knowing it would mean becoming a traitor to his own people, “Ben-Hur” refuses, and the love between the two quickly turns to adversity. Fully intending to carry out the Roman emperor’s wishes to make Judea a more obedient and disciplined province, he asks “Ben-Hur” for help. As the story begins, “Ben-Hur’s” close boyhood friend “Messala” has returned to Jerusalem as the newly appointed commander of its Roman garrison. He falls in love with “Esther”, the daughter of the family’s slave “Simonides”, even though “Esther” is betrothed to someone else. “Ben-Hur” lives with his sister “Tirzah” and their widowed mother “Miriam”. The bulk of the story begins in the year 26 AD. With colossal sets, eye-popping visuals, heart stopping action, a cast of thousands, and a running time of three hours and thirty-two minutes, “Ben-Hur” is an event, and it completely lives up to its monumental status as a classic.
Electrifying on every level, the American Film Institute (AFI) named it the 2nd Greatest Epic, 49th Most Thrilling, 56th Most Inspiring, and the 72nd Greatest American Film of All-Time. This epic journey of a man seeking his family and vengeance during the time of Christ overflows with action and pageantry, but never loses sight of its humanity. A lesson in extravagance done right, this film broke new ground in many aspects of moviemaking while financially saving a floundering studio, creating stars of its lead actors, quickly becoming filmdom's second highest-grossing film (next to “Gone with the Wind” ), and winning a record eleven Academy Awards including Best Picture (matched only by 1997’s “Titanic” and 2003's " The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”). There’s nothing more suited for a movie-watching experience than giant, larger-than-life spectacles, and it rarely gets more spectacular than the 1959 epic, “Ben-Hur”.
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