{"id":297,"date":"2016-07-26T10:43:56","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T16:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/backstagepass\/?p=297"},"modified":"2016-07-27T16:30:24","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T22:30:24","slug":"a-brave-new-ben-hur-charges-into-theaters-august-19th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/backstagepass\/2016\/07\/a-brave-new-ben-hur-charges-into-theaters-august-19th\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brave New “Ben-Hur” Charges Into Theaters August 19th"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I hate to admit it,\u00a0but I never saw\u00a0the epic 1959 movie\u00a0Ben-Hur,\u00a0<\/em>starring Charlton Heston, until just\u00a0last month.\u00a0I had been invited to see an\u00a0advance screening of the new<\/strong>\u00a0Ben-Hur<\/a><\/em>\u00a0coming out this summer \u2014 starring Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, Morgan Freeman, and Rodrigo Santoro as Jesus \u2014 so I\u00a0figured I\u2019d better do my homework. I downloaded the huge movie file (the original is\u00a0nearly\u00a04 hours long) and settled in to see what all the fuss was about. (It won a record 11 Academy awards, an accomplishment that was not equaled until\u00a0Titanic<\/i>\u00a0in 1997 and then again by\u00a0The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King<\/i>\u00a0in 2003).<\/p>\n

\"Charlton_Heston_in_Ben_Hur_trailer\"<\/a>
Charlton Heston in 1959 Classic \u201cBen-Hur\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

True to its fame, Heston\u2019s Ben-Hur<\/em> was awesome. Grand in its cinematic scope and rich in its classic story of betrayal and revenge, the film captivated my head and heart, even as I\u00a0laughed over that film\u00a0era\u2019s penchant for overly dramatic acting, unbearably long romantic gazes and foreigners played by white men with lots of dark face paint. I found the story, like\u00a0legions\u00a0of people before me, utterly compelling and exciting. The story of the Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur\u2019s betrayal\u00a0by his adopted brother Messala, an officer in the Roman army,\u00a0and the subsequent exile and return that follows, is as\u00a0captivating\u00a0today as it was when first\u00a0penned\u00a0as a novel by author Lew Wallace in 1880.<\/p>\n

\"Ben-Hur_2016_poster\"<\/a>So\u00a0after watching Heston\u2019s\u00a0Ben-Hur<\/em>, I was even more eager to see how a modern take on this film would\u00a0play. How would the Paramount\/MGM film, produced in part by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, be presented today? Would the story still sell? How would it change? Could anyone\u00a0compare to Charlton Heston? And most of all, would it still clock in at 4+\u00a0hours? I\u2019m delighted to say the new Ben-Hur<\/em> doesn\u2019t disappoint (and gets the job done in half the time of the\u00a0original).<\/p>\n

While I can\u2019t say much more\u00a0about the movie until the\u00a0release date, I can<\/em> say it\u2019s worth getting excited for. The acting is superb, the sets, scenery and costumes are\u00a0gorgeous, the story is as compelling as ever \u2014 even with a few plot twists and changes from the original \u2014 and the chariot ride \u2026 well, the chariot ride is an edge-of-your-seat,\u00a0thrill-a-<\/wbr>minute, hold-your-breath race to the finish line. Two women sitting next to me\u00a0at the screening\u00a0were gripping their arm rests, gasping out loud,\u00a0and shielding their eyes during the epic crashes. After the screening, we learned that the chariot race\u00a0alone took 40 days to film for an 11-minute scene\u00a0and the two lead actors actually rode the chariots \u2014 commandeering four powerful horses each \u2014 for\u00a0most of the filming.<\/p>\n

Before\u00a0the screening,\u00a0Downey and Burnett came out to introduce the film, describing it as their\u00a0biggest, most epic project yet. They were clearly thrilled about the film. \u201cIt\u2019s really, really great,\u201d gushed Burnett several times to the audience. In the production notes, Burnett explains why they took\u00a0this on:\u00a0\u201cCharlton Heston\u2019s Ben-Hur<\/i> is one of my all-time favorites. It was truly an amazing spectacle, especially for the time in which it was made. As much as that film means to me and so many others, my own teenagers had never heard of it. I realized there was a massive audience ready for a fresh approach to this classic story and with all the advances in filmmaking since then, we can create a spectacle even more thrilling for a modern audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

And of the faith aspect of the film for a 21st Century audience? \u201cIf you watch this movie, and you\u2019ve never read the Bible, you\u2019ll enjoy the story, the action and adventure,\u201d said Downey. \u201cIf you are a Christian, the film will mean that much more to you.\u201d I imagine their hope is that the Jesus character in the film \u2014 who is much more visible and prominent in this new version \u2014 might touch some new hearts as well. And at the very least, they hope that the film\u2019s overarching themes of forgiveness and healing will resonate in our world, a world they agree, is in desperate need of such things.<\/p>\n

Ben-Hur releases nationwide August 19. Visit the Patheos Movie Club on Ben-Hur for much more!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hate to admit it,\u00a0but I never saw\u00a0the epic 1959 movie\u00a0Ben-Hur,\u00a0starring Charlton Heston, until just\u00a0last month.\u00a0I had been invited to see an\u00a0advance screening of the new\u00a0Ben-Hur\u00a0coming out this summer \u2014 starring Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, Morgan Freeman, and Rodrigo Santoro as Jesus \u2014 so I\u00a0figured I\u2019d better do my homework. I downloaded the huge movie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[59,30,29,31,62],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-ben-hur","tag-christian-film","tag-christian-movies","tag-christianity","tag-roma-downey"],"yoast_head":"\nA Brave New "Ben-Hur" Charges Into Theaters August 19th<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I hate to admit it,\u00a0but I never saw\u00a0the epic 1959 movie\u00a0Ben-Hur,\u00a0starring Charlton Heston, until just\u00a0last month.\u00a0I had been invited to see an\u00a0advance\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A 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