Ben-Hur

William Wyler directed some great films.  And he directed the 1959 version of Ben-Hur which is two hours of one of the most boring films ever made followed by 20 minutes of an awesome chariot race then another hour of one of the most boring films ever made.  Wyler was his best with films about relationships.  Why give him an epic?  So I was somewhat excited to see the 1925 version of Ben-Hur pop up on TCM earlier this month to see if it was any better.

The 1925 version clocks in at around two and a half hours.  Still long but not "oh God will this ever end?" long.  Ramon Novarro is similar to Charlton Heston in being well built and a bit over the top in his acting style. Novarro's more my type and while I'm not usually a leg woman, Novarro had some magnificent legs (shown off in barely there tunics).  Francis X. Bushman plays Messala as a magnificent bastard and easily steals any scenes he's in.  The film's full title is Ben-Hur:  A Tale of Christ and this version has more Jesus than the later version.  I was almost moved to tears when Ben-Hur offered Jesus legions to save his life, and Jesus said no "my kingdom is not of this world".  Several scenes are presented in early Technicolor  which helps add some pop to the religious scenes, and the rest is a mix of black and white and tints ( I rather like the use of tinted scenes in silents and wish it had been used more when the switch was made to sound.  The Moon and Sixpence is the only talkie I've seen that mixed b&w, tints, and technicolor and I found it very effective).  This was pre-code so there's a touch of nudity with some topless girls in a parade and a naked slave strung up in the galley.

The two big scenes are the battle at sea and, of course, the chariot race.  It's amazing what you can do when there's no laws governing film making and you have a director and producers with absolutely no regard for the health and safety of their actors.  So people probably died while filming both those scenes, but the results look fantastic.  Those are real ships in the sea battle, not just models.  The chariot race is, if anything, even better than the 1959 version.  It's faster and more dangerous looking.  That it is not super-widescreen adds to the feel that this is truly a duel to the death between Ben-Hur and Messala.

The 1925 version is available on DVD as part of a box set with the 1959 version.  I'd buy it for the 1925 version and look at the 1959 version as the extra instead of the other way around.   This is a case that color, sound, and widescreen do not necessarily make a better film.