Ben Hur (1925) Review- By Michael Carlisle

 Title: Ben-Hur, A Tale of Christ
Year: 1925
Director: Fred Niblo
Country: US
Language: English

When we think of the silent era, often a comedy starring Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd or Charlie Chaplin comes to mind. When we think of Ben Hur, William Wyler's 1959 epic comes to the forefront. While that film received great acclaim, sweeping the 1960 Academy awards, I'd argue that the original Ben Hur, a monumental epic of the silent period, was far greater than its counterpart. At nearly 2.5 hours long, this version is an hour shorter than Wyler's, but contains essentially the same story and is far more exciting.

Charlton Heston stars as Judah Ben-Hur,  a Jewish prince who is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, later regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.

According to The Guinness Book of World Records, Ben Hur contains the most edited scene in cinema history. Editor Lloyd Nosler compressed 200,000 feet (60,960 meters) of film into a mere 750 feet (228.6 meters) for the chariot race scene - a ratio of 267:1 (film shot to film shown). Considering all editing had to be done by hand at this particular period of time, the feat is quite impressive. 

The creation of the picture is now part of Hollywood folklore; hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on the troublesome location shooting in Italy--money that was lost when most of the footage proved unusable;the budget skyrocketed due to all sorts of accidents, recastings and a change of director halfway through production.Ben Hur had a cast of over 125,000, among the extras were future MGM royalty like Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and Douglas Fairbanks.

Ben Hur proves to be an uneven experience overall. There are many scenes of cinematic brilliance, like the pulse pounding chariot scene. However, there are also incredibly boring stagey scenes which feel a lot like filler. This is a rare Hollywood film with nudity; I suppose the censors allowed it because the picture is primarily directed towards a Christian demographic. At $3.9 million, it is the most expensive silent movie ever. Even almost a century later the film is a spectacle to behold. The cinematography is fascinating, the best of that time period. 

In conclusion, while the advertising tag "four years in the making" is usually bologna designed to gain the attention of the press, this time it was honest. Ben-Hur was a treacherous mountain of a film that cost many horses their lives- and definitely harmed a few humans as well. This project was quite ambitious, and it paid off in the end.  Well, at least for theatrical producers Klaw and Erlanger, who recieved a 50% royalty deal because they owned the rights to the book.  MGM's total profit was 1 million. 4/5