New ‘Ben-Hur’ closer to 1880 source novel
Well-acted period piece will not make anyone forget Charlton Heston’s version
“Ben-Hur” and Charlton Heston go together like sword and sandal, the two being inextricably linked in movie lore.
But the new, $100 million version of “BenHur” owes less to the well-known 1959 bigscreen epic starring Heston than to the 1880 Lew Wallace novel, “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ,” on which both are based.
This film is more of an explicitly Christian meditation on slavery, freedom, revenge and forgiveness, which also happens to have that climactic chariot-race thrill ride that helped make the Heston film famous.
The approach shouldn’t be surprising, since one of the film’s co-writers is John Ridley, who wrote the 2013 slavery drama “12 Years a Slave,” and its co-producers are Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, known for their many faith-based projects.
It’s not until the very end that “Ben-Hur” threatens to collapse under the weight of a heavy hand. Until then, it’s a mostly well-acted, straightforward, period drama free from the stylistic quirks for which director Timur Bekmambetov (“Wanted,” “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter“) is known.
It’s set in Rome-dominated Jerusalem at the time of Jesus Christ. Messala Severus (Toby Kebbell, “Dawn of the Planet of Apes“) and Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston, “American Hustle”) are brothers in every way but blood.
Messala, a Roman, was adopted as a boy by Judah’s well-off Jewish family, and the two are inseparable. Near the start of the film, the two are seen racing their horses, foreshadowing a far more dangerous race in which they will compete.
That brotherly bond is sundered when Messala goes off to fight for Rome, returning years later with the Judean governor Pontius Pilate (Pilou Asbaek) and an army meant to show the Jews of Jerusalem who’s boss. There’s been unrest lately as many Jewish “zealots” (early Christians) are turning against Rome.
This marks the beginning of the rift between Messala and Judah, which widens when Judah refuses to turn over names of suspected zealots. After someone tries to assassinate Pilate, Judah is blamed, and Messala completely turns against him, sending him into slavery.
The fuse of revenge is then lit, only to detonate on the chariot track several years later. That race — a blast of charging horses, broken wheels and fallen riders — is a visual rush. That Bekmambetov has captured it in 3-D doesn’t really add much.
Huston and Kebbell flesh out these characters, and Morgan Freeman brings a sense of wisdom and solemnity as an Afri- can named Ilderim, who becomes Yoda to Judah’s Skywalker.
There are times when everyone looks a little too modern, though at least they’re more characters than caricatures like the ones in Ridley Scott’s 2014 biblical-era misfire, “Exodus: Gods and Kings.”
In the role of Jesus, Rodrigo Santoro (“The 33,” “300: Rise of an Empire”) doesn’t have much to do but look alternately peaceful and pained.
Bekmambetov as well writers Ridley and Keith R. Clarke resist any temptation to camp it up. The new film doesn’t eclipse its predecessor, but it doesn’t crash and burn either — and that in itself is something of a miracle.