Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I’ve never seen the original. So I am a little fuzzy over how outraged I should be from this remake. I understand that I need to be a little outraged…
…but that’s because, thanks to this trailer, I no longer have to see the original Ben-Hur. I’m pretty sure that I know the basic plot to it after seeing this trailer. Did they assume that everybody knew it already?
BTW , the novel was the Republic’s second ” Best Seller”, between Uncle Tom’s Cabin and GWTW . And BTW BTW , Grant never forgave Lew Wallace of showing up late on the first day of Shiloh , never ,even Wallace asked for a pass in Grant’s Memoirs
If Grant and Sherman had paid more attention to the reports of Confederate troop movements instead of being sure there was no chance of a rebel attack…
As I understand it, Lew Wallace’s original orders were “come to Shiloh”, with no particular priority attached, not “Get your division to Shiloh the whole goram rebel army is coming down on us!!”
Wallace was quite aware that there was a raging military crisis going on at Shiloh and, while it is possible to cut him some slack about which road he was to take (the written order has been lost), he indisputably used an unnecessarily time-consuming maneuver to get to the battlefield.
The countermarch was to bring his artillery to the field quickly. He should have followed his thought of continuing on and showing up and attacking from the Confederate rear.
NEVER SEEN BEN-HUR!!?? You must be the only person on the planet who hasn’t! (I keed, I keed)
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I don’t see remaking it as a reason for outrage…if they stick to Lew Wallace’s book reasonably well. (Ya know he was one of the heroes of the battle of Shiloh?)
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Watch it, then watch the original with Charlton Heston. (The new one looks a little different). Read the book. It’s good stuff.
After reading Jaytrain’s comment, I looked it up, and I confused my General Wallaces. W.H.L .Wallace was the hero of that first days action. Lew Wallace didn’t arrive until almost sunset and didn’t participate until Grant counterattacked the next day…
But he was the one who saved Washington at the battle of Monocacy.
“Early was late” 😀
No exploding starships, remember? I have low tastes in film. 🙂
But there is the famous chariot race and a massive naval battle between ships oared by slaves. It’s the best they could do in the 1950s.
Me too. It’s good stuff 😀
Just imagine the scenes have the Star Trek classic fight music…
Dude, the original film version was silent, starring Ramon Navarro…
I did not know that there was a versio previous to the ’59 epic
The silent movie era in general disappeared remarkably quickly from our national cultural consciousness.
Actually there were two silent film versions, but the first was just the chariot race.
I don’t recall if it was you or Ace who was taking about Risen.
It’s very much in that vein. Read the book. It’s good.
Yep, I second the motion you should read the book, it’s a good read. Watch the original movie too. They are both worth it.
I grew up in General Lew Wallace’s hometown, so on the 100th anniversary of the book my school was giving out free tickets to see a re-release of Ben-Hur in the theater, all 3 hours and 40 minutes of it. You think Return of the King is long? Ben-Hur set the standard there.
The 1959 Ben-Hur wasn’t the first attempt to bring it to the big screen (there was a 1925 version), it was just the most successful one. I doubt any movie will ever break its record of most film shot for a single scene– that chairiot race scene? About 0.2% of the film shot for that scene made the movie.
I really should get a copy of the book and read it again.
Seen it several times. It was my dad’s go-to Xmas movie. I’m withholding judgment…
Can someone explain, as to Roman chariot races , the line in the Beach Boys’ Fun Fun Fun : ‘She makes the Indy 500 look like a roman chariot race ” Been bugging me for 50 years .
Chariots 15-20 MPH, 1964 Indy 500 average speed 147.35 MPH. She drives so fast it makes the Indy racers look slow.
And lastly , as to Ben Hur , the novel gets a curious shout out in Faulkners ” Absalom , Absalom ‘ when Shreve , Quentin Compson’s Harvard roommate , opines that the Sutphen saga and the South is “better than the theatre . It’s better than Ben Hur , isn’t it ?” In 1910 , back when a best seller was a best seller