TCM Big Screen Classics: Ben Hur (1959)

Thanks to TCM and Fathom Events, last night I was able to see William Wyler's epic 1959 version of Ben Hur on the big screen. If you have not been to one of these TCM Big Screen Classics, you need to. Seeing these movies we have seen so often on TV or DVD on the big screen with an audience makes them feel completely fresh and new. This is a whole different experience and one that you should not pass up (May 5th and 8th will be True Grit (1969), so don't miss that).

 Ben Hur is of course a perfect movie to see this way. It is a larger than life spectacle and was intended as an epic experience, not just another enjoyable movie. Though the film is certainly something special on the small screen, seeing it that way gets you nowhere near the scope this movie is capable of on the big screen. Of course being TCM Ben Mankowitz comes on screen to introduce it and that is always a plus. After he is done though the screen is black for about 6 minutes as we hear an orchestra tuning up. Watching the movie at home, it can become easy to be impenitent and want the movie to start already. However in a cinema it has a whole different effect. It makes you feel as if you haven't just left the house to see a movie but a big event. What you are going to see is going to be incredible and deserves a big build up. As the sweeping score gets more passionate the excitement in you has built up huge. It is like when you go to a play and the orchestra is playing a beautiful score before the curtain comes up. When it does you respect and attention have already been earned and it just makes you appreciate what you are going to see all the more.

This film is a pure spectacle in every sense of the word and seeing it the way it was meant to be seen is simply breathtaking. Scenes like the famous chariot race, the storm after Jesus' death, the battle on the galleys and even just simple things as seeing the trumpeters line up, take on a whole new scope and power when presented on the big screen.

Unlike many of you I actually saw the 1925 silent version of Ben Hur before I ever saw this more famous version. The silent film blew me away, and I felt even though this movie is better known, it couldn't help but pale in comparison to that great movie. When I finally saw it I was shocked at just how well this movie can stand up against its silent counterpart. I will not say this movie is better than the silent version (I am not convinced of that myself), but it holds up very well along side it.

-Michael J. Ruhland