During the Christmas break we decided to clear about 10 hrs from our schedule and watch a remastered Blu Ray version of Ben Hur. OK, it didn't take 10 hours to watch it, we paused it to make popcorn
Now I'm sure if this movie actually qualifies as a biblical epic. It tells the story of Judah Ben Hur, an Israeli noble during the time of the Roman occupation and the rise and subsequent persecution of the christians. Hur, played by Charleton Heston, finds himself on the wrong side of both these events and in one of the movie's pivotal scenes has a personal interaction with Christ
More recently Collete and I went to the theatre and watched an unabashed biblical epic, Noah, starring Russel Crowe
Noah tells the story of ... wait for it .. Noah and the Great Flood and the Ark. Yeh, consider that a spoiler.
Noah is a very Old Testament movie, filled with violence and chaos and magic and implied incest. The world of Noah is chaotic, it's a world created by a deity and then abandoned by said deity because humans were acting, well, like humans and kind of not paying attention to the big invisible dude in the sky
We all know what happens then. Yup, go get your snorkel and your floaties
The movie is kind of packaged as a visual spectacle and it has some of that. The scenes where the animals make their own way to the Ark and the initial moments of the Flood are handled extremely well. But there are also some visual moments that seem jarringly inadequate; important characters in the story are a group of angels who have been cast down to earth by their creator (yeh this guy is cranky what can we said) and quite frankly, their depiction seems like something you'd see produced in a high school media class. Actually, they reminded me a lot of Ray Harryhausen stop motion work from some of his minor B movies back in the day
Yes that thing pictured above is a Fallen Angel, one of the Watchers who help Noah build the ark. Yes, it's a rock monster.
Noah tries to tackle some of the issues that his story floats upon: The question of who gets to live and who gets to drown; the obsession of a single man that on one hand allows him to save his family and all the animals on the other planet and on the other hand gives him license to put said family in some very personal danger
Ben Hur is a story built upon the back of some very big events: The Roman occupation and enslavement of an entire culture and the coming of the Messiah. The movie starts out with a very old school, very heavy handed telling of the birth of Christ. It is onerous and clumsily staged and sort of reminded me of those old NFB documentaries we were shown in school
I almost stopped watching the movie right there but once we get past that, we are brought into the store of Ben Hur and his friend the Roman Centurion and his family who are put into some very real personal danger. What makes this movie work is that we are told about these momentous events by following a man and his love and regret and growth, Heston's incredibly dedicated performance and a script that allows him to grow, keeps us in the story
Noah works best when it keeps us following the characters and their growth. There are some absolutely stunning performances in the movie from Crow (one of the best things he's done) to Anthony Hopkins as Methuselah, to Emma Watson in one of the best things she's ever done
Ray Winstone plays the movie's counterpoint to Noah. He is a king, an ungodly (literally) king who challenges Noah's right to the land, his right to the Ark and his right to select who is to live and who is to die. The king is big and gruff and menacing and expresses himself largely through a series of grunts .. a perfect Ray Winstone character
In some respects this character is presented as a villain. We know this because he likes to hunt, kill and eat animals (sometimes without the need to cook them) and this behavior seems to shock the Noah family. I think Vegans and/or PETA influenced this script. That is not the only reason why I kind of emphasized with the king; Noah is so fucking sanctimonious that I really hoped Ray would cut off his body parts and use them as movie snacks
In Ben Hur, once we get past that awkward pretentious opening, the story concentrates its strong characters and their reactions to all these big events that have gotten a hold of them. Noah has a lot of preaching to do and it does so in the same kind of awkward, NFB inspired set pieces as the opening of Hur but it keeps doing so, all the way through the movie
Trust me, these scenes are squirmingly awful
Ben Hur stood up quite well decades after its initial release It's an old school movie to be sure but the performances are powerful and the story telling straight forward and compelling. Noah has some very effective moments but the film making is, quite honestly, wonky. Hey, I like wonky. I adore the movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou but that film is wonky beginning to end. Noah kind of morphs in and out of its wonkiness, it's as if the prime director and the second unit director really never met each other .. or read the same script
Noah is a movie you may want to catch some time in whatever format you watch movies at home. The performances really are great. But it does not benefit from a "big screen" showing. Though it's always pleasant to hear Ray Winstone grunt in Dolby sound surround
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