Ben-Hur 4K 1959 Ultra HD 2160p

The film begins in Palestine in the year 26 AD. Two friends, the Jew Ben-Hur and the Roman Messala, meet as adults after a long separation and realize that their friendship is no longer possible...

User Review

Judah Ben-Hur is not a traitor or a murderer; he did not lose his head at the sound of coins clinking; he is not even red-haired. Judah Ben-Hur is a patriot, a man of strong character and will, a man whom fate throws from princes into the mud and vice versa, a man who honors family and family values and dreams of freedom for his people, in short, an American. A true patriot, even if he was born, by some cruel twist of fate, almost two millennia before the creation of the United States.

Actually, it's not surprising that I have such associations. Hollywood is capable of whitewashing or destroying a person with any name and past. It is ready to raise them to the heights and throw them out of the country. At a time when they did this to Chaplin, the film Ben-Hur was released, in which fate itself tested Judas. Ben-Hur was not only (superficially) acquainted with Jesus, but he did not betray him; instead, he offered him a cup of water and gave the tired and exhausted Christ a drink as a sign of gratitude for his salvation. Jesus, having taken upon himself all human sins, looked at the world and returned to himself, leaving humanity to remember him in times of difficulty, the church to profit from his name, and the cross with his image to become the most purchased symbol in human history.

At that time, almost two millennia ago, he had followers, but even more enemies, and there was Judas, who, as we know, betrayed him, and there was Ben-Hur, written about by someone and filmed by William Wyler. In addition to its incredible spectacle, which modern blockbusters can envy, the film tells more about the world that Jesus was supposed to save, about the Roman Empire as an Empire of Evil conquering the world, and about how Rome changes people.

Jesus is mentioned and recalled in passing throughout the mind-boggling 212 minutes of the film, his face never appearing on screen, but instead the camera focuses on the Roman Empire and how it influences the fate of the people of Judea (Israel in our terms).

The 212 minutes of the film include an indescribable number of events, mainly the life of Judas Ben-Hur, a happy resident of Judea, a rich and respected man, and a friend of the Roman tribune. From the very beginning, the filmmakers emphasize that Judah is not a traitor and is incapable of betrayal. The first sentence uttered by his friend Messala concerns Judah's possible betrayal of the people of Israel who refuse to submit to Rome. To which, of course, Judah Ben-Hur, “an American to the core,” responds with a refusal and finds himself in the hold of a Roman galley, behind a large oar.

The betrayal of his childhood friend not only kills Judah's faith in humanity, but also brings him anger and a thirst for revenge. He swears to return and take revenge. Christianity had not yet taken hold of the Earth during that period of Ben-Hur's life, and people who revered God were still not averse to ideas of revenge and betrayal. Two millennia have passed, and the Christian faith, along with others, teaches people to be humble and forgiving, yet betrayal, revenge, and other sins are everywhere. If religion has not changed humanity in all this time, what good is it? That's right, church people dream of making money by using the world-famous brand name “Jesus Christ.” I wonder what he himself would say about that if he returned to Earth?

At that time, his hand saved Judas from thirst and certain death, his face blinded the Roman legionnaire's desire to deprive Judas of water, his blood brought Travis from “Taxi Driver” the much-needed saving rain, he performed miracles, saved human souls, healed human ailments, and gave Judas water to drink.

Ben-Hur himself realized the very first American dream: having escaped slavery on a galley and saved a highly respected Roman, he rose to the highest echelons of society, his feet trodden the streets of Rome, he was greeted by Caesar (also known as the Emperor, also known as the godlike among mortals), Pontius Pilate, and beautiful Roman women, his horses defeated all rivals in the Colosseum. Only he, as a true patriot, dreamed of returning to his homeland and freeing it from the Roman invaders, and in the process taking revenge on his sworn enemy Messala.

Half a century ago, Ben-Hur could not have been any different, and the film about him could not have been any different either. Hollywood saw him as its citizen, its hero, and the Roman Empire as the embodiment of all communist evil. Fifty years have passed, and now the Roman Empire from the film Ben-Hur is associated with America, which also brought its true ideas and correct values to wild countries, appointed its governors, and showed no mercy to traitors and rebels. Ben-Hur turns out to be a universal film.

And a very high-quality one at that.
The chariot races in the Jerusalem theater, where Ben-Hur fought Mesalla in a parallel course, are, in my opinion, the best sporting event ever depicted on the silver screen. No boxing match, car race, or soccer highlights that are sometimes shown in movies can match such intensity and intrigue.

Among other things, Ben-Hur still holds the record for the number of Oscars won. This record has not been broken, but it has been repeated twice. When will there be a third?

In addition, Charlton Heston's acting is excellent; few have portrayed such hatred on their faces, and Stephen Boyd also did a good job in the role of Messala. However, the most memorable image is that of the winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, Hugh Griffith (we remember him as the father of Audrey Hepburn's character in the film “How to Steal a Million”), whose charismatic character adds a necessary dose of humor to the film, and his character's love for horses is not trivialized. They knew how to make movies in the 1950s.

We often note that movies used to be better, that actors used to be stronger, plots were newer, and directors were wiser. That's true, but why, I wondered, the answer lies in the fact that modern films cannot compete with the saturation of movie theaters. Count for yourself how many old films you watch per year and how many new ones. Of course, we choose films by Wyler, Orson Welles, Charles Chaplin, George Cukor, or Billy Wilder, but even then, there were bad directors, and not just Edward Wood Jr., whom we know thanks to Tim Burton. If we regularly watched old films that did not become classics but remained “bad movies” in the same quality as before, we would not say that everything used to be better, like the sky was bluer and the grass was greener.

Everything is relative, and then, as now, historical epics and other blockbusters were far from historically accurate, with the emphasis on spectacle, which is what makes the box office. Fifty years from now, only the best films from our era will remain, leaving subsequent generations with films like “Uveball,” but nevertheless, these classics of our time will merely complement the films of the early and mid-20th century, when Ben-Hur was released.
An epic saga four hours long, in life, in millennia...

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (74.5 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.76:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.75:1

Info Audio

#English: FLAC 2.0
#English: DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0
#English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
#English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1
#English: Dolby Digital 5.1
#French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
#Spanish (Latino): Dolby Digital 5.1
#Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
#German: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1

Info Subtitles

English SDH, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Cantonese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German SDH, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian SDH, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (European), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish (Latin American), Spanish (Castilian), Swedish, Thai, Turkish.