Thursday, June 17, 2004
TODAY'S MOVIE
BEN HUR (1959) part II. Still a NYTimesBest1176Film. We got through the chariot races; Stephen Boyd's death and last nastiness to JBH, which is heavy duty; the leper colony; and the final miracle, which I saw coming. Actually, the tie in with the Jesus story was more on the line of secular humanism than anything. At the end, if taken at the level of Frodo and the Ring it is all quite dramatic and exciting: the thunder, lightening, rain, and curing of leprosy is all at about the same level as the mountain splitting and evil being washed away. Universal myth is amazing. Of course, one could argue that Tolkien saw BEN HUR. It was deftly handled and the chariots only ran into the corn field a bit. I enjoyed the whole thing. I cannot imagine how I missed it the first time. And the horses are amazing! A four out of Netflixfive.
