Ben Hur

This movie shows how way behind France the USA was in 1907 in film-making. In fact, most of the movies being shown in the nickelodeons that had multiplied all over the US in that year were from France, and even most of the output of the American Lubin company were copies of or just pirated French movies. Pathe in France was the first real movie studio to be up on its feet. When you compare the sophistication their The Life and Passion of Christ, made the same year, with this Ben Hur, it's astonishing to think that things were going to completely turn around within a decade. This movie is really worth seeing though; it's an unforgettable experience! Particularly the chariot race where we see even more than ten, even more than twenty even, people wave their arms up and down for several minutes and there is a brief blur of a chariot going by every now and then, until the card suddenly comes up to say The Victory of Ben Hur. The camera is completely static and the actors just wave their arms around in front of a stage set, endlessly. The 'Ben Hur Goes to the Galleys' section is just that, people waving their arms up and down against each other interminably, when Ben Hur is being arrested, in a house. No boat. No sea. And then straight into the 'chariot race', which at least was filmed from an angle, to try and keep the chariot in camera for a fraction of a second longer. But at least they made something! And there they still are, and continue to be, though they have all died, gesturing forever in silence.

What can be said about 1907 version of "Ben Hur", the first filmed version of the story? If I say something good it will never be good enough to make people feel interested on watching it; and if I say something bad it's gonna be the same sensation of kicking someone who's dead, pointless. With all that in mind I won't give any stars to this short film but I will do write about his failures, technical problems and the challenge this film has to really become a good work.

The story is reduced to a 15 minutes film so the director had the problem of filming a detailed account about Ben Hur; it is difficult to see or hear something, the quality of the lasting film is very very poor; the acting is invisible, although William S. Hart has a role in the film. The worst part of all is the editing of the chariot scene because during the silent film era that camera didn't move, it was sustained by a tripod and everything was so distant from it, so when the chariot race begins you see something laughable, the horses appearing and disappearing over and over again until Ben Hur wins the race.

And I must compare this little film with the 11 Oscar winner "Ben Hur" (1959). The classic directed by William Wyler is amazing in everything, and in every possible way you might want to watch it. DVD, VHS, downloading on the net, TV, cable TV, projection, CinemaScope, whatever, that is a truly great picture that is always good. The movie had everything better than this silent version. It's a fair comparison? Not at all but it's the only way you can have an opinion on things.

We must praise the 1907 film because it managed to survive (badly although) the time, the movie exists and even more than 100 years old people can watch it and say something about it. Back then when the movie was released it was just a form of taking money from people to see something different on the screen. I don't know if the producers got back the U$500 of investment, but all I know is that they were sued because they infringed author's copyright.

To me it was a boring experience to stare the screen for a few minutes. The movie didn't took off at all. For those interested in the early days of filmmaking it's an (un)interesting opportunity for you to see something different. Otherwise just laugh about it if you can.

I saw the first (1907) Ben Hur about 25 years ago in a film society back to back double feature with the Charlton Heston version. My memories are therefore fragmentary.

The film should be called "Illustrated scenes from the life of Ben Hur" as it really doesn't try to tell the story in the time available. If you hadn't read the book you wouldn't know what was going on. One of my recollections is my wife nudging me and saying "there's the tile that's going to fall". Above the rather pathetic and bored looking extras (showing off their knees in Roman army costume) one roof tile was very different from the rest - it wasn't painted onto the set!! Sure enough, Ben Hur leaned rather obviously on this brick.

The chariot race sticks in my mind too. A bunch of extras starts jumping up and down and two chariots race by the camera. The extras calm down and look bored for a while then start jumping up and down for the next rapid pass of two chariots. I can't remember how many times this was repeated, we were all laughing so hard that tears were running down my face.

It is mercifully short, and interesting to compare with the 1925 big budget spectacular (also silent of course) which foreshadows the third version with amazing special effects.

This 'unauthorized' (i.e., made without paying proper royalties) version of "Ben Hur" is exceptionally early. I say this because huge spectacle films were still in the near future--so I was not surprised that this one came off as VERY choppy and the big scenes came off as ridiculously simple (such as the chariot race--it is VERY underwhelming). And, because of this, it's an incredibly unappealing little film. In other words, instead of telling a coherent story, it's like a very brief highlights reel--filled with a few brief clips from the famed story by General Lew Wallace but not telling any sort of narrative. If you think about it, the famed 1959 version by William Wyler was about three hours long. This 1907 version is about 10 minutes!! Audiences at the time could have only enjoyed it if they knew the story already.

BEN HUR might seem an ambitious undertaking for the early days of the cinema but consider that by 1899 there had already been 2 filmed versions of H. Rider Haggard's SHE and 1 of Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY. The early 1900's saw early attempts at A TALE OF TWO CITIES, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO and or course BEN HUR. The costumes are nice but I doubt the painted canvas backdrops convinced anyone even way back in 1906. The story is intact, as much as a single reel (12 minutes) will allow. In this version Hur does not get sent to the galleys; it is the chariot race which will decide if he is condemned as a criminal or not. Oh yes, even this early version has a chariot race and it is set up to be the highpoint of the picture. Alas, don't expect much in the way of special effects. This race has only two participants, Ben Hur and Massala, and they simply run their chariots around and around a camera which never moves. We all know how the story ends. The panorama, or "pan" shot was in use as early as 1896 when it was invented by an Venitian gondolier named Promio who put a camera in his boat to take a long shot of Venice as seen from the canal. The closeup was around in 1907 as evidenced by a short called MR. HURRY-UP OF NEW YORK but neither accomplishment is seen in this film. It's almost a certainty that audiences were easier to please then, at least they were for a little while, and for its time this version of BEN HUR did indeed offer more than the average one reel short. We are lucky that this version, and so many other early films survive to show us that filmmakers even back then were willing to take chances. At the time nobody knew that a fellow named D.W. Griffith was waiting in the wings gathering experience and developing some ideas of his own.