Ben Hur

I’ve never seen any of the other Ben Hur adaptations, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one. A three-hour TV version? Turns out, why not! The sets were impressive, the cast was solid, and the characters were well-developed. The whole thing flowed pretty nicely. That said, there were a few clunky scenes that didn’t feel historically accurate, and I’m sure actual historians would have a field day with it. But honestly, that’s par for the course with most big-budget American epics, so it didn’t really bother me. The only thing this version is missing are those epic battle scenes and large-scale action sequences, but the well-written story more than made up for it. I was engaged the whole way through. (07.02.2011)