Ben-Hur (4-Disc Collector's Edition) (DVD)

Finally, I have managed to set aside enough time to explore Warner Home Video's latest accomplishment. Like Gone With the Wind last year they are back again with a four-disc edition of the epic Ben-Hur, and this one has all the fixins.

As I began watching, I thought this was going to be a story much like the story of Ridley Scott's Gladiator, a man scorned by his fellow countrymen that brings himself back up by his bootstraps, and while there are several similarities, there is one glaring difference. Religion, this is primarily a religiously centered film, a fact that shocked me to the core, not because I am one of those "Take 'under God' out of the Pledge of Allegiance" people, but because it is just a subject most big studios wouldn't dare touch now days.

As references to Jesus' birth were made I figured they were simply setting a timeline for the story, it never occurred to me that since this was made back in the late 50s the politically correct, non-offending society we live in today was not present; religious topics could be tackled without public backlash or an Oprah special. It was just a bit shocking to see religion as the focal point of a film that won 11 Oscars, I am not sure if we would see that now. The Passion of the Christ tried, and while it pulled in $370 million in the States it didn't bring home one Oscar and Ben-Hur has several of the elements of Passion, just not all the gory details, but the blood does flow.

Nevermind the politics of the whole thing, this is a great movie and the restored picture and audio are fantastic. I should mention, however, there are a few scenes toward the end that didn't seem to fully make it back to perfect in the restoration process as there seems to be a blue glow on the top and bottom of the picture. This problem only happens for a few minutes but it does take it from perfect to semi-perfect, just thought you may want to know.

As for the rest of the set you get over ten hours of special features... Yeah, ten! Let's take a peek.

The first two discs carry the feature along with two separate audio tracks. One of the additional tracks is a music only track featuring Miklos Rozsa's score, which is impressive, but I had a hard enough time finding three hours and 40 minutes to watch the movie itself, another three with music only would have really set me back. The other audio track is a commentary with film historian T. Gene Hatcher and star Charlton Heston. This track isn't all that impressive either as the two commentators are not commenting together, rather Heston's comments are all scene specific and Hatcher is just a historian, and historian commentaries never interest me as much as those with the people who were directly involved with the film.

Disc three is where the truly special treat is. Remember how I said I didn't have an additional three hours and 40 minutes to watch a music only version of Ben-Hur? Well, that is because I had to watch this two hour and 20 minute version of the 1926 silent classic that I am sure you will all recognize just from the picture on the left. The silent film, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, was made back in the mid 1920s and starred Ramon Novarro and now you have the chance to watch this "restored" version whenever you like. To tell you the truth, I don't exactly care much for silent films, primarily because you can't get up and go anywhere without missing something, but this one was surprisingly good. The one major difference from the 1956 version and the '26 version, besides that it is over 90 minutes shorter, is that this film tackled the religious themes head-on, and even included it in the title of the film, but one thing remained constant, the story is fantastic.

Beyond the two movies comes disc four, where you get the traditional special features including two hour-long documentaries, one from 1994 (which was included on the earlier DVD release) and the other, which is brand new. The two documentaries play off each other spectacularly well as neither one resembles the other. The 1994 version is more of a making-of feature focusing on the day-to-day stuff that went on with the production. It also takes a look at the making of the 1926 version, which, believe it or not, cost MGM $4 million to make. Now that is a lot of cheese back in the 20s.

The 2005 edition is an interview driven feature broken up into categories such as the direction, production, cinematography, costumes, music and so forth as such filmmakers as George Lucas, Ridley Scott, Irvin Kershner and more discuss the film and the effect it has had on epic filmmaking since. There is however a disturbing comparison that Lucas makes between the pod race in Star Wars: Episode I to the chariot race in Ben-Hur. Sorry George, no matter how much you like your own work, they don't compare.

As for the rest of the features they pretty much mimic those that have been found on earlier releases such as a group of screen tests, vintage news reels and highlights from the 1960 Oscars, which has a soundtrack that fades in and out.

Overall, if you already own Ben-Hur on DVD you may want to consider double-dipping as the fully restored picture, the inclusion of the 1926 silent version and the brand new documentary make this a set to own. For those of you that don't own it already, or haven't seen Ben-Hur and love epic films, you have got to pick this one up. Not only is Ben-Hur a part of movie history, it is a fabulous movie as well. This film mixes love, war, religion, action and drama all into one picture, Ben-Hur is truly epic filmmaking.