Ben Hur: The Epic Miniseries Event

Sex and violence without style
I have seen both versions of Ben Hur, its earlier black and white version and the 1959 version starring Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd, so the comparison between the 1955 version and this one is still fresh in my mind. I had recently watched the DeMille version before watching this miniseries and the differences are monumental.

I doubt that director, Stephen Shill, set out to make an epic adventure and in that he succeeded. Shill's Ben Hur is a little movie with the emphasis on sex and as much nudity as he could get on the screen to spice up what needs no spice, rather like adding a cup full of jalapenos to an already spicy chili.

Shill's Ben Hur is earthy with a very young cast, most of whom give credible performances, but in whom there is little of gravitas or depth. Joseph Morgan broods well and purses his full lips as often as possible but fails to give more than brooding life to the character of Judah ben Hur. Kristin Kreuk is wasted as Tirzah and Alex...

Good Rendition
This TV mini-series version of Ben Hur was a good rendition based on the novel by Lew Wallace. It stars The Vampire Diaries' Joseph Morgan as the title character Judah Ben Hur. His performance was more acceptable than the more well known Hollywood epic version with Charlton Heston in that role. What it lacked in big budget and overall production value it made up for in character development because since it was in a mini-series format it had more time to bring in a bit more detail than any of the previous big screen versions and was better able to fill in some of the blanks left missing, particularly in the Heston film. Overall it was a valiant effort to bring the story afresh and consider it worth a viewing.

Certainly not Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur
I am a huge fan of Wallace's book, and the 1959 film is amongst my favorites. Yes, it had problems (the middle third of the book and several sub-plots were cut and Heston was at least 20 years too old for the part), but the parts that were there were faithful to the source. Not so with this loose adaptation. A number of other reviews have already discussed the changes made in this version; I will add some of my comments to the ongoing discussion.

The one thing they got right was the age of the actor playing Judah; he is both the correct age, and his acting is considerably better than the over-acting of Heston. But that's where it stops.

The number of abridgements, alterations, and fabrications not found in Wallace are far too numerous to list, but a few of the most aggregious are as follows. (1) Judah's motivation; Judah's motivation in the original is to find his family - it is his sole reason for surviving the gallies, the numerous adventures not included in...

Click to Editorial Reviews