Yes. Ben Hur's famed chariot race is worth the wait and what a wait it is. Slow plodding Ben Hur directed by Timu Bekmambetov misses on many counts, but the chariot race is spectacular. Never mind that Judah Ben Hur played by Jack Huston is missing in gravitas and star power. He lacks charisma and the bold, killer good looks of Charleton Heston, and his acting is luke warm, but it is about his appeal as leading man. He just does not cut it. Comparison to William Wyler's 1959 Ben Hur must be made as this version was deemed to be one of the greatest films of all times. Remaking it was risky. If it were not for the chariot race, I would say skip it.
The plot is that Judah Ben Hur, a prince raised in wealth and privilege, is accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala (Toby Kibbell) who substitutes his jealousy and anger for not being born the privileged one for revenge by becoming a blood thirsty officer in the Roman Army.
Ben Hur is falsely arrested of treason because he tells Roman soldiers that he had killed one of their soldiers. He did this to protect his family whom the Romans were going to kill if the killer of the soldier did not confess. As Ben Hur is escorted to the ships, he is covered in blood and dragged on the cobblestone streets when Jesus (Robert Santoro) appears and offers him water.
Ben Hur is sentenced to many years as a slave who must row to an ominous drum beat as he and his fellow slaves are whipped and beaten. This scene is a splendid example of terror at the hands of the Romans and the tortuous life of a slave at the time of Christ. This film mounts in intrigue once the characters are established in the beginning which is slow as the back story of Messala's envy of Ben Hur must be established as well as Ben Hur's love for Esther (Nasanine Boniadi) and his family.
The doomed, yet cinematically exciting battle at sea is lost, but Ben Hur survives and washes up on shore at the feet of Morgan Freeman, Ilderim, a desert King. Here all the drama and heart pounding hot flashes from the drum beat and rhythmic rowing of the slaves and battle at sea turns to almost laughter at the sight of Morgan Freeman who sports a shoulder length wig of white dreadlocks. Instead of looking like a King of the Desert he looks like a panhandler on 42ns street. His mellifluous voice only make his initial scenes more ludicrous. Later in the film he wears a turban which is fitting and gives him the appropriate air of royalty but this dreadlock wig has got to go. But it didn't and so all the scenes with Ilderim and his stable of beautiful white stallions are affected by this pretension.
One is relieved to get to the chariot race if only to get the god awful wig off of Ilderim who convinces Ben Hur to race for his freedom. Ilderim tells Ben Hur that the only way to stop the Roman's love of slaughter is to beat them at their favorite sport. The filming of this chariot race is great and worthy of occasionally closing your eyes. But Judah Ben Hur whose long hair is now cut while any appeal he had, has been shorn with his locks as well. Robert Santoro who plays Jesus is absolutely drop dead gorgeous and would have made a better Ben Hur, but as it is he has the empathetic Jesus down pat.
Any more details about this chariot race would ruin its majesty.
At one point Ilderim sports a green turban, but the white one suits this film and Morgan Freeman while the designer of the dreadlocks wig whom Freeman gave a plug to on a morning talk show should be forgotten. As to remembering this film, it's all about the chariot race and those glorious white stallions. The 1959 version of Ben Hur was about revenge, but this film produced by Lee Daniels and Mark Burnett and Roma Downey is about forgiveness and redemption and Morgan Freeman's god awful wig.
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