‘Ben-Hur’: From Silent Movie to Animation & to Sound Movie (I)

by Laura Lai/ Review

The silent movie‘Ben-Hur: A Tale of The Christ’ (1925) directed by Fred Niblo has among the main protagonists the actors Ramon Novarro (Ben-Hur) and Francis X. Bushman (Messala). It is the story of the Hur Jewish prince family during the times of Jesus of Nazareth. The story is placed when the pagan Rome was at the zenith of its power and conquered Jerusalem. It unfolds linearly and chronologically, starting with December 24^th, with Joseph of Nazareth coming to Bethlehem and the 3 wise men on their holy quest.

Joseph and Mary found no place in any inn, but in an old cave: the cave of David, where 1000 years before the future king David had a rest as a young boy. The mystical perception of God – as understood by the film director and, probably, the producers of this silent movie, David Gill and Kevin Brownlow – starts unfolding from this point on, parallel to the main story of the movie, when Mary getting acquitted with the cave feels that ‘The place is sanctified’. 

The Hur family had a son, Judah Ben-Hur, and raised a Roman orphan as their own son, Messala. The viewers understand that the two youngsters, raised like brothers, have not seen each other for some time, and they meet accidently. Messala – now a Roman officer is ashamed to acknowledge in front of the other Romans that he has a Jewish friend and prefers to do express his joy on a remote street. Although relatively of the same age, brought up by the same family from a very young age, each of them in its religion – Judah, believing in God, and Messala in Roman gods – the mentalities of the two youngsters are very different: Messala considers that ‘To be a Roman means to rule the world; to be a Jew means to crawl in dirt’.

It is in this time period that a new Roman tyrant, Gratus, passed by Jerusalem. And the crowd gathered to see him. So was the Hur family, who was watching from the terrace of their house, when a tile fell down killing Gratus. Judah Ben-Hur, his mother and sister were arrested. Instead of being sentenced to death, Judah was sentenced to a painful and slowly death in the galley. After 3 years which felt like 3 centuries in the galley, Judah’s ship entered a battle with a ship of pirates. Although the film technological means of the mid 1920s should have been very scarce, the scene of the ship battle is at length and marvelous presented. Just before the battle, Judah Ben-Hur is the only slave left unchained by the fleet commander. This saved his life and in return Ben-Hur saved the life of the commander. Ben-Hur became a Roman and he himself an adopted son, of the fleet commander. However, he never stopped to know what happened with his mother and sister. It is in his family quest that Judah Ben-Hur met Messala again and followed by revenge he engaged in a horse race to death that Judah won.

The scene of the horse race is given about 10 minutes from the over 2-hour movie. It is sensational the way the circus was reconstructed for this mid 1920s and silent movie! And although a silent movie in which the lines are written, the music made by Carl Davis and beautifully played by The London Philharmonic Orchestra, described marvelously with musical notes human emotions felt by those engaged in the horse race to death.

In this 1925 silent movie, the black and white scenes alternate with those in color. The latter refers precisely to Jesus Christ: The stories of two Jewish families – Jesus of Nazareth and Judah Ben-Hur – although overlapping are made distinct through color. The mystical understanding of God continues all along the movie. For example, while taken to the galley Judah is refused water by the Romans on the Nazareth Road, where Jesus was working as a carpenter. Judah thinks of God, Who hears his thought and the movie shows a hand that nobody else sees giving Ben-Hur water. It should be a metaphor of the invisible hand of God, which gives believers in Him the strength to carry on. In another scene, a woman was casted with stones by people thinking that they have the right to cast a woman with stones, the viewers have no image of Jesus, but of an arm of a person speaking to those throwing stones. But people doubting the power of the Word are also depicted: ‘How can you scatter the Romans with words?’ Another example is the moment when Ben-Hur is unchained in the galley, because he has ‘the spirit of a free man’.

The story of the movie goes on to the Palm Sunday, when a new governor is appointed to Jerusalem: Pontius Pilate. And Ben-Hur is still searching for his mother and sister, seriously ill, now. The time period covered by this silent movie ends with the crucifixion of Jesus.

Fred Niblo, this silent movie film director, included also the words of Jesus of Nazareth: ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ This line made me also think of Hur – the father, who is not shown in the movie, but is said to have taken Messala from the streets and raised him as his own son and Judah’s brother. However, Messala’s loyalty was to the Roman Empire and his believe was in the Roman gods. In which concerns the words said by Jesus on the cross, I have no doubts that Jesus Christ prayed for mankind’s forgiveness until his last breath. However, the part with ‘for they know not what they do’ bares questions: They were Romans, not mentally alienated, pagans, conquerors, and they were also murdering while conquering. And Jerusalem was under Roman occupation. It seems that they knew exactly what they were doing. But they did not know to Whom they are doing these: The Son of God.

The faith in God cures the mother and the sister of Judah Ben-Hur, who was about to marry a beautiful servant of his, Esther. The Hur family – Judah, the mother and the sister – overcame all sufferings of the Roman occupation of Jerusalem, and reunited in health and in happiness with the help of God on Easter time.