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Reviews (2)
13 January 2016
Ben Hur, Better Now Than Ever
I thought is was "good" when I first saw it, 50 years ago—but now that I am 70, I can appreciate the story and the way it was presented much more.
After living this long, I believe that I can relate more fully to the themes of personal privilege, then loss and devastation, challenge and triumph, and renewal of faith, in a way that I was not able to when I was a teenager.
The personal conviction and commitment of the producers and the director, the actors, the film-score composer and everyone else who was involved enabled these themes to become real and to engage viewers in a life-changing way.
Definitely worth five stars!
07 November 2015
When less is more
1 of 1 found this helpful I saw this version, from the BBC and PBS television's WonderWorks series, first. Later, I saw the Hollywood version. The latter had big-budget set designs, sparkling cinematography, impressive computer-generated images (especially of Aslan) and huge battle scenes.
The BBC version was a more modest production but one that gives a more intimate reading of the story. Serious fans of C. S. Lewis will appreciate that the BBC followed the book's text exactly as Lewis wrote it (except for the omission of one sentence).
My only complaint is that the White Witch, here, is not as convincingly evil as in the Hollywood version, but maybe that is because this one had a younger audience in mind.