Ben-Hur: Four - Disc Collector's Edition DVD Box Set Review

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Title: Ben-Hur: Four – Disc Collector’s Edition

Region: One

Genre: Religious Epic

Stars Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, and Sam Jaffe

Writer: Karl Tunberg

Based on the Novel by: Lew Wallace

Director: William Wyler

Feature Length – 1959 Version: 222 minutes

Feature Length – 1925 Version: 143 minutes

Extras: Feature Length Audio Commentary With Film Historian T. Gene Hatcher and Actor Charlton Heston, Music Only Track: The Thames Television Restoration With A Stereophonic Orchestral Score By Carl Davis for the 1925 Version, 2005 Documentary “Ben-Hur: The Epic That Changed Cinema”, 1994 Documentary: “Ben-Hur: The Making Of An Epic”, “Ben-Hur: A Journey Through Pictures” Montage, Screen Tests, Vintage Newsreel Gallery, Highlights From The 4/4/60 Academy Awards® Ceremony, Theatrical Trailers

Languages: English and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Closed Captions and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Four-Disc Digipack Gatefold Within A Cardboard Slipcase

Chapter Stops – 1959 Version: 61

Chapter Stops – 1925 Version: 39

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year Of Theatrical Release: 1959/DVD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Home Video Distributor: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: G

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

“Ben-Hur” is one of the greatest motion pictures ever made. Winner of eleven Academy Awards® including Best Picture - 1959 and Best Actor - Charlton Heston, Ben Hur is a spectacle of a film with immense scope, dramatic intensity, and colossal storytelling. “Ben-Hur” is the best of MGM's Religious Epics from the 1950s and 60s. Thousands of actors, technicians, artists, and set builders collaborated to bring this fictional epic set during the time when "Jesus" walked the Earth to life. From the initial virgin birth to the crucifixion this tale from the New Testament of The Bible is but a backdrop for the saga of Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston), a young Hebrew prince who is wrongfully convicted by his childhood friend turned Roman Leader, Messala (Stephen Boyd), who has Ben-Hur's mother and sister imprisoned while Ben-Hur is sent away as a slave in the galleys of Roman Warships. Ben-Hur's remarkable odyssey from the galleys of Roman warships to the adapted son of a Roman General, to a Chariot racer, and then to the savior of his family at the twilight of a profound life changing religious miracle is nothing short of magnificent storytelling on film.

You do not have to be Catholic, a Jew, or even believe in God to enjoy this film's majestic tale. “Ben-Hur” is nothing short of a masterpiece. The famous chariot race sequence between Ben-Hur and the sadistic Roman Messala required over a year to prepare and lasts nearly twenty minutes on screen. Anyone who thought the Pod Race sequence in “Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace” was exciting should go directly to chapter 44 and watch straight through to chapter 49 on disc two in order to see where the inspiration came from. I have seen “Ben-Hur” so many times and yet I never get tired of it. Simply put, it is a movie masterpiece unequaled in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Warner Home Video had released “Ben-Hur” a few years ago as a single DVD-18 disc, but I don’t personally have a copy to compare this new four-disc set to and say what has been carried over from the previous DVD release, but I can comment on what consumers get with this set, and it’s quite a lot. Were it not for the cliché of entitling films re-released on DVD multiple times I’d say they could have called this DVD box set “Ben-Hur: Ultimate Edition,” but “Ben-Hur” in any form needs no flashy subtitling to get a viewer’s attention. It is one of the best motion pictures ever made among the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest films of all time. For this four disc set, viewers have the first portion of the film, which runs at approximately 141 minutes and 43 seconds with 39 scene selections on disc one while the remaining 80 minutes and 46 minutes with chapters 41 through 61 are on disc two. The film has been digitally restored from the 65mm elements and is presented in a stunning anamorphic widescreen (2.76:1) aspect ratio. Aside from some slight shimmering in a few scenes, the image quality is simply amazing. The colors are so vibrant and the overall picture quality is so clear, one at times needs to remind themselves that his is a film produced over 40 years ago. I screened this DVD on a 16 by 9 widescreen television I have in my living room and all I can say is if there are any readers out there who have been holding out of buying a widescreen TV, this is one film that practically requires it because on a four by three standard television, the image is so narrow, it really looks like dental floss. Granted you can appreciate the beautiful widescreen compositions just the same, but watching “Ben-Hur” on a widescreen set with the image uncompressed is easier on the eyes. As it is the image looked about what a (2.35:1) film looks like when letterboxed for standard televisions, but at least the image in all it’s glory is beautifully rendered without any distortions when viewed on a 16 by 9 screen. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is terrific too. The packaging states that the French Language Soundtrack encoded as an option is Dolby Surround, but this dubbed soundtrack is also a 5.1 mix. English Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded onto the first two discs as optional too. In addition there is a Dolby Pro Logic Surround Music Only Soundtrack option as well as an excellent feature length audio commentary track with Film Historian T. Gene Hatcher that is mixed with recorded audio comments throughout by the film’s star Charlton Heston. As an individual interested in story structure and character, I was surprised and also a bit ashamed that I never figured it out for myself that the basic paradigm for “Ben-Hur” is based on “The Count Of Monte Cristo.” Hatcher is very detailed in explaining behind-the-scenes details and anecdotes regarding the making of the film and the big chance MGM took in producing it. Heston’s comments are interesting because he was there and as much as “Ben-Hur” is a Hollywood classic, Mr. Heston will always be a Hollywood icon. I liked some of Heston’s too comments because they are spoken in such a matter of fact way and yet with such authority and reverence that his presence as both an actor and a human being is just overpowering. A word or two spoken by Charlton Heston carries the intensity many actors today can’t match regardless of how talented they are.

The third DVD contains the 1925 silent film version, which was restored with a Stereophonic Orchestral Score by Carl Davis and aired in Britain on Thames Channel 4 in 1988 as a co-production with Turner Networks. Though particularly in the beginning there are a lot of blemishes from the source material used, this version is still a treat to see if only as a comparison to the 1959 remake. The tinting of certain scenes as well as two-strip Technicolor sequences has been restored for this presentation too. The chariot race sequence in the 1925 version is so exciting that the filmmakers who studied it for the 1959 version gave up on the idea of trying to surpass it and settled on trying to equal it.

The bonus features on disc four include the brand new 2005 documentary “Ben-Hur: The Epic That Changed Cinema” (57:42), which features interview clips with various filmmaking professionals inspired by the movie that include Directors Ridley Scott and George Lucas as well as some filmed clips from an interview with William Wilder and videotaped clips with Charlton Heston as well as some remarkably color clear behind-the-scenes filmed footage from the set. This documentary is divided into ten chapter stops for easy topic navigation. The 1994 documentary “Ben-Hur: The Making Of An Epic” (58:11), which was included as a bonus feature on the 35^th Anniversary laserdisc is also included on the fourth disc with 20 scene selections too.

A montage of stills, storyboards, and sketches mixed in with music and dialogue from the film (5:08) is present along with a reel of screen tests (29:08) featuring Leslie Neilsen, Cesare Danova, Dale Wexler, George Baker, William Russell, and Haya Harareet. Vintage newsreels (9:31) footage from the 1960 Academy Awards® ceremony (9:44) and five theatrical trailers wrap up the bonus features on disc four. The interactive menus on all four discs are well rendered and easy to navigate and within the four-disc gatefold Digipack packaging is a sixteen-page booklet entitled “The Story Of The Making Of Ben-Hur,” which features some beautiful color still photographs from the film. Inspirational and imitated, but never equaled or surpassed, “Ben-Hur: Four – Disc Collector’s Edition” DVD box set is a must own for anyone’s film library and is available now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Warner Home Video.

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