4 PEER RESPONSES DUE IN 20 HOURS

1

Film Essay 1

Film from 1940-1970

Garrett Lollis

ARTH 334

Professor Tom Fallows

April 04, 2021

2

Part 1

The film I chose was Ben-Hur (1959), which is an adventure/historical film by director

William Wyler. The film is a work of fiction based on the 1880 book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the

Christ by author Lee Wallace and is the third film adaption of multiple films based upon the

story of the fictional character Ben-Hur (Brayson, 2016). I personally enjoyed this 3 hour and

42-minute film due to the directors’ masterful work even though the film was made in 1959.

William Wyler utilized different cinematography and editing tools such as D.W.

Griffiths intercutting, panning, close-up, and dissolve techniques throughout the film to depict

each scene and enhance the quality of the film (Gutmann, 2010). With the use of D.W. Griffiths

cinematography/editing techniques, William Wyler managed to show different angles of a scene

better and pan for more use of the space because of newer technology unlike the straight on view

that had to be used in George Melies’s A Trip To The Moon (1902) due to the technology at

that time. Sound syncing really came a long way from the early 1900’s and this film perfectly

synced the sounds with what was happening in each scene (The History of Sound at the Movies,

2014). There is a scene about an ancient Roman naval battle taking place and I believe all parts

from sound, to editing, and cinematography come together during this battle scene. Before the

battle takes place the Admiral of the ship tests the boat rowers which were slaves by having them

run through different battle speeds of the ship. There is a drummer that helps keep the rowers in

sync, so as the Admiral yelled out “attack speed” the drummer started drumming and you can

hear the multitude of sounds from the music intensifying, the drummer drumming faster to the

changing ship speeds, to the exhaustion of the men as they row throughout this particular scene.

Once the battle begins, the battle music intensifies, and the director used cross-cutting to go

between the battle taking place outside the ship and back to the men under the deck rowing the

3

boat as the battle draws on. The director also used close-up shots to show the different

expressions on a few characters faces during the battle and finishes with the dissolve effect after

the battle is over to transition to Ben-Hur and the Admiral being stranded in the ocean. William

Wyler used the dissolve feature multiple time throughout the film to transition between locations

and nighttime and daytime, I really enjoy this feature because it makes the scenes flow smoothly

instead of just abruptly cutting off. Another interesting thing added into the film is an

intermission because the length of the film, this gives time to get a drink or more popcorn and

something I have only seen down in very few films. The director added as much realism to each

scene from the backdrops to the cloths of the characters. One thing I did dislike was that the intro

to the film took six minutes before the film even started. Even though I paid to rent the movie on

Amazon Prime, I almost thought it was not the correct movie due to the intro. I believe this film

was successful in creating a work of fiction, especially for the time period of the film. The level

of realism and the way the director portrayed the story of Ben-Hur, it would almost seem like

Ben-Hur was not a fictional character, but a real person in history.

Part 2

I believe that William Wyler was a great director since he already had a few films under

his belt before directing Ben-Hur. Even though the movie was long, William Wyler seemed to

know how to keep the film interesting as it progressed through the story of Ben-Hur. William

Wyler used time jumps in a few areas of the film as to not draw out the film, but slightly

referenced back to some of the events that occurred throughout the time jumps. William Wyler’s

directing style seemed to have turned the story of Ben-Hur from an average story to a work of

art. In my opinion there are two characters of importance in this film, the main character, and his

best who later becomes his arch nemesis. In the beginning of the film, I was not real sure how I

4

felt about Charlton Heston as Ben-Hur, it might not have been his portrayal of the character, but

more the story of Ben-Hur in the beginning just was not interesting yet. Stephen Boyd’s

character, Messela seemed to overshadow the main character at first. Stephen Boyd’s portrayal

of Messela seemed to match what a bad guy is supposed to be like and act like, especially as he

betrayed his best friend Ben-Hur and imprisoned him and his family. As the story progressed,

Charlton Heston started to mesh with the character of Ben-Hur and started showing the depth of

the character. Charlton Heston did a good job of portraying different emotional stages seen

throughout the film after his character was betrayed and sent away to live the life of a prisoner,

but it did take the development of the character before Charlton Heston brought out the full

potential of Ben-Hur. Even though Stephen Boyd’s character Messela was not seen much

throughout a lot of the movie his portrayal of a bad guy was masterfully done. Stephen Boyd

made it seem like his character was an awfully bad person and made you dislike him for

betraying his friend like he did. Even as Messela was on his death bed after being trampled by

horses during his sanctioned race in a stadium for all to see against Ben-Hur, he tells Ben-Hur

about his family and how they were placed with lepers (leprosy was a very contagious disease,

especially during the time period depicted in the film) adding to Messela’s villainy. After the

character progression of the main character, I think both actors managed to portray their

characters very well and captured the emotions of their respective character.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, this film was enjoyable to watch even though it was made in 1959 and I would

recommend it to others even though there are newer renditions of the film out such as an

animated version and an updated version produced in 2016. William Wyler managed to produce

a great film in the adventure/historical genre. With the production skills of William Wyler as a

5

director and the actors’ portrayal of their characters, I would say this is the best movie from a

time period before 1960 that I have seen thus far. Ben-Hur was enjoyable from start to finish.

6

Resources

Brayson, J. (2016). Ben-Hur's History Goes Back A Ways. Retrieved from 'Ben-Hur' Isn’t A True

Story, But It Was Inspired By A Powerful Historical Figure (bustle.com)

Gutmann, P. (2010). Editing, Panning, Close-Ups, & the Dissolve. Retrieved from D. W. Griffith

and the Dawn of Film Art -- Part 6: Editing, Panning, Close-Ups and the Dissolve, by

Peter Gutmann (classicalnotes.net)

(2014). The History of Sound at the Movies. Retrieved from The History of Sound at the

Movies - YouTube

7

My Criteria for Quality in Film

1. Music/sound choice matches what is happening in the movie to draw on the emotional

effect of a scene.

2. The actor’s ability to portray their specific character and bring out every aspect of that

character

3. The visual effects have continuity and blend well throughout the movie

4. The “storyline” has to draw interest to its specific topic.