On December 30, 1987, I tripped on my sneaker laces coming out of my bathroom apartment. Nevertheless, I still headed out for the evening, totally ignorant of the fact that I had fractured the rotator cuff in my right shoulder.
I was less ignorant in the morning when the excruciating pain and a neighbor drove me to the emergency room. Happy F-ing New Year! I couldn't raise a glass of cheer, because I could barely raise a pencil. So, I was cooped up for the frivolity. And, to get my mind off my chipped bones, I decided to rent the longest movie I could find at the video store. That would be the 1959 rendition of "Ben-Hur," which I had surprisingly never seen. And, so I sat in front of a 19 inch television, arm in a sling and watching, for the first time, one of the biggest and successful epics Hollywood had ever made. It was probably the worst way to sample this film. And I certainly have seen it several times since in much better viewing conditions. But, I can't say that I have enjoyed more than I did that very first time.
"Ben-Hur" is total validation that, at one isolated point in the fixed universe, Charlton Heston could really act. For a movie that is so large in scope and long in running time, "Ben-Hur" is an incredibly intimate story. Because, indeed, it's about one man's spiritual awakening. Many of the movie's sequences are so legendary that all I have to do is simply mention them and you can conjure up an immediate image. The ship's galley. The chariot race. The leper colony. But, for me, the most memorable scenes are the ones where Judah Ben-Hur encounters Jesus Christ. The first time finds a beaten Judah, enslaved in a road gang, and a traveling Jesus gives him a drink of water. Many reels later, Judah returns the favor when Christ falls in front of him while carrying the cross to his own crucifixion. The symmetry of those two points in the movie is truly amazing and wonderfully choreographed by director William Wyler. Of course, this was in the day when Hollywood worked hard to never show Jesus Christ's face on camera. Today, they probably would have no shame and they'd probably even cast Seth Rogan in the part.
You can't truly appreciate "Ben-Hur" until you see it on a big screen. And a wide one. A really wide one. Because the chariot race virtually surrounds you wherever you are seated in the theater. It is probably the most exciting fifteen minutes ever filmed.
Until "Titanic" came along, "Ben-Hur" was the biggest Oscar winner ever with eleven. And every single one was deserved. It is a movie that was an event. Hell, even the trailer was terrific. Coming attactions that made you breathlessly wait for the movie's opening day.
See "Ben-Hur" when you can. On the biggest screen possible.
And you don't have to fracture your shoulder to do so.
Dinner last night: Chicken tenders at Johnnie Rocket's following the El Capitan presentation of "Enchanted."
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