I don't know if I can say I like one version better than the other. There are things I love about both versions.
The 1925 version is closer to the novel. It shows Judah creating an army with which to help the Nazarene conquer Rome, because Judah believes the Messiah will be a military leader rather than a religious leader. It also has the character of Iras, daughter of the Magi, Balthasar. I like the inclusion of Iras because she is the opposite of Esther. There is one scene in the silent version that I truly love, and it is directly from the novel. Remember the scene where Judah returns to the house, but has been locked out. He cannot waken Esther, so he falls asleep on the stoop. Miriam and Esther, just being released from prison, walk by their old home. They see Judah, and Miriam, his mother, after all these years would love nothing better than to take him in her arms, but she can't. She is a leper, and to touch him would be to condemn him to leperosy. Instead, she creeps forward and kisses the sole of his sandal while he sleeps, the only contact that she can have with him. That scene brings tears.
I don't know if MGM could have afforded Rudolph Valentino. This was MGM's first major epic, and Valentino, at this time, was making $200,000 a picture plus 25% of the profits. Ramon Navarro was, not insult intended, a poor man's Valentino. The problem I have with his performance is that he doesn't really change throughout the movie. The story covers several years, and many events, but Navarro's Judah is still as boyish as he was in the beginning. Charlton Heston's Judah definitely changes as the movie progresses, and this adds so much to his character and the story. This is why I think I like his performance better.
Did you know that the chariot race from the 1925 version was recreated almost frame for frame for the 1959 version? There were a couple of other scenes recreated. At the beginning, during the adoration of the Magi, one of the shepherds comes out of the stable and blows on a shofar (ram's horn) to announce the birth of Jesus. This was redone in the 1959 version. Later, when Judah is being marched to the sea to take his place as a galley slave, and they stop for water in Nazareth, compare the two versions. In both, Jesus is shown sawing wood -- He is a carpenter. He lays down the saw and goes to the well to offer water and hope to Judah.
I think its a personal choice, but I liked Haya Harareet's Esther better than May McAvoy's. Again, it may be because of the change in the character. Haya Harareet's Esther is humble and self-concious in front of Judah at the beginning. She knows she is a slave and he is her master, but she also loves him. After the arrest of the Hur family and her own father's arrest and torture, she finds a greater strength. When Judah returns, she can face him like an equal, and the love is still there, although shown differently. Judah is very strong in his hated and lust for revenge, but Harareet's Esther is just as strong in her faith in the Christ. She is ready to fight the man she loves -- to honor Miriam's and Tirzah's wish that Judah never know they are lepers -- and strong enough in faith to lead them to the Christ in hope of healing.
I think I've rambled on a bit too much. But I think I can say that we both like this story and love, in different ways, the two movies that bring this story alive. (Wouldn't it have been great to see the original stage version and how they presented this epic on a stage?!)
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398
13 years ago
I recently read the book, and I must say Novarro is almost perfect casting. He looks the part as written, and is a pretty good age. Ben-Hur goes from 17 to 25 from the beginning of the novel to the chariot race.
I don't agree that Novarro doesn't change. He goes from a boy to a young man. Compare his first confrontation with Messala with the one prior to the race.
Heston was way too old for the character in the novel, but his part is rewritten to fit him. He was 36 (Ben-Hur was 17 when the novel introduces him) and plays an adult who is a leader of his community even when introduced.
By the way, I think Novarro was probably as big a star in 1926 as Heston was in 1959 (Heston had been 4th billed in THE BIG COUNTRY).
As for Valentino, after reading the book, I don't see him at all as Ben-Hur. He might have been a good choice for Messala, though, but I think there was no chance of him accepting that part.
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angmc43
13 years ago
According to Kevin Brownlow's THE PARADE GONE BY (it has a whole chapter about the silent version), Valentino is claimed to have said that Ben-Hur would have been a climax to his career that he could never repeat and would suffer for it. After that role, his career would go nowhere but down.
I love both movies, watch them every last days before Christmas (that's when I first saw them). Oh, those wonderful days when TNT showed its MGM/RKO/Early Warners library, even showing Silent films on Christmas Eve Night (which they called 'Silent Night') in 1989 and 1990...
The 1959 version has the better story, characterizations, acting, and portrayal of Jesus. However, both films' depiction of the Sea Battle and Chariot Race are great in their own ways (Yes, you can tell the 1959 ships are models, but it is still a superbly executed scene. If you want to call the kettle black, the 1925 version did use models too- and poor ones at that- though thankfully they were very brief and didn't upset the real ship scenes). I think the 1925 version did a better Nativity, with its more lengthy lead to the sequence (though I do not wish to knock the also well-done 1959 version). I agree about Mrs. Hur's reunion with her son in the silent is a definite high-point. The healing of the Lepers in both films are great, the 1925 color-filter cinematography causing Mrs. Hur and Tirzah's Leper make-up to disappear without a dissolve or cut (Karl Struss would use this effect for the Fredric March version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE) vs. the 1959 subtlety of Miriam's hand suddenly moving again.
In terms of music, Miklos Rosza's music is legendary and deserving of all praise, but I want special mention given to Carl Davis' superb scoring for the 1988 Turner-Thames cut of the silent film: The powerful Chariot Race theme, the 'Hur family' theme, reaching an epic celebration when they are finally reunited at the climax, and the Christ theme making its epic introduction when the Star of Bethlehem appears (If you saw Richard Gere's KING DAVID, which Davis also scored, you can hear 'The Lord is my shepherd' theme when Mary and Joseph enter the Cave in Bethlehem).
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