The long-awaited 4K UHD Bluray of William Wyler‘s Ben-Hur finally pops on 2.17.26. Thank God WHE execs didn’t feel obliged to wait for the 70th anniversary of the multi-Oscar-winning film’s theatrical debut, which happened on 11.18.59.
It would have been a somewhat bigger deal if the WHE guys had gotten the lead out and released a 4K UHD Bluray on 11.18.19 (60th anniversary) or, better still, on 11.18.09 (50th anni). Physical media hasn’t been a big deal for a good 15 years, but the Ben-Hur UHD is still an important event in this diminished realm.
Ben-Hur was shot on 65mm film (Camera 65), which was then printed on 70mm film for reserved-seat exhibition with an aspect ratio of 2.76:1. (The rubes were shown 35mm prints with 2.39:1 or 2.55:1 aspect ratios.) Ben-Hur was not filmed at 30 frames per second (fps) but at the standard industry speed of 24 fps.
For decades the standard Ben-Hur synopsis has stated that the narrative begins in Judea and more particularly in Jerusalem in AD 26. The 4K UHD copy is different, calling the film “a classic adaptation of the Lew Wallace story of Palestine in the time of Christ.” Palestine? I’m not 100% certain, but I don’t think anyone uses the word “Palestine” in the entire film. I’m guessing that the WHE copywriter used “Palestine” instead of “ancient Judea” or “Jerusalem” because of contemporary anti-Netanyahu leftist politics.
“Wherever there is greatness — great government or power, even great feeling or compassion — error also is great. We progress and mature by fault. Perfect freedom has no existence. The grown man knows the world he lives in.” — written by Gore Vidal and spoken by Frank Thring (as Judea governor Pontius Pilate) in Act 3 of William Wyler‘s Ben-Hur.
HE’s Best Films of 1959 (posted on 3.1.24):
In HE’s judgment, 25 exceptional, high-quality films were released in 1959. (There were another 9 or 10 that were good, decent, not bad.) By today’s standards, here’s how the top 25 rank:
1. Billy Wlder‘s Some Like It Hot (released on 3.29.59)
2. Alfred Hitchcock‘s North by Northwest (released on 7.1.59)
3. John Ford‘s The Horse Soldiers (released on 6.12.59)
4. George Stevens‘ The Diary of Anne Frank (released 3.18.59)
5. Stanley Kramer‘s On The Beach (released on 12.17.59)
6. William Wyler‘s Ben-Hur (released on 11.18.59)
7. Alain Resnais‘s Hiroshima, Mon Amour (released in France on 6.10.59)
8. Lewis Milestone‘s Pork Chop Hill (released on 5.29.59)
9. Otto Preminger‘s Anatomy of a Murder (released on 7.2.59)
10. Francois Truffaut‘s The 400 Blows (released in France on 5.4.59)
11. Howard Hawks‘ Rio Bravo (released on 4.4.59)
12. Sidney Lumet‘s The Fugitive Kind (released on 4.14.59)
13. Tony Richardson‘s Look Back in Anger (released on 9.15.59)
14. Grigory Chukhray‘s Ballad of a Soldier (released on 12.1.59)
15. Robert Bresson‘s Pickpocket (released on 12.16.59)
16. Robert Wise‘s Odds Against Tomorrow (released on 10.15.59)
17. Delbert Mann‘s Middle of the Night (released on 6.17.59)
18. Robert Stevenson‘s Darby O’Gill and the Little People (released on 6.26.59)
19. Fred Zinnemann‘s The Nun’s Story (released on 6.18.59)
20. Guy Hamilton‘s The Devil’s Disciple (released on 8.20.59)
21. Roger Vadim‘s Les Liaisons Dangereuses (released on 9.9.59)
22. Richard Fleischer‘s Compulsion (released on 4.1.59)
23. Val Guest‘s Expresso Bongo (released on 12.11.59)
24. Carol Reed‘s Our Man in Havana (released in England on 12.30.59 / stateside on 1.27.60)
25. J. Lee Thompson‘s Tiger Bay (released in March 1959)
Bonus:
Charles Barton‘s The Shaggy Dog (released on 3.19.59).