Ben Hur (2010)

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Movie
German title Ben Hur
Original title Ben Hur
Country of production USA ,
UK ,
Canada ,
Spain ,
Germany ,
Morocco
original language English
Publishing year 2010
length 184 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Steve Shill
script Alan Sharp
production Roger Corbi ,
Simon Vaughan
music Robert Lane
camera Ousama Rawi
cut Annie Ilkow ,
Simon Webb
occupation
synchronization

Ben Hur is a remake of the eleven Academy Award-winning film classic Ben Hur from 1959. The screenplay is based on the novel by the American writer and politician Lew Wallace . The two-parter was first broadcast on German television on June 10, 2011 on ProSieben as an extra-long television film.

action

The young Jewish aristocrat and merchant Judah Ben Hur and the Roman Messala have been close friends since their youth. As a youth, Messala lived with Judah, his mother Ruth and his sister Tirzah. Messala's father is a Roman senator and his mother was a Jewish whore . One day his father received a message from Rome ordering him there. With a heavy heart he embarks on this journey, but promises to return one day.

But the time in Rome made Messala a proud general who had all Jewish resistance to the Roman occupation forces put down in Jerusalem . Now Judah is supposed to provide him with information about Jewish conspiracies, but he does not want to betray his people. Judah also has private obligations, since he is supposed to marry Esther, the daughter of his steward Simonides. David, an overseer of Judah, is involved in a conspiracy and wants to stir up a disturbance at the upcoming Passover festival. Judah finds out about this, but does not report David at Messala. The latter becomes suspicious, but is reconciled with Judah. At the Passover festival a few days later, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate passed the house of the Ben Hur family. A stone on the balcony ledge under Judah's hand loosens and falls on the Roman governor, who falls from his horse and can only be protected with difficulty by his soldiers from the angry crowd. In the unrest, David stabs a Roman soldier from behind. Pontius Pilate, who is injured in the unrest, demands the death of the alleged assassin . Messala arrests Judah because his position is more important to him than the life of his friend. Judah's mother Ruth and his sister Tirzah are thrown in prison and are to be hanged. Judah expects to be crucified . Instead, he is relegated to a galley indefinitely . When he is taken there, he sees Simonides being crucified. Messala is dismissed from office by Pilate despite his tough decision against Judah's family.

Judah spends several years on the galley until the Senator Quintus Arrius comes on board, who is to be brought to Rome. He learns that Judah has suggested improvements to the captain of the galley and invites him to an interview. The following night there is a battle with three pirate ships . The Roman galley sinks. Judah manages to escape from the sinking galley, as Quintus had Arrius untied his chains beforehand. He in turn saves this on a large piece of floating debris . He is adopted by Arrius and appointed by him as his heir. The whore Athena is put on Judah by the Senator Marcellus to find out more about Arrius' intentions. When Arrius, suffering from an old injury, commits suicide, Judah returns to Judea .

He intends to take revenge on Messala, who, under the influence of his father Marcellus, is to be installed as the successor of Pontius Pilate as governor of Judea. As a Roman citizen, Judah succeeds in persuading Pilate, who does not recognize him, to sell him his old parents' house. Judah meets David, who offers him his services as a craftsman until he realizes who he actually has in front of him. David has meanwhile taken Esther and Simonides, who survived his crucifixion, into his home and demands that Esther marry him. However, David does not love this. Judah seeks out David and meets Esther, who despises him. David had told Esther that Judah had betrayed her father, Simonides. Only after a while and with the help of Simonides can Judah convince them otherwise. Messala comes to Judea and wants to take the place of Pontius Pilate. Judah swears vengeance to the point of death, which finally culminates in a chariot race . Meanwhile, Esther finds Ruth and Tirzah who live as lepers in caves outside the city. During the chariot race, Messala crashes into a competitor's car that has crashed and is thrown from his car. Judah runs over Messala lying on the racetrack, who is fatally wounded.

He sends the whore Athena to Judah, who refuses to go to Messala on his deathbed to forgive him. Esther can tell him that his mother and sister are still alive. He meets Jesus of Nazareth , who is being led to his execution. He helps the fallen Jesus to carry his cross. With reference to the Romans, the latter says to him: “Forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” This is Judah's third encounter with Jesus. Judah then realizes that he can forgive Messala and seeks him out. This dies relieved. Shortly before his death on the cross, Jesus heals Ruth and Tirzah from the leprosy. The Ben Hur family is eventually reunited.

background

The two-part series was shot in Ouarzazate , Morocco , with a budget of 22.5 million euros . The film is dedicated to both William Wyler and Charlton Heston , who died in 2008 .

Audience ratings

Channel date Viewers (from 3 years)
14 to 49 year old viewers 		Market share (from 3 years)
14 to 49 year old market share
ProSieben June 10, 2011 2.30 million
1.22 million 		9.6%
13.6%

Differences to the novel and the film adaptation from 1959

Although the film is a novel or a remake, there are some differences:

  • The religious aspect of the novel receives less attention in the film. Neither the birth of Jesus is shown, nor the sage Balthasar, who in the novel and film from 1959 played an essential part in Ben Hur's change from avenger to forgiving.
  • In the novel and film from 1959, the brick meets the Roman procurator Valerius Gratus; in the remake, Pontius Pilate is the one who was hit.
  • In the 1959 film adaptation, Tirzah made the brick fall. In the remake, however, it was Judah Ben Hur herself.
  • The meeting of Jesus with Ben Hur on his way to the galley was geographically moved from Nazareth - according to the novel and film from 1959 - to Jerusalem.
  • Ben Gur's number on the galley was 41, not 40 as depicted in the film.
  • In the 1959 book and film, Judah becomes a galley slave and charioteer - never a gladiator.
  • The crucifixion and deposition of Simonides from the cross is completely fictitious. In the novel, he survived the torture in prison paralyzed.
  • Characters like David Ben Levi, Athene, Gaius or Senator Marcellus are fictitious.
  • Other characters, such as Ben Hurs servant Amrah or the mute Malluch, are missing.

synchronization

criticism

In the judgment of the Lexicon of International Films , the film is "an elaborately designed, solidly entertaining (television) miniseries based on the classic historical novel by Lew Wallace, which by no means achieves the visual power of the classic movie by William Wyler (1959)."

Awards

Matthew Cerantola was nominated for the 2010 Gemini Awards for Best Sound in a Dramatic Program .

literature

  • Krešimir Matijević : Not just a chariot race! On the reception of Roman history in the "Ben-Hur" film adaptations and the novel by Lew Wallace . In: R. Wiegels (ed.), Entwined paths. Modern ways to antiquity, Osnabrück research on antiquity and the reception of antiquity 16. Marie Leidorf, Rahden 2011, pp. 217–238, ISBN 978-3-89646-737-9

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Ben Hur . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2011 (PDF; test number: 125 961 V).
  2. ↑ Locations according to the Internet Movie Database
  3. ↑ quotenmeter.de: "Ben Hur" remake a small success
  4. ↑ Ben Hur. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Nominations and awards according to the Internet Movie Database