Archive for the ‘Ben Hur (CBC)’ Category
Ben Hur – Miniseries
The 2-part miniseries aired first on Canada's CBC during Easter 2010.
Judah Ben-Hur (Joseph Morgan) lives as a rich Jew and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. When he hears that his childhood friend Messala (Stephen Campbell Moore) has been named to command the Roman garrison of Jerusalem, he is thrilled. He soon finds, however, that his friend has changed and has become an arrogant conqueror, full of the grandeur of Rome. During a welcome parade for the governor, a brick falls down from Judah’s house and barely misses the governor. When Judah refuses to divulge the names of Jews who oppose Roman rule, Messala decides to make an example of him and sends him off as a galley slave, while his mother Ruth (Alex Kingston) and sister Tirzah (Kristin Kreuk) are sent to prison. Through fate and good fortune, Judah survives the galleys and manages to return to Jerusalem in the hopes of seeking revenge against his one-time friend.
Part 1
I am one of the people, who never saw the movie from the 50s or who never had any knowledge abut the history and story involving Ben Hur, but nonetheless I was awaiting the miniseries, since I’ve heard of it the first time some time in 2009. My former favorite German channel ProSieben was part of the production, so why not watching it, before a German dubbed version airs?
And I have to say, I was surprised I liked it. The story went straight forward from the beginning to the first twist at the end of the part, and it was great to see that the writers didn’t even include a bigger side plot, just to tell a second story besides Judah’s way from a normal well-living man into the life of slavery, until he sees his path of revenge. Especially the second half could convince me to like it, since the downsize of Judah’s life was almost perfectly shown.
for graphic language, sexual references and depiction of fictional violence
