Comparing remakes of movies BEN-HUR

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The classic


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The remake


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Ben-Hur is a classic movie starring Charlton Heston, released in the year 1959. It is an all-time hit movie that people still love to watch. I grew up hearing my father praise the movie and used to listen to the accounts of the chariot race and how a prince was turned into a slave. It was no less exciting than Arabian nights.

Thanks to #cinetv I can now write what I love to write about i.e. movies and music. So, I decided to look up Ben-Hur and was surprised to see that a remake has been made and that too in the year 2016.

Ben-Hur is a 2016 American epic historical drama film directed by Timur Bekmambetov and written by Keith Clarke and John Ridley. It is the fifth film adaptation of the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace following the 1907 silent short film, the 1925 silent film, the Academy Award-winning 1959 film and the 2003 animated film of the same name. It is the third version of Ben-Hur released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It has been termed a "re-adaptation", "reimagining", and "new interpretation" of the novel.[3][4] The film stars Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell, Nazanin Boniadi, Haluk Bilginer, and Rodrigo Santoro.

I couldn't have explained it better, so I included the above.

Five remakes of the same movie but let me tell you that I liked the one my dad had watched and described to me with so much enthusiasm that none other appeals to me.

I did eventually watch Ben-Hur 1959 version in the movie theater along with him when it was later released in Vistarama as it is called. I am not sure if the present generation knows about this. The complete screen would be utilized and during the eighties, it was still a wonder to the audiences.

Coming to the opinion about watching remakes, would you prefer an extra special effects remake of classic movies such as Ben-Hur?

Having loved the original version which won academy awards and rightly so, I doubt I would prefer the modern version to the one I love and still watch from time to time as I have got a downloaded copy on my PC.

In the 1959 version, we see Ben-Hur's friend Messala begging to be killed after being injured in the chariot race and Ben-Hur returning to his house where he meets his faithful Esther who doesn't reveal where his mother and sister are but he follows her to the leper colony and saves them. They are cured when the rainwater which washes the blood of Jesus touches them. The movie ends there but in the modern version, Ben-Hur is reconciled with his friend Messala and is seen leaving Jerusalem along with his family.

The classic version actor, Charlton Heston seemed what we would imagine Ben-Hur to be, or maybe it is because the images were imprinted in the mind of a 13-year-old girl.

I hope you watch the classic version first if you decide to watch the movie. It is the story of Prince Judah Ben-Hur.

Classic 1959 version - Box office - $146.9 million (initial release)
Modern remake - 2016 - $94.1 million

There, the stats tell you



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