Ben-Hur - 4DVD Edition.

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John Johnson · #1 Post by **John Johnson** » Fri May 27, 2005 11:41 am

Here's a press release concerning the Ben-Hur 4DVD Edition. The film has been remastered from the original 65mm elements.
Over ten hours of bonus features, including the 1925 version with a score by Carl Davis
http://www.davisdvd.com/news/press/.html

Eric Paddon · #2 Post by **Eric Paddon** » Sat May 28, 2005 1:57 am

That will definitely be one worth getting! They've even restored the isolated score feature that was part of the CAV LD set but not the first DVD release. I now at last have a reason to dispose of that.

mkaroly · #3 Post by **mkaroly** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 11:13 pm

This is incredible news- I tried to access that link you gave but it wouldn't work. Is there a release date for the set?

AndyDursin · #4 Post by **AndyDursin** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 12:39 am

That is superb news indeed. Warner's old DVD wasn't so hot, that's for sure!

Carlson2005 · #5 Post by **Carlson2005** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 12:54 am

Does anyone know if it's going to include the entire Kalem 'pirate' version that preceded the 1925 silent version by more than a decade? It's staggeringly bad even for its day - it was mostly shot at a beach chariot race, with the camera firmly fixed on the starting and finish line, which means half the running time is taken up with people looking off into the distance

- but at around 12 minutes its worth a watch once and does have some historical value. It's the sort of thing that really ought to be on any set that claims to be definitive.

mkaroly · #6 Post by **mkaroly** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 8:55 am

AndyDursin wrote:That is superb news indeed. Warner's old DVD wasn't so hot, that's for sure!

Saw a release date for this on Amazon for September 13- looks awesome!

Eric W. · #7 Post by **Eric W.** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 10:19 am

Definitely getting this!

Eric Paddon · #8 Post by **Eric Paddon** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 3:13 am

I bought this, and I have to say this: The person who does the "commentary" track for this film, if it can be called that, lays an egg big time. Not only is he profoundly ignorant of Roman history when he says it's inaccurate for Tiberius to be emperor in this movie, but that someone names "Pomponious" or whatever should be emperor (There never was any such person, and Tiberius was indeed emperor), he also says "The Robe" was shot in 3-D at one point, and then he goes silent for long stretches and then imparts some pretty worthless stuff like "I don't know how much a talent is" or five minutes to tell us what an "Entr'acte" is in one sentence. I heard about two useful bits of information regarding earlier drafts of the screenplay and scenes not used and dropped involving the character of Balthasar's daughter and Ben-Hur's would-be Roman love interest (Marina Berti, who only remains in the film in a couple close-shots with Heston in the Rome party sequence) and the rest was boring pap (especially his incredible suggestion that the power of the Crucifixion scene spoke to public attitudes about blacklisting. I think it's amazing how there are some critics who refuse to recognize the power of the Biblical epics by virtue of the fact that they succeeded in speaking to the needs of the religious audience they were intended for.).

It seemed to me that not all of Charlton Heston's intermittent commentary from the last DVD release was retained in this set, which means I am not going to dispose of it as yet. Heston's remarks were far more interesting than just about anything I heard from this guy.

The 1994 documentary I refuse to watch because of Gore Vidal's participation, and how he was allowed to push the discredited notion (that sadly, I notice DVD Savant is also pushing) that he made Judah and Messala lovers at one time but no counterpoint from Heston, who has twice written on this subject was permitted (as well as the matter of Christopher Fry being the author of the final draft of the script). Indeed, I think it's pretty condescending in the extreme when I see a critic suggest that Heston was fooled into playing a part other than the kind he thought he was playing by a director/writer, as I've seen DVD Savant do regarding Heston's performances in Ben-Hur and Major Dundee. Heston may not be liked by some people because of his unpopular politics, but he's no dummy, and his own journal states categorically that Vidal's would-be attempts at writing scenes for Ben-Hur never got used because he was dismissed and Fry brought in.

Monterey Jack · #9 Post by **Monterey Jack** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 8:49 am

Did anyone else find it bizarre in the documentary that, of all the film composers who could've discussed Miklos Rosza's magnificent score, the producers selected...Elia Cmiral and Don Davis?!

Especially weird that they show clips from the Davis-scored The Matrix (yeah, that score sounds a lot like Ben-Hur...).

AndyDursin · #10 Post by **AndyDursin** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 10:41 am

Monterey Jack wrote:Did anyone else find it bizarre in the documentary that, of all the film composers who could've discussed Miklos Rosza's magnificent score, the producers selected...Elia Cmiral and Don Davis?! Especially weird that they show clips from the Davis-scored The Matrix (yeah, that score sounds a lot like Ben-Hur...).

LOL. I assume J. Peter Robinson wasn't available?

AndyDursin · #11 Post by **AndyDursin** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 10:48 am

Eric Paddon wrote:I bought this, and I have to say this: The person who does the "commentary" track for this film, if it can be called that, lays an egg big time. Not only is he profoundly ignorant of Roman history when he says it's inaccurate for Tiberius to be emperor in this movie, but that someone names "Pomponious" or whatever should be emperor (There never was any such person, and Tiberius was indeed emperor), he also says "The Robe" was shot in 3-D at one point, and then he goes silent for long stretches and then imparts some pretty worthless stuff like "I don't know how much a talent is" or five minutes to tell us what an "Entr'acte" is in one sentence. I heard about two useful bits of information regarding earlier drafts of the screenplay and scenes not used and dropped involving the character of Balthasar's daughter and Ben-Hur's would-be Roman love interest (Marina Berti, who only remains in the film in a couple close-shots with Heston in the Rome party sequence) and the rest was boring pap (especially his incredible suggestion that the power of the Crucifixion scene spoke to public attitudes about blacklisting. I think it's amazing how there are some critics who refuse to recognize the power of the Biblical epics by virtue of the fact that they succeeded in speaking to the needs of the religious audience they were intended for.).

It seemed to me that not all of Charlton Heston's intermittent commentary from the last DVD release was retained in this set, which means I am not going to dispose of it as yet. Heston's remarks were far more interesting than just about anything I heard from this guy.

The 1994 documentary I refuse to watch because of Gore Vidal's participation, and how he was allowed to push the discredited notion (that sadly, I notice DVD Savant is also pushing) that he made Judah and Messala lovers at one time but no counterpoint from Heston, who has twice written on this subject was permitted (as well as the matter of Christopher Fry being the author of the final draft of the script). Indeed, I think it's pretty condescending in the extreme when I see a critic suggest that Heston was fooled into playing a part other than the kind he thought he was playing by a director/writer, as I've seen DVD Savant do regarding Heston's performances in Ben-Hur and Major Dundee. Heston may not be liked by some people because of his unpopular politics, but he's no dummy, and his own journal states categorically that Vidal's would-be attempts at writing scenes for Ben-Hur never got used because he was dismissed and Fry brought in.

"Unpopular politics" in Hollywood anyway Eric -- excellent points all. I'm waiting until Deepdiscount's fall sale to pick this up (it's at the PR firm who won't send us anything), but I'm dismayed by the "P.C. POLICE" getting involved in the commentary and supplements of this release. Seems like we can't get away from it, can we?

Eric Paddon · #12 Post by **Eric Paddon** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:29 pm

Unfortunately no, in the case of this film at least. By contrast, the supplements for Heston's other great Biblical epic "The Ten Commandments" blow this one's away (in terms of those that pertain to the film itself. I'm not taking into account the presence of the silent "Ben Hur" in this set), especially on the matter of commentary track.

AndyDursin · #13 Post by **AndyDursin** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:50 pm

Eric Paddon wrote:Unfortunately no, in the case of this film at least. By contrast, the supplements for Heston's other great Biblical epic "The Ten Commandments" blow this one's away (in terms of those that pertain to the film itself. I'm not taking into account the presence of the silent "Ben Hur" in this set), especially on the matter of commentary track.

Paramount did a great and unheralded job with that DVD. It's very curious -- the Warner releases tend to get a lot more publicity within the internet community, and yet when something is lacking, nobody calls them out on it.

Eric W. · #14 Post by **Eric W.** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:35 pm

AndyDursin wrote:
Monterey Jack wrote:Did anyone else find it bizarre in the documentary that, of all the film composers who could've discussed Miklos Rosza's magnificent score, the producers selected...Elia Cmiral and Don Davis?! Especially weird that they show clips from the Davis-scored The Matrix (yeah, that score sounds a lot like Ben-Hur...).
LOL. I assume J. Peter Robinson wasn't available?

Completely senseless choices. What about John Williams or someone like that?

Eric Paddon · #15 Post by **Eric Paddon** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:24 pm

Another gigantic waste in the 2005 documentary was allowing George Lucas to talk about the "inspiration" of Ben-Hur on him for Episode #1's pod-race complete with clips. I think it's a disgrace to even remotely compare the two, and from my standpoint that scene only demonstrated how Lucas has largely been bereft of imaginative ideas of his own for quite some time.