Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23721 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-02-13
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 213 minutes

Special Features
Sub-titles: English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, French, Italian, Romanian.

Synopsis
Anno Domini: the seventh year of Augustus Caesar's reign. In the Roman province of Judea, Jews return to the city of their birth for the census. A bright star in the night over Bethlehem marks the birth of Jesus Christ. Years later, Roman commander Messala (Stephen Boyd), who was brought up in Judea, takes command of the Roman garrison in Jerusalem. His Jewish boyhood friend Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) greets him. Messala is delighted. But when Judah refuses to name Jewish patriots, Messala sentences him to the slave galleys and imprisons his mother, Miriam (Martha Scott), and sister, Tirzah (Cathy O'Donnell). Judah vows revenge. In BEN-HUR, William Wyler's much-lauded epic, the story of Judah's search for his mother and sister and his quest for revenge intersects with crucial biblical events such as the Sermon on the Mount and the crucifixion. Wyler gets fine performances from Heston, Boyd, Jack Hawkins (as a Roman admiral who befriends Judah), and Hugh Griffith (as an Arab sheik who dreams of racing his beautiful white horses against Messala). Among BEN-HUR's vivid dramatic sequences are a violent sea battle and the famous chariot race that pits Judah against Messala in one of cinema's great action sequences.

Customer Reviews

One of the greatest films ever made.
Warner Bros.have gone and done it again.You know the story by now so let's just focus on this gorgeous 4 disc presentation.
The print has got to be seen to be believed,crisp sharp,colourful everything this classic deserves.
And what of the extras? WOW!!! First of all you get two documentaries-one from 1994 which was on the 2001 edition but the one made in 2005 is so impressive.
The best extra ever in this reviewers opinion has go to be disc 3 which features the entire 1925 silent version with a new score by Sir Carl Davis.
What more could you ask for? Superb,worth every penny.

Long overdue movie classic gets the full treatment
At long last, one of the greatest movies ever made, finally gets released as a collectors edition DVD. And what a collection it is!! The movie, the original 1925 version, and special features including commentaries, 3 documentaries, trailers and speeches from the oscars all crammed onto 4 discs.

What can be said, that hasn't already been said about this epic?? Faultless performances from the likes of Hugh Griffiths, Glengormley born actor Stephen Boyd (Messala), and the excellent Charlton Heston in the lead role. Brilliant music score and breath-taking action (to name but a few!) It's the sort of film that shouldn't just be viewed on a Good Friday afternoon!

The real gem in this collection has to be the restored 1925 original silent version. It's amazing to watch this and to compare it to its more famous remake. The 1925 version seems to focus more on the "tale of the Christ." Scenes such as the nativity and the last supper are particularly memorable with it's beautiful use of colour. It's also quite a shocking film (for it's time) with images of semi nudity and quite grotesque scenes of violence (bodies and heads impaled on spikes and swords). But don't let that put you off. Despite its flaws, even the chariot race is as spectacular to watch. Carl Davis' musical score is superb, and also quite Wagnerian in style. (Any of you musical buffs might recognise the clever use of the 'Dresden Amen' used to symbolise Jesus).

This is a must buy! It deserved it's 11 oscars, and it deserves to be viewed over and over again. Even if, like me, you already have it on video, and the first DVD that was released. I'm still delighted that it has finally come out in a special edition.

A Real Gem
This 4-disc special edition of 1959 version of Ben Hur has already been released in Scandinavia. Nothing more to add to the abundance of previous reviews of the film. Also many of the extras have been released with the previous single disc, double sided DVD-version, including the highly informative and entertaining documantary "Ben Hur - The Making of an Epic", covering the history of not only the 1959 version, but that of the original novel, stage productions, and both previous silent versions (1905 and 1925) as well. However, the real gem in this new 4-disc release is the feature-length, beautifully restored 1925 silent version of Ben-Hur with a stereophonic orchestral score by composer Carl Davis, which, as far as I know, has never been released in DVD format before. Its presence is not very clearly stated in Amazon.co.uk's list of special features, but there it is, at least in the Scandinavian version of this box set. A real bargain, two great films in the same package, and worth every cent of it.