Ben Hur | Full Movie | Movies Anywhere

This is a Ben-Hur to stir the imagination and move the heart. It has spectacle, of course. But it is spectacle which, exciting beyond words in the stunningly handled chariot race, does not overwhelm the basic truths of Wallace's story of faith.

After decades of failure, the movies finally scale the lofty peak of the word "Colossal" with Ben-Hur.

Promises of the chariot race, which is presented early in the second half of the film, are dangled often like a carrot before the nose of the audience, and when it finally takes place, the sequence proves well worth waiting for.

Asked to say what feature lifts it far above other spectaculars, I would say in one word: dialogue. It is not difficult to detect the words of Christopher Fry.

To conclude with one more superlative, Ben-Hur -- for spectacle and excitement -- is the shortest long movie ever filmed.