Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Jack Huston | ... | Judah Ben-Hur | |
Toby Kebbell | ... | Messala Severus | |
Rodrigo Santoro | ... | Jesus | |
Nazanin Boniadi | ... | Esther | |
Ayelet Zurer | ... | Naomi Ben-Hur | |
Pilou Asbæk | ... | Pontius Pilate | |
Sofia Black-D'Elia | ... | Tirzah Ben-Hur (as Sofia Black D'Elia) | |
Morgan Freeman | ... | Ilderim | |
Marwan Kenzari | ... | Druses | |
Moises Arias | ... | Dismas | |
James Cosmo | ... | Quintus | |
Haluk Bilginer | ... | Simonides (as Haluk Biligner) | |
David Walmsley | ... | Marcus Decimus | |
Yasen Atour | ... | Jacob | |
Francesco Scianna | ... | Kadeem |
A Jewish nobleman, Judah Ben-Hur, and his adopted Roman brother Messala are best friends despite their different origins. Messala enlists in the Roman army and fights in the Roman Empire's wars in Germany. Ben-Hur also develops feelings for the family slave Esther although their different station in life compels him not to pursue her. But when her father Simonides seeks to marry her off to a Roman, Ben-Hur declares his love for her and takes her as his wife. Three years later, Messala returns as a decorated Roman officer. His return coincides with a rising insurrection by the Zealots, Jews who are opposed to the oppressive nature of Roman rule..
What a dreadful effort, it took a lot of creativity for this film to be this bad. The frustrating thing they didn't even have to take a chance, the book is over a 150 years old, there was a blockbuster stage show and 2 blockbuster films, all they had to do was minorly tweak the original book, or use one of the smash-hit films as a guide. I venture to say Ben Hur is one of our great stories, it has everything, love, spectacle, honour, adventure, redemption, meaning, a moral, and even a miracle' where could you go wrong. But wrong they went and I was never so angry and disappointed at a film and it was all down to ineptitude and pure genius at incompetence I mean how could anyone spend 100 million on Ben Hur and get it so wrong, the mind boggles. I give it 4 stars as the 2 great iconic scenes of which we all know, the Naval battle and the Chariot race were quite good. But the story around those events, the iconic Ben Hur story was complete and utter motiveless drivel.