The Race Is Not Over; It Goes On -- from Ben Hur 

Is true......

he still says,messala says "the race is not over", "go and find your sister and mother in valley of lepers ,if you can identify them", how mcu hhated he has even in his death bed

……the final shot reminds me of the 1996 autobiography of Mr Charlton Heston, titled ‘In the Arena’………

Earlier he had threatened to crucify a girl he knew to be innocent, whom he had grown up with, and whom he knew had a crush on him. He really is one of the most evil characters in film, even if others have caused more deaths or more suffering.

The final twist of the knife from Masala.

I saw the film when it first came out and many times since. There are some who look at Heston's later politics and yhink he was not worthy of the Oscar. Well, I disagreed wikth his NRA nonsense, but I thought he truly deserved to the Best Actor of 1959.

@@williamsnyder5616 One thing is the politics the other is his talent as an actor. He truly deserve it. And Stephen Boyd should have received the Oscar for better supporting actor.

@@AlbertoJorgeSoares Definitely agree on Boyd, Alberto. Boyd's fellow "Ben-Hur" actor, Hugh Griffith, was delightful as Shiek Ildirim, but he was just flashy in the role. Boyd had to show a good side and a bad side in the film. Incidentally, if you can find it on RU-vid, there is an old black and white video from 1959 showing Boyd, and Heston in a booth at the Brown Derby sharing coffee with their silent "Ben-Hur" counterparts, Francis X. Bushman and Ramon Navarro. Tremendous stuff.

His last words before his death tells you the evilness of Messala's soul.

……IMHO, the best scene was the first one after Intermission, when a magnificent jewel-encrusted dagger arrived for Messala, from ‘a man I’ve never met’. THEN there’s the beautiful, booming bass-voice of Judah Ben-Hur, in an ante-room, pronouncing, ‘You’re wrong, Messala’. Oh boy, how good was that! This whole scene, where Judah is attired, & coiffed, as a Roman Senator, far above Messala’s rank, just keeps getting better with Messala being a smart-@$$ to Judah, who ends up ORDERING him to get the Roman Governor’s approval to search for his mother, & sister. ‘Then get it!’ Fantastic!

Fascinating how the script rider chooses these words to be Messala's final words.

Quite the opposite. There was no hatred left for either of them. Hence why Judah declared he no longer sees an enemy before him and why Messala expressed a desire to help him before he died. A greater middle finger would have been not to even tell him or mislead him in some way by telling them they’re alive and where to find them but not disclosing their condition but he told him the complete truth instead. I feel he genuinely wanted to help him with his final breath so that he could at least see his family one more time before they died.

Guess who really got the middle finger on the day he stood before the very God throughout the whole film that he mocked and scoffed at and saw what that got him for all eternity!!!!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

​@@rexwallace9477.....True, the eternal torment that Messala is suffering pales to the pain from his broken body he went through on Earth.

+Chris My favorite film and certainly the greatest of the "Biblical Epics."

toby kebbell is giving it a go, we'll see

I agree. GREAT death scene!

One of the best movies ever!

That Supporting Oscar should have been his, and he wasn't even nominated!

I read somewhere that back then only one actor could be nominated for each award from any one picture, so Hugh Griffith got the nomination and the award for playing Sheik Ilderim, another outstanding performance.

+jivetalk69 Mine too !

Great acting makes it believable.

I think Judah break his close friend Messala’s heart.💔

Their love for one another was beyond friends, more like brothers which makes the hatred between them later in the film that more tragic....😢

My favorite film. So many facets about it are still outstanding. Could not be re-made, although they tried and had modern technology helping them.

I think what it actually meant to show is that this character is utterly unredeemable - all other Messalas after him got a backstory that made their betrayal somehow understandable, which ends with Stephen Campbell Moore playing him like a wuss and - well, let's just say that Toby Kebbell is far from being the calibre actor that Boyd was. Messala literally is killed through his own pride and his ambition to strike a final blow at Judah - who at first seems to be just shy of forgiving him. He insists on the surgical procedure (I guess it would mean amputation) being delayed because he does not want to face Judah "half a man", it's both his hatred and his broken pride figuring here. We do not know how much time is meant to pass between the end of the race and his final conversation with Judah, but I guess it's quite some time for as far as I remember Judah's conversation with Pilate (where he is informed that he's been made a Roman citizen) is before this scene so I would assume at least an hour, perhaps more. Perhaps Messala could have been physically saved if he had allowed the surgeons to start working earlier - but then on the other hand he did not seem to have an unbroken bone in his body and would have been done for anyway. But he clearly puts his hatred and the desire to get back at Judah before his own well-being and safety. Moreover, this makes this death scene to be the counterpoint for the other death scene that we do not get to see but which is much more important - the death of Jesus on the cross. While Messala's death initially sends Judah down the wrong path, revenge, the death of Jesus on the cross steers Judah towards redemption. Interestingly, it was originally Charlton Heston who was meant to play Messala, and the role of Judah was intended for Burth Lancaster (at least that's what I've head). I wonder what kind of scene we would have seen then.

Cool. I would have felt the same way.

That’s amazing 😁👌🏻

They don't make it like this anymore

@@gorgeous6737 - Nowadays it's only explosions and special effects. Good text, good music, good actors ... pfff !!!!

Amazing

about the hands--- when you view Christ giving ben hur water, the hands become a character of their own. in the prelude to the movie, michaelangelo's 'creation' depicts God givig life to Adam with a touch of His hand. powerful stuff.

cbi1991 that movie is greatness

+Ronald Arias are you related to moises arias who was in Hannah Montana and is in the 2016 version of this?

also, his character is playing a very athletic, strong man who just had his entire rib cage & organs crushed. the pain would be thru the roof.... the way boyd plays this, esp w/ his voice, you can literally feel & hear that hes be physically mashed inside. the brutality of that comes off so real here.... never a better death scene acting wise in the history of cinema.

Yes, it certainly is. It's been said that actor relish the opportunity for a death scene, and Stephen Boyd delivered an outstanding performance. This film remains my favorite Hollywood film for many reasons including the lead actors.

@@randalpilz8513 When I saw this as a child I thought he really died!

@@MrBulwer Whoever was inspired to depict Messala's death this way--the actor, director or both--gave it a gruesome realism with the spasms of pain and the final gasp. Makes me wonder if they talked to trauma physicians in preparing for the role.

I would like to see the end where messala survives and admits his faults. And reunite with Tirzah to whom he had an obvious sympathy at the beginning. It is all in the new movie but it is the only good thing in it. Actors are poor and happy end would be better in this version. Messala changed love to hate that was stupid of him😢

@@Mammadova1000 There are different versions of the story. The 1959 version is the one I like best. It has the strongest dramatic elements in it. In the original novel, there's romantic conflict as both Messala and Ben Hur desire Iras, the beautiful daughter of Balthasar, the Wiseman (she's not in the 1959 movie). Also in the book, Messala does not die after the race, but lingers on as a bitter cripple with Iras. Five years after the crucifixion, Ben-Hur and Esther have married and had children. The family lives in Misenum. Iras visits Esther and tells her she has killed Messala, discovering that the Romans were brutes. She also implies that she will attempt suicide. After Esther tells Ben-Hur of the visit, but he tries unsuccessfully to find Iras.

One of the (then record) eleven Academy Awards the picture won went to Miklós Rózsa for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture." Rózsa researched "Greek and Roman music of the period to give his score an archaic sound while still being modern." The fully orchestrated score stands up well after all these years. The composer himself conducted the 100 piece MGM orchestra.

Randal Pilz He should won it again for El Cid in 1961. A total genius

Rozsa wrote for many of the epics of the big screen. John Williams, James Horner, and others followed in his footsteps. In this media-centered era, some of the best orchestral music is being written for movies and television. Back in previous centuries, composers often had a patron--a king or other wealthy nobleman for financial support. In the past 100 years, movie studios often provided the incentive for further creativity.

That death scene fits so well with Messala's personality. It reminds me of the scene when Judah has a spear aimed at Messala earlier and Messala would not speak until Judah dropped his spear.

davidpar2 where can you read this?

Yes, Gore Vidal said that he inserted a homoerotic tone to the scenes between Messalah and Ben-Hur

@@mkfd4571 here we go again...anytime two men are close as friends, they just HAVE TO BE homosexual, right? ENOUGH!!

……yeah, & he was sacked by Wyler eventually, thank goodness. If Mr Charlton Heston had been told of this ‘aspect’, he would’ve resigned on the spit. His Christian values’ wouldn’t have agreed to that…………

……’spOt I meant……

Never happen invented people

James Strothers duh. Their talking about the characters life not implying it’s real

@@jamesstrothers8928: We had no idea Captain Obvious. FFS, don't take it so literally.

@@squallofthedai Nothing more grug-brained than the troll who feels the need to point out that fiction is fiction. Very sad but many such cases!

Everyone is being grammatically correct and proper in regards to Mr. Strothers comment. Not me. Mr. Strothers , you sir are a fucking idiot.

'The race is not over'

The only role where he came close to Messala is when he played the Nazi spy in THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS. "Polar bear ... polar, bear."

I read that he should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but rules back then said only one nomination per film, so Hugh Griffin got the nomination and the award for playing the Arab Sheik who befriends Ben Hur.

He died well before his time. The FUCKING cigarettes didn't help.

He died caused of Heart attack.

From what I heard, back in those days, the standard thinking was "only one nomination in each category per film," so Stephen Boyd lost out due to Griffith's nomination.

Agreed. Magnificent performance by stephen boyd.

@@randalpilz8513 Actually, multple nominations did happen. Think of Bette Davis and Anne Baxter in All About Eve , George C. Scott and Jackie Gleason in The Hustler.

@@patrickburns1408 well, that's what I had read on the subject, that they were limited in the nominations, but both Griffith and Boyd did an outstanding job in an outstanding film.

@@patrickburns1408 Yes, or many years later Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus, who were both nominated for Best Actor...I loved Abraham's acceptance speech when he did win - he said they should have given the award both to him and Hulce.

I tend to agree. I fear the up-coming remake of Ben Hur will fall short of this version in many ways.

Yes, but he isn't a supporting actor, as I, also, mistakenly, thought, because he is playing a leading role, check out his role in "Fall of the Roman Empire" 1963 or 4

also I'm the only fool who feels sorry for Messala as by this point he is the doomed underdog

It was a tough decision, could easily have gone to any of the other supporting actors in this flick too.

@@colliric I still think Heston and Stephen Boyd were the real winners of the oscars

I don't agree with you. The scene when the sheik goes to the Roman bath to make a wager on the race was classical.

I have a pretty good idea why.

exactly

……NO comparison in Acting skills’………Heston a better actor by far, across many differing genre of film………

Before Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Ben Hur held the record for winning the most Academy Awards. For all the reasons you stated, it is one of the finest movie productions ever, and my all-time favorite. I try not to watch it too often, so I can enjoy the story and the acting without noticing all the technical aspects too much.

@@randalpilz8513……AND it won TWO ‘Oscars’ in the Acting Category, which the others’ didn’t. This Category is higher in AMPAS, than CGI. So ‘Ben-Hur’ is still the most honoured film of all time. Shame it missed out on its’ 12th Oscar due to unionised factions’ snubbed ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ because the writer wasn’t a union member…………

I saw "The Oscar" many years ago. I didn't know that Boyd was in it though. THANKS.

will this movie itself is the 4th remake

It's the fourth, if you count the stage play. The first two movie versions were silent films. Nothing to improve upon in making another "talking picture" version, in my opinion, even with CGI special effects. The new feature film tried to change the dramatic impact by making the protagonist and antagonist into brothers. I prefer the original idea of best friends, closer than brothers, of the novel and 1959 film

……’calibre’……

What? No way, dude.

My favorite film. No need for a re-make.

followed by the unexpected line "Let me help you..." which immediately ratchets it up to another level of suspense

How Boyd utters these words are sheer genius because he doesn't sound human when he says them. Play the scene again and you will see what I mean.

……yep!

Pfff ... Titanic won technicals. Ben Hur won because of the human touch.

‘Titanic’ didn’t win any Oscars’ for ACTING! ‘Ben-Hur’ won two, Best Actor Charlton Heston, Best Supporting Actor Hugh Griffiths. Acting ability beats all the CGI in ‘Titanic’, hands down!

Not sure what this has to do with the scene from Ben Our

May I ask why you felt badly for him?