This is William Wyler's best film to date. Charlton Heston gives an electrifying performance as Ben-Hur. The film captures the time as it is with its epic scale settings and costumes. Underneath it all it is a story of a man who pursues vengeance but in the end learns of the word of God. A must see for all. This is one for the library.

I consider I can safely say that in my opinion, this is the best movie ever made. The dramatic value of this film is fantastic, and I have never seen a better storyline. The costumes were also incredible. The actors portrayed the best purest form of both ancient Roman and old Judean culture. This film also had quite an emotional effect. The way that Christ's face is never visible nor his voice audible to the audience creates a feeling of reverence to the actual person of Jesus. Lew Wallace also did an amazing job portraying the innocence, kindness, and mercy of Jesus, and his effect on the main character, Judah Ben Hur. Hur's ending quote, "I felt him take the sword out of my hand" was a wonderful picture of his changing. I admit, I am a Christian, but even for those who are not this is still a great film. The message boards confirm that. I recognize that there are some people that require constant action to keep their attention. If this is your case, than this movie is not for you, as it has a lot of dialogue. But I recommend this movie 100%.

Personally, I think that “Ben-Hur” is over-hyped, as well many of the classic epics are. I do appreciate the production that went into the making of it. There is much I enjoyed and respect about this movie, but it's hard to ignore the huge faults also. The story, a far from perfect adaptation of Lew Wallace's novel, is full of contradictions. I'm not going to go into faith, belief or Christianity but I know a bit about it and for the most part it gets it wrong. Although I realise this is a work of fiction, the factual elements are completely incorrect (Julius Ceaser died before the birth of Christ) which is always a source of annoyance to me with films of this nature. Considering the film is 3 and a half hours long, much of the story is skipped. You'd think that that amount of time would allow the story to be told in its entirety but William Wyler lets every scene hang unnecessarily. “Ben-Hur” has dated badly and is not quite worth the investment of time it takes in which to watch.