Brandon played Northern Wind by City and Colour as the processional. It was so lovely! The sound is not bad, except for the part with the harmony - we heard it beautifully live but the camera didn't pick it up well. I'm working on a longer video but wanted to send this out ahead of time.
Ben-Hur was released in 1959 and people thought it was pretty good. It won 11 Academy Awards (out of 12 nominated), which is still a record, although it's now tied with Titanic (14 nominated) and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (11 nominated). Although it was not the highest grossing film in history at the time, it was the second highest, after Gone with the Wind. Which was good for the studio, since it had the largest budget of any film yet made ($125 million adjusted for inflation) and the largest sets. The Director was also paid the highest base salary ($350k in 1958 dollars) plus bonuses. This film was so epic that although they used miniatures to film the sea battles, I'm sure they were the biggest miniatures ever used. And the musical score is still the longest ever composed. Oh and it has a chariot race scene that people kind of like. Which is good because it took 5 weeks spread over 3 months to film it. Yes, the one scene. And no this doesn't count the months of practice that the actors had to do to be able to drive the chariots, or the building of the second identical track where the horses and riders could practice. So yes, it did require sacrifices and hard work, but no one died during filming it, which is a commonly-repeated urban legend. However, the son of one of the scene's directors, Charleton Heston's stunt double, was in a really bad accident that could have been fatal but luckily he only received minor injuries. The accident was in the final cut but they cut in a close up of Heston climbing back into the chariot afterwards [whew].
The horses in this scene though. Amazing.
This movie really is epic. From the acting, to the directing and cinematography, to the music and the extras... It's really amazing to think how many people worked so hard to make this thing happen. But it's not just huge things, it's little things, too. For instance, I noticed was that most of the Romans had British accents in contrast to most of the Jews. Turns out that was intentional. According to Wikipedia, Director William Wyler "typically cast the Romans with British actors and the Jews with American actors to help underscore the divide between the two groups. The Romans were the aristocrats in the film, and Wyler believed that American audiences would interpret British accents as patrician." Directors are clever. I love how decisions they make, that audiences might not ever notice, still have an impact on how the audience perceives the film. Like how they never showed Jesus' face. It's interesting how Jesus is so crucial to the story but he's portrayed almost as an extra. Of course you always know it's him because his hair is always beautifully brushed and people always stop and stare at his face for a long time, which is interesting because as I mentioned, his face is never shown to us.
See? It's so obvious which one is Jesus even from the back.
In all seriousness, though, Ben-Hur is a film that has been impressive for 55+ years and will certainly be so for many more, so in one sense it's timeless. At the same time, it is definitely a film of its time (1959) based on a book of its time (1890). For instance, who can forget Sheik Ilderim (played in brownface by actor Hugh Griffith, who won an Oscar for his portrayal) joking to Ben-Hur when he mentioned in an offhand way that he might like to find a wife: "One wife? One God, that I can understand - but one wife! That is not civilized. It is not generous."
I don't even know how many wives I have! LOL!
I was also amazed at how upwardly mobile Ben-Hur was during his enslavement. He starts as a slave dying of thirst in the desert, but ends up a Roman noble, or something like it.
As a galley slave, his new master Quintus Arrius whipped him; when he flinched and stopped himself from lunging forward Arrius was pleased: "You have the spirit to fight back but the good sense to control it. Your eyes are full of hate, Forty-One. That's good. Hate keeps a man alive. It gives him strength."
I'M TALKING AT YOU, 41!
And then after a few things happen - like QA leaving BH unchained before a battle and BH saving QA during the battle and QA winning the battle by luck/chance even though everyone else died - and QA is like, woah I love this dude. So he adopts him. Because really, I'm sure every slave's biggest hope and dream is that their owner/master will claim them as an heir in front of all their rich friends.
Hey everybody! I'm giving all my property to this guy as long as he doesn't mind remaining my property. Because that's true love. I'm even going to change his name from Number 41 to my name. Because that's true love. Who cares what his real name is, anyway? Now eat more food cooked by my cooking slaves and watch my dance slaves dance for you. Aren't they fun?! Speaking of true love, BH and Messala have a very interesting relationship. They appear to have a really strong bond. I'm not trying to say men can't be friends, but you just don't see many men doing champagne toasts with arms intertwined these days, for better or for worse.
#brotime
It's always made me a little sad to see how representations of straight men in the 50s in America showed more expressiveness, since I also know that at this time actual homosexual feelings were always hidden. Now that it's more acceptable to be gay, straight men seem to avoid showing affection so their emotions don't threaten their straight masculinity. In The Celluloid Closet, Gore Vidal explained that he coached the guy playing Messala that their relationship should have homosexual elements and that he should act like a spurned lover to justify the vindictiveness that comes out throughout the latter part of the film. Of course, Wyler and Heston were both like, "Hey, no, totally no homoerotic stuff here!" so I guess, you know, typical straight guy bro-lationship. (Even that word "homoerotic" makes it seem like men that express emotions with one other is somehow a significant departure from "normal" behavior. It's especially sad to me because my "homoerotic" relationships with women have been so important in allowing me to define who I am - to think about hiding the love and affection and companionship I felt with them over my lifetime is just really sad. Of course the reason I can show this affection is not unrelated to the fact that it's fetishized by straight men, but I'm getting off topic here.)
All in all, I'm really glad I watched this movie. I would definitely watch it again if I find myself with 4 hours and nothing to do. Or I might just rewatch the chariot race scene.
PS -- There were several sequences when Ben-Hur was in the galley (which looks like really difficult work and not very fun to get whipped obvs) but I couldn't help but think about how nice it would be to have a personal drummer when I do the rowing machine. That would really be useful to keep me going. I can't see working on a galley and then having to go make sandwiches 5 minutes into it or feed the cats - sure it has nothing to do with me not wanting to exercise, it's just you know the cats are clearly starving to death you know - the only downside I can see (aside from being enslaved and having to go down with the ship when it is rammed or catches on fire because I'm chained to my post) is that forever after hearing a good beat must cause your PTSD to flare up. That would make going to the club unbearable. But as I approach 40 I find that going to the club is already pretty unbearable so basically let me know if you want to be my personal workout drummer ok thx
I mean seriously. The Georgia Aquarium serves Fish and Chips in their Cafe and they aren't even from sustainable fisheries or anything. And it's like a huge advertisement for their corporate sponsors (especially Home Depot, whose founder founded the aquarium) despite being among the most expensive to visit in the country.
And yet, it's so much fun. The modern world is so conflicted.
I'm currently watching Ram Dass: Fierce Grace. It's really amazing. And of course, I've loved Thich Nhat Hanh for some time. His work has really changed my life for the better.
I posted an entry about Michelle's cat Marley on my other blog and Bob Marley came up on the YouTube. Ben used t hate Bob Marley - basically his argument was that he has become "imagey" to use Michelle's term (long story) - but the thing about that is that Ben pretty much hated everything. He was probably just going through a bad time, but maybe he just needed to listen to more Bob Marley. ;-)
I gotta watch this movie, yo. But it's not just healthcare that makes me love Michael Moore. It's his vehement berating of Wolf Blitzer and CNN and mainstream media in general on "The Situation Room" yesterday.
Although he insists he doesn't speak in soundbites, I want to point out this quote:
"You've fudged the facts to the American people now for I don't know how long – about healthcare, about the war... When are you going to stand there and apologize to the American people for not bringing the truth to them that isn't sponsored by some major corporation?"
Yeah, when are you going to do that, mainstream media?
My friend had a bumper sticker when we were in high school--I'm sure you've all seen this one--that said "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." Sometimes I get really upset, because there are so few outraged people in the United States. Are we all just dumb? Or even worse, do we just not care? I think what it is, is that shit is so messed up right now people are paralyzed. Hopefully people will wake up and demand change soon, though. Before this Supreme Court finally takes away our freedom of speech. More than it already has, that is...
Now that Google owns everything, you'd think the integration between all their entities would be more seamless. I have been trying to figure out for hours (I'm at work, so it's ok to waste time) how to switch ownership of this blog to my Gmail account, and I have discovered that "surprise, surprise, surprise (!!)" I am not an idiot (in this particular instance). It is actually not possible. In order to switch ownership of my blog to my Gmail account, I would have to create a new blog, then move the whole thing piece by piece over to that account, a long and tedious process that through switching names and URLs might cause the 3 readers (Hi Daddy, Nikki, and Harry, maybe?) to not be able to find it anymore. Geez.
If you have a blogger account, will you kindly ask them on the wish list to please enable users to switch blog ownership? As far as I can tell, my blog will be deleted when my school account is deleted upon graduation/termination of my graduate school career. And, from the number of questions in the Blogger Help Group dealing with this topic, many others are frustrated by this as well. Apparently you could do it in the older version of Blogger.
I went to Las Vegas last weekend, and as soon as I get home I'll post a few pictures. I had a really nice time. I want to open a Picasa web account to post my photos, but that's through Gmail, and it just reminds me of all the frustration. Wouldn't it be neat if they were all on my stupid Gmail account? Argh.
In summary, I feel this way when I think of Google:
