The epic masterpiece with an investment of up to 100 million US dollars, adapted from Wallace's 1887 novel "Ben-Hur: The Story of Christ", has been box-office reputation waterloo since its release in mainland China. One can imagine the situation when it was released in mainland China. How unexpectedly hopeless it would be. Although I have never read the original work of the novel, it can be seen from the information that the original work is highly affirmed and praised, and the 1959 version of the movie was given a classic, and also won the 32nd Academy Award for best. Film and best director laurels. Since there are bright pearls before, Russian director Timo Mankov has no chance of winning if he wants to surpass himself, so he can only make brain-opening remakes and innovations under the banner of paying tribute to the classics.
But it turns out that Timo Mankov not only failed to achieve the sincerity of paying tribute to the classics, but instead self-defeated and performed a classic cannon fodder, leaving the audience with jaw-dropping dog blood and laughing stock, which can be imagined in this version. How pale the quality of "Ben-Hur" is. In fact, as a religious film, there is no need to use the epic banner to grab people's attention, not to mention that the scenes created by the film such as naval battles, horse racing, queue ceremonies and other bridges cannot bear the weight of the word epic at all. , the audience's attention and attention will always be the ideological depth and spiritual core conveyed by the film, and these are the things that can be touched and remembered. For example, the thought expressed in "Ben Hur" is fraternity and forgiveness, but this kind of The form of expression is shown by Jesus. For mysterious and profound religions, it is also a natural and common thing to show some supernatural powers to rescue all kinds of sufferings in the world and make them obtain eternal happiness and happiness, and there should be no fuss. Christianity's teachings about fraternity, forgiveness, kindness, humility, etc. are the same as human beings' own universal values, complement each other, and do not conflict with each other. It stands to reason that if a film on this subject is well made, it is really a matter of great merit, because it It can play a subtle and edifying role on the public, and the impact is bound to be far-reaching, huge and immeasurable. Because the power of culture is easier to accept than mere preaching. It's a pity that this "Ben-Hur" was shot. The miraculous plots showing the crucifixion of Jesus, the forgiveness of hatred, and the rescue of the sick have all been deleted from the imported version in the mainland, so the scene at the end where Judas' mother and sister can recover from illness and return in good condition is really obvious. Stiff and abrupt.
Ignoring the cut scenes of Jesus, the whole plot we can see is still fragmentary, artificial, inconsistent, and sloppy. Even Timo Mankov's emphasis on the story frame was placed on how Judas and Misara fell in love with each other, which greatly weakened the background of the whole story, making the film in the first half an hour of the opening scene. It created a lot of embarrassment in the drama, especially the costumes of the actors in the film are extraordinarily bright and modern, which made me almost mistakenly think that I was watching an inferior version of the stage play instead of a 3D movie. However, the most astounding thing is that the film is not as good as the domestic war film "Steel Knife" in terms of the entanglement of Judas and Misara. The above is done in a natural and detailed manner, not as abrupt, blunt and ambiguous as "Ben-Hur". Misara became famous because she was taken in by her mother-in-law who was cold and angry, so she joined the army to fight and became famous since then. This kind of setting is too childish. Misara is not a woman with a small belly button. Uneasy but about to run away from home, how could such a fragile person be able to make outstanding achievements on the battlefield and become famous? Besides, as the young master of the savior family who was injured and dying (the Chinese translation of the film is "Prince", but the author really can't see how the Judas family has the slightest princely atmosphere), how can a mother not be anxious? What's more, Judas was injured because of Misara's "applause", and a few cold words are not a big deal, so why make a fuss and go around the world? In addition to the serious criticism of the performance of the brotherhood, Judas and Esther's love clues are also full of flaws. It can be seen from the story that Esther cannot marry Judah's "prince" because of his humble status, and can only be used by the head of the family. This means that in that era, women’s marriage and love were involuntary. Of course, the hierarchies of people’s identities should also be highly barrier-free and cannot be easily crossed, but the film shows in these The important elements of the characteristics of the times are only scratching the surface, rushing past, and not understanding, so this part of the far-reaching legend of the ancient Roman Empire, which may be true more than 2,500 years ago, has finally become a nondescript failure.
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