The Gold Rush, and Ben-Hur

Most Wednesday nights, the Stanford Theatre shows a silent movie. Now, I'm not really big fan of silent movies, but having never seen a Charlie Chaplin film, I wanted to go see The Gold Rush (1925), and Subrata came with me. While it will never be mistaken for great literature, it is a fall-down funny film, and seems clearly to be the source material for many schticks in Bugs Bunny cartoons (assuming they didn't both get the schticks from Vaudeville, that is!).

Chaplin plays "The Lone Prospector", basically his Little Tramp character searching for gold in Alaska. On the ice, he meets Big Jim McKay, who's found a mountain of gold, and Black Larson, a wanted felon. Trapped in a storm, Chaplin somehow turns themes of starvation and murder into high comedy. The second half of the film involves the Tramp in a miners' town, where he falls in love with young Georgia, who is mostly using him to snipe at Hank Curtis, a local womanizer, resulting in several comedies of error and testosterone.

Chaplin's performance is surprisingly broad, and absolutely hilarious. The other characters are lack both character and acting depth, but serve as fine foils for Chaplin's schticks. Most notable is Mack Swain as Big Jim McKay, who plays Chaplin's straight man through the famous "shoe-eating" scene, and the climactic moments in the wilderness.

The silent aspect of the film is more understated than I'd expected. For the most part, the only cue cards used are for sentences which aren't easily interpreted from the context of the scene, or for broader comedic effect. But much is said without the actual words interrupting the flow of the picture. Better yet, the Stanford had a live organist playing along with the film, and he was excellent, playing a variety of music which was almost perfect in synch with the screen. It was easy to forget that the organ wasn't part of the film itself!

This was definitely the way to see a silent film. I'll have to go back for more sometime...

Thursday was something completely different: Ben-Hur (1959), starring Charlton Heston. Part mythic tragedy and part Christian allegory, it's a famously long (three-and-a-half hour) and dramatic film, perhaps Heston's most famous, along with The Ten Commandments.

Heston plays Judah Ben-Hur, prince of the Jews in the land of Judea (around Jerusalem). Early in the first century a.d., the Romans occupy Judea, despite widespread unrest. A new governor is named by the Emperor, and his right-hand man is Judah's childhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd). Messala fervently believes in the power and destiny of Rome, and tries to persuade Judah to help him put down any rebellion in Judea, but Judah feels a stronger kinship to his people than to his friend, and refuses. As a result, Messala takes the opportunity of an accident to cast Judah into slavery and Judah's mother and sister into the dungeons.

Judah survives, however, despite three years on rowing crews in Roman ships, and manages to save the life of Roman commander Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins), who eventually adopts Judah as his own son, and trains him to be one of the finest charioteers in the Roman arena. But Judah feels himself called back to Judea to settle scores with Messala and find out what happened to his family, both quests fueling Judah's anger and frustration with the direction his life has taken.

The running subtext through Ben-Hur comes to the fore following Judah's climactic chariot race against Messala (one of the most famous scenes in American film history): The role of Jesus Christ in Judah's life. (Indeed, Ben-Hur's subtitle is "A Tale of the Christ".) Though Judah doesn't realize it, Jesus gives Judah the will to keep living when he's at his lowest, and Judah's witnessing of Christ's sentencing and crucifixion allows him to work through his anger and hate and return to himself.

As an epic story of a wronged man who battles to regain what it his, Ben-Hur is largely successful. The tension between Judah and Messala is palpable; indeed, while Heston plays his role with quiet fury, Boyd plays his with more abandon, and seems the more charismatic figure given his boyish good looks. Judah's self-redemption by saving Quintus Arrius and returning to save his family is believable and touching.

Unsurprisingly, the movie becomes shaky once it dovetails with the story of Jesus Christ. It seems clear that Judah was chosen to learn a Christian lesson of love and forgiveness even in very difficult circumstances, but the story doesn't hold up under scrutiny: Why was Judah chosen for this example? Why must so many other men die (slaves in the ships, men in the chariot race, Jews due to Roman tyranny, etc.) while Judah soldiers on? The essence of Christianity's message is an intriguing and attractive concept, but the stories of Christ themselves seem to beg more questions than provide answers, so stories such on this which are based on them feel the weaker for it.

Not to mention that it's dramatically unsatisfying for Judah to drive deeper and deeper into his own personal hell, only to be dragged out of it through the miracle of God's intervention.

Technically, the film is brilliant: A battle on the high seas is expertly produced with (then-)state-of-the-art technology. The chariot race is magnificent even by today's standards. The huge cast of extras and attention to detail (even if there are anachronisms peppered here and there) lend a sort of verisimilitude rarely seen in today's films. And the music is grand and sweeping as this sort of story demands.

The strangest thing about the film, for me, was thinking how much Charlton Heston looked like Martin Landau, when each was young.

As three-plus-hour movies go, it's a pretty good one, although Lawrence of Arabia has it beat.

Between work and the budding house-hunt, it's been a tiring week. I'm playing Bridge tomorrow night, which will be a nice relaxing aside, although it does require that I do plenty of thinking. But I'll be happy to spend some time vegetating during the coming long weekend.

Don't get me wrong: I'm still having a fine time on my project at work, and I'm excited in my low-key way about finding and buying a home. It's just that work is challenging, and house-hunting is not a job I'm ideally suited for, so it just results in my being all-around tired out.

But I guess that's one way I know I'm alive, huh?