{"id":131321,"date":"2016-08-21T10:02:50","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T16:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/21\/movie-review-ben-hur-1959.html"},"modified":"2016-08-21T10:02:50","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T16:02:50","slug":"movie-review-ben-hur-1959","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/21\/movie-review-ben-hur-1959.html","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: &quot;Ben-Hur&quot; (1959)&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A deeply impressive movie, full of amazingly epic scenes, hampered by a largely plodding pace, an over-awed religiosity, and a muddied motivation for its primary character. Worth seeing &#8212; once.<\/p>\n<p>Full review: <a href=\"http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/ben-hur-1959\/\">http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/ben-hur-1959\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>3.5 stars out of 5<\/p>\n<p>I&#39;m now much more curious to see the new film, to see what they do with the material. Will it be all action oriented? Will they integrate the religious message without rendering it in such an overblown fashion? Will CGI overwhelm all the amazing practical effects of this rendition? Will it win &quot;Best Picture&quot;? We&#39;ll see.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div style='text-align:center'><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/photos\/101083456815352083930\/albums\/6321312977996015713\/6321312977684381250'><img src='https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-4JY3EpwY19w\/V7nQqVTxvkI\/AAAAAAAEDVA\/pp40v8nL3t8XbK9sIZmC0hDb85LGI7s-wCJoC\/Poster%252520-%252520Ben-Hur%252520%25281959%2529_17%255B1%255D.jpg?imgmax=660' style='max-width:650px;' \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style='text-align:center'>\n<a href='' style='width:50px;height:50px;display:inline-block;background-size:cover;background-image:url();'><\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n<p><span style='font-size:small;'><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+DaveHill47\/posts\/gjt8H2rZ4Yv'>View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A deeply impressive movie, full of amazingly epic scenes, hampered by a largely plodding pace, an over-awed religiosity, and a muddied motivation for its primary character. Worth seeing &#8212; once. Full review: http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/ben-hur-1959\/ 3.5 stars out of 5 I&#39;m now much more curious to see the new film, to see what they do with the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/21\/movie-review-ben-hur-1959.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Movie Review: &quot;Ben-Hur&quot; (1959)&quot;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Poster2520-2520Ben-Hur252028195929_175B15D.jpgimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49251,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/14\/movie-review-north-by-northwest-1959.html","url_meta":{"origin":131321,"position":0},"title":"Movie Review: &quot;North by Northwest&quot; (1959)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Jan-15 7:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"Cary Grant plays an urbane everyman, swept up by a mistaken identity into a high-stakes espionage plot. This is a favorite movie of mine, starting off as highly humorous and slowly devolving into improbably taut thrills. It also includes two of the most bizarre chase scenes in American cinematography --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129500,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/15\/in-a-world-where-us-copyright-law-wasnt-changed-in-1976.html","url_meta":{"origin":131321,"position":1},"title":"In a world where US copyright law wasn&#039;t changed in 1976","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Jan-16 6:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... we in the US would have seen creative works (books, movies, even scientific papers and articles) from 1959 enter the public domain. Instead, they won't become available until 2055. Unless Disney (et al.) gets copyright extended again. Which, I'm sure, they are planning to before anything starts falling into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46060,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/24\/asimov-on-creativity.html","url_meta":{"origin":131321,"position":2},"title":"Asimov on Creativity","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Oct-14 3:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"If there's one person who should have known a thing or two about how to be creative, it would have been Isaac Asimov, writer and polymath. Here's a previously unpublished 1959 essay he wrote for an MIT science think tank about the creative process, isolation, and collaboration. Fun stuff, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131775,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/11\/movie-re-review-1776-1972.html","url_meta":{"origin":131321,"position":3},"title":"Movie Re-Review: &quot;1776&quot; (1972)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Oct-16 11:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"I love this movie so much, despite the awkwardness of the stage-to-film transition. It's Father\/Daughter Movie Week, and this was +Kay Hill's choice for our first night. No objections from me!New review: http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/1776\/1\/Previous review: http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/1776\/4.5 stars out of 5, with a heart. \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/1776%2BPoster.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/1776%2BPoster.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/1776%2BPoster.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128426,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/24\/movie-review-serenity-2005-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":131321,"position":4},"title":"Movie Review: &quot;Serenity&quot; (2005)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 24-Oct-15 5:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A decade gone, and I'm both more mellow and more appreciative of the unexpected (and too-cramped) conclusion to Firefly. Good memories, and a fun film to watch.Review: http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/serenity\/1\/Original review: http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/serenity\/ \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/serenityi5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132944,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/28\/movie-review-watchmen-2009-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":131321,"position":5},"title":"Movie Review: &quot;Watchmen&quot; (2009)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 28-Feb-17 12:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This remains an iconic comic book adaptation, despite Zack Snyder's best efforts to scrub away any nuance or critique of the genre from Alan Moore's original. I find my rating of the film continues to drop down over the years -- I still like it, but the creative flaws become\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/watchmen_ver19_xlg5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/watchmen_ver19_xlg5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/watchmen_ver19_xlg5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}