B
Scroll down for movie reviews beginning with this letter.
MPAA Rating is the rating given by the Motion Picture Association of America. Please note this is a voluntary rating, so some films (many times older films or obscure foreign films) are not rated.
G - General Audiences
PG - Parental Guidance Suggested
PG13 - Parental Guidance Suggested for those under 13 years of age
R - Restricted (those under 18 not admitted without parent or guardian)
NC-17 (X) - No one under 18 admitted.
USCCB Rating is the rating given by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Please note that some films are not rated simply because the Bishop’s Conference has not reviewed them.
A-I: General Patronage
A-II: Adults and Adolescents
A-III: Adults
L: Limited Adult Audience, problematic content
O: Morally Offensive
Fr. John’s Ratings
★★★★★ - Masterpiece. This film has to show aspects of cinematic excellence that are above and beyond the ordinary and even beyond the “excellent” classification. Because a true masterpiece can be determined only through its ability to endure through the passage of time, no film is even considered for this rating until at least ten years have passed from the date of its initial release.
★★★★ - Excellent
★★★ - Very Good
★★ - Fair
★ - Poor
Ben-Hur (1959) ★★★★★
Length: 212 minutes. MPAA Rating: G. USCCB Rating: A-I. Director: William Wyler.
William Wyler once famously quipped that it took a Jew to finally make a decent life of Christ. He was referring to his own 1959 version of Ben-Hur. There had already been a silent version – very big-budgeted and very well-received. But with the new wide screen formats of the 1950’s, it made perfect sense to make a full color version with the newer and sharper film stock – and wider screen.
But is it a life of Christ? Not really. It is the life of Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince turned slave, turned hero, turned Christian. Ben-Hur’s life is bookended by scenes from the life of Christ, an interesting structure that can be found in the original novel by General Lew Wallace. The Civil War general turned author, irritated one day by an atheistic mocking of Jesus he heard on a streetcar, went home in anger and, with great determination, created the Christ-centered bookends for his novel.
This film works on many levels, including solid performances by a splendid cast, a sweeping score by the masterful Miklós Rózsa, and an unforgettable chariot race sequence that has never been duplicated (the myth persists that extras were killed – this is not true for any version of the story, though a couple of horses were fatally injured during the making of the silent version). This grand epic lapped up a hefty eleven Academy Awards and remains an American classic.