Welcome to the Weekend Binge. Every Friday, we’ll suggest a binge-able title designed to keep you from getting too stir crazy. Check back throughout the weekend for even more gloriously queer entertainment.
The (Very) Long Stare: Ben-Hur
Director William Wyler pushed the sword & sandal/Biblical epic to new extremes with this 1959 opus, which ties with Titanic and The Return of the King for most Acadamy Award wins in history. The film stars Charlton Heston as the title character, a Jewish prince living under Roman rule in the first century. Judah Ben-Hur has just about all the comforts he could want until he runs afoul of his childhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd), who–for reasons never expressly said–turns on Judah, stripping his family of wealth and condemning him to servitude. Several years pass, and Judah plots to avenge his family name first as a soldier, and later, as a charioteer. His rising celebrity brings Judah back into conflict with Messala, as well as the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. Ben-Hur begins to have a religious awakening thanks to his interaction with the preacher Jesus of Nazareth, as he squares off against Messala in one final chariot race.
So where’s the gay, you ask? The late, great Gore Vidal penned the script to Ben-Hur, and in the 1990s revealed that he’s written the Judah/Messala relationship to have overt homosexual overtones. In Vidal’s backstory, the pair had been gay lovers as teens. When they reconnect years later, Judah spurns Messala’s advances, prompting the latter’s petty dismantling of Judah’s life and family. Star Charlton Heston always denied Vidal’s story, though William Wyler’s direction and Stephen Boyd’s performance certainly suggest a gay affair between the two characters. Contemporary writings from other production personnel would seem to confirm Vidal’s version of the story: Judah jilted his ex-boyfriend Messala.
In other words, Ben-Hur is a Christian epic that also happens to be gay AF.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
We’re sure here for it. Besides the gayness, Ben-Hur offers much more to enjoy, including terrific performances by Heston (who won an Oscar), Boyd, and Hugh Griffith (who also won an Oscar), heart-pounding action in the chariot scenes, and some of the lushest production designs Hollywood ever created. In a medium known for ambitious epics, Ben-Hur ranks among the finest ever produced.
Normally we recommend a series as part of our Weekend Binge feature, but at over three and a half hours long, Ben-Hur is a binge unto itself. We recommend it as a way to celebrate Easter, queer style…at least until someone makes a movie where Jesus is actually gay. Nobody has adapted Terrence McNally’s “gay Jesus” play Corpus Christi yet! We’re just saying…
Streams on Amazon, iTunes, YouTube & VUDU.
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Max
I really enjoy sword and sandals epics.
ptn2719
It’s also on TCM tonight.
Fahd
Gore Vidal claims he wrote the script on this movie, but its my understanding he was uncredited. Vidal did make stuff up in his later, more inebriated years. The article here states that contemporary sources support Vidal’s version. Contemporary with what and which sources specifically? Can you be specific about what sources you mean? I really would be interested.
Hdtex
Do your own research MAGAt.
Fahd
@Hdtex I get it you’re a troll. Take a pill.
BigE
Stephen Boyd related in an interview that he was directed to play the scene that way, but not to say anything to Chuck, a well known vehement homophobe.
KyleMichelSullivan
According to IMDb — “Upon reading Karl Tunberg’s original script, William Wyler had written in the margins “awful . . . horrible”. Consequently, he brought in Gore Vidal–who was under contract to MGM at the time and hated it–to rewrite the screenplay. Vidal also thought that Tunberg’s script was dreadful and initially didn’t even want to take on the project. He changed his mind when Wyler promised to get him out of the remaining two years of his contract. Wyler then brought in playwright Maxwell Anderson to do a draft. Playwright Christopher Fry was then engaged by Wyler to polish a screenplay that, by that time, was largely Anderson’s work, built on the skeleton of Tunberg’s earlier drafts. Neither Fry nor Vidal (whose contribution was almost negligible) received screen credit for their work on the film, which infuriated Wyler so much that he leaked the story to the press.”
Eager Traveler
I protest at making Charlotte Heston any kind of anything. His support of the NRA has done more damage than any other person. A first class c*nt!
Manrico Jimenez
Moses vs Ramses in ‘Prince of Egypt’ was also a bit homoerotic.
BigE
Qweerty! Hard to believe you’ve missed a major plot point. Judah and his mother and sister are on their roof( which serves as a patio) to watch a Roman parade led by their dear old friend of the family Messala. He rerouted the parade to go right by their house as a treat. Judah’s sister is mooning over the soldiers who are wearing less clothing than the modest attire of typical male Judeans. As she leans over, some roof tiles are knocked loose and cascade onto the Romans. Since, Judea was an occupied State, the Romans assume it’s a deliberate attack. Judah takes the fall for his sister and is sold into slavery which as punishments go, would have been something akin to Life Imprisonment. It was probably Ben Hur’s standing in the Judean community( although I don’t recall him referred to as a Prince before) that saved him from the more common Roman punishment of crucifixion.
Rick Notch
About an hour in there’s a scene that now seems written to comment on new voter restrictions in Georgia. “No water for him!”
dhmonarch89
Gore Vidal says he went to Stephen Boyd and told him to play it like a lover- reunited then spurned… but then told him, ‘But for god’s sake- DON’T tell Heston!’
Al
Not to mention the way Jesus touches Judah’s hand then runs his fingers through Judah’s hair while Judah drinks the water he’s been offered. Very tender moment.
Kieran
Care and compassion shown by one male towards another does not automatically have to be seen as homoerotic.
Al
Giving water to a thirsty man is caring and compassionate. Running you fingers tenderly through his hair? Mmmm.
Kieran
If you actually watch the film it is expressly clear the reason Messala turned against Judah was because he refused to inform on Jewish rebels who were resisting the Roman occupation of Judea.
spiralx
…which doesn’t also stop them from having had a sexual liaison in their youth. It was not uncommon then, though both cultures downplayed it, much as ours still does today.
winemaker
The real, real ,real, long stare: The Ten Commandments at 4 hours and 47 minutes. This epic Cecil B de Mille movie is almost 65 years old and is only shown at Easter, usually on the Saturday before the big day.
Winsocki
Yes, Vidal said storyline lifted from his novel. The City and the Pillar
Al
And then there’s Jack Hawkins’ Quintus Arrius playing DILF to Chuck’s young blade Judah. Yes, this film ruined me for life when I saw it too young, when it was first released. I must have been 7? Overwhelming on so many levels. Poor Messala’s flayed body after the chariot race. Never forgot it.
ptb2016
Still one of my all time favourite movies. The epic of all epics, with what is easily the greatest action sequence ever filmed, the chariot race, filmed without any cgi at all.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
Oh please. The best movie about Easter is the classic The Easter Parade. It was on last night and I sang along with every song. That movie and its songs always brings out the queen in me.