AdrianTurner
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- Joined
- Dec 5, 2007
- Messages
- 400
- Real Name
- Adrian Turner
I watched the new documentary last night, directed by the ubiquitous Laurent Bouzereau. Running for around 75 minutes, it was less about Ben-Hur than about Charlton Heston's entire life, though it was concentrated on the Ben-Hur period, with some very enticing snippets from his home movies, mostly shot by his wife Lydia. There were interviews with members of Mr Heston's family, with one of William Wyler's daughters, a Zimbalist daughter and - rather oddly - there was a lot of Tom Selleck who added nothing of interest, plus a few interventions from Julian Glover and Hildegard Knef for no particular reason. So it was all a bit choppy and I longed for Mr Bouzereau to recognise the rarity of what he had and just let the home movies run, rough-edged and blurry as they sometimes were. There was some good stuff on the making of Ben-Hur as well as the building of the Heston Citadel on a ridge at Coldwater Canyon, where the doors to his study were taken from the House of Hur (I once entered those doors myself). They also didn't entirely shy away from his espousal of un-PC causes in his later life. The use of Rozsa's music throughout was excellent and made the whole experience surprisingly moving. One last criticism: Heston was widely interviewed but they included just one snippet - I think maybe they should have decided between none or a lot - just that one looked oddly out of place in this context.