Friday Flix

Friday Flix is a series of movie screenings on campus on Friday afternoons. MC101 students can receive one field trip credit for going to any of the Friday Flix presentations this semester. NOTE: MC101 students can go to more than one Friday Flix presentation, but they will not earn multiple field trip credits for doing so.

SCREENING THIS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 AT FRIDAY FLIX!

12:30 p.m. San Gabriel 334

"BEN-HUR" (1959)
Directed by William Wyler
Starring Charleton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet, Hugh Griffith
Running time: 222 min.

Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic historical drama film set in ancient Rome. It won a record 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, an accomplishment that was not equalled until Titanic in 1997 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003.

A remake of the 1925 silent film of the same name, Ben-Hur was adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The motion picture was the most expensive ever made at the time, and its sets were the largest yet built for a film. The picture contains a nine-minute chariot race which has become one of the most famous sequences in cinema. The score composed by Miklos Rozsa was highly influential on cinema for more than 15 years, and is the longest ever composed for a motion picture.

By the late 1950s, court decisions forcing movie studios to divest themselves of theater chains and the competitive pressure of television had caused significant financial distress at MGM. In a gamble to save the studio, and inspired by the success of Paramount Pictures' 1956 Biblical epic The Ten Commandments, studio head Joseph Vogel announced in 1957 that MGM would move forward on a remake of Ben-Hur. Filming started in May 1958 and wrapped in January 1959, and post-production took six months. Although the budget for Ben-Hur was initially $7 million, it was reported to be $10 million by February 1958. It reached $15 million by the time shooting began—making it the costliest film ever produced up to that time. When adjusted for inflation, the budget of Ben-Hur was approximately $120 million in today's dollars.

Ben-Hur received overwhelmingly positive reviews upon its release. The film received a 89% approval rating from critics on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, with its summary stating: "Uneven, but in terms of epic scope and grand spectacle, Ben-Hur still ranks among Hollywood's finest examples of pure entertainment." Bosley Crowther, writing for the New York Times, called Ben-Hur "a remarkably intelligent and engrossing human drama". Ronald Holloway, writing for Variety, called Ben-Hur "a majestic achievement, representing a superb blending of the motion picture arts by master craftsmen," and concluded that "Gone With the Wind, Metro's own champion all-time top grosser, will eventually have to take a back seat." The chariot race "will probably be preserved in film archives as the finest example of the use of the motion picture camera to record an action sequence. The race, directed by Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt, represents some 40 minutes of the most hair-raising excitement that film audiences have ever witnessed.

DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW

ALL STUDENTS, FACULTY, STAFF, FRIENDS AND FAMILY ARE WELCOME Two hours Flex credit will be granted for GCC staff if both film and discussion are attended.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 12:30 A.M. San Gabriel 334