[Long post alert. This is part of a short-form review series I call First Take. For its Substack debut, I will cover the film Ben-Hur.]

Yesterday, I watched the 1959 movie Ben-Hur. Now, I’m going to give you all my first take on it. Also, I finished the book not too long ago, so that’s going to color my thoughts on the movie. Just keep that in mind.

This is a well made movie. Hollywood just doesn’t make movies like these anymore. I also think that they generally keep to the spirit of the book. Of course, the key word is ‘generally’ which brings me to my next point…

I will admit that I was not an avid fiction reader as kid. Most of my readings (not counting comic books) were science books, encyclopedias, and atlases. So I have never experienced the well-documented phenomenon of “the movie is ruined because I’ve read the book”.

Until now.

I’m not going to complain about all of the changes that they made. Firstly, I’ve read the book over a period of five years so it’s completely possible that what I thought to be changes were actually in the book but I simply forgot about it. Secondly, film is a completely different medium than literature and they have to make some changes. I understand all that.

My real issue I have is with the character of Esther. At first, movie Esther bothered me quite a bit. I keep thinking, “this is not the Esther I remember from the books”. Then it hit me, movie Esther is a composite of two characters in the book: Esther and Amrah. Who’s Amrah? In the book, she’s an Egyptian woman who’s a faithful servant of the Hur family.

I find this to be sort of a big deal because one of my favorite parts of the book is the love triangle between Esther, Ben-Hur, and Iras. Who’s Iras? She doesn’t exist in the movie. In the book, she’s Balthasar’s daughter. She’s a femme fatale-esque character who was a contrast to the innocent Esther. So I was not happy that the movie omits this aspect of the book.

I’m actually glad that I watched the movie piecemeal. It was a long movie, I took two breaks, including during the designated intermission. By the time I reached the second half of the movie, I got over the “this is not the book” shock and was able to enjoy the movie on its own.

So that’s my first take on Ben-Hur (1959). It’s a fun epic movie. But more importantly, it was a lesson for me to keep my expectations in check when watching a movie based on a book I’ve read.