Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ: PICK

(1959)

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ: PICK

(1925)

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ: PICK

(2003)

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, General Lew Wallace's sprawling, red-blooded, reverent 1880 historical novel of a first-century Jewish prince's changing fortunes and chance encounters with Jesus Christ, was a runaway bestseller in its day, for decades outselling every other American novel — until the 1936 release of Gone With the Wind.

According to Wikipedia, the novel spawned a number of stage adaptations — including one that replicated the famous chariot race with live horses, full-size chariots and a series of treadmills. But it was the newer medium of cinema that would best dramatize Wallace's novel, perpetuating its blend of spectacle, melodrama, and piety to later generations after the original work's length and archaic style would make it all but inaccessible.

This week, two of those adaptations come to DVD in a new four-disc set boasting superior digital transfers and numerous extras. The top-billed version, of course, is William Wyler's classic 1959 version starring Charlton Heston, which won an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards and is the only American film honored for religious significance on the 1995 Vatican film list.

The other version is less familiar, but all the more noteworthy for it: the equally spectacular — perhaps even superior — 1925 silent version directed by Fred Niblo (The Mark of Zorro) and starring silent screen heartthrob Ramon Novarro. At nearly 2½ hours long, the silent version is still an hour shorter than the 1959 version, yet the story is essentially the same, and the scale similarly astounding.

The set piece everyone remembers from the 1959 version, of course, is the chariot race. The 1925 version is at least comparable here — but it excels in the story's other key action sequence, the epic sea battle in which the title character escapes his fate as a galley slave.

Both versions bring the same reverent reticence to depicting Christ, never showing his face (or, in the sound version, making his voice audible). The silent version additionally uses two-strip Technicolor for the religious scenes, as Cecil B. DeMille did his resurrection sequence in the silent 1927 King of Kings, giving these scenes a special aura of significance.

While this hyper-reverent approach would never work for a whole biblical film, the style of melodramatic spectacle Hollywood cheerfully applied to such biblical subjects as The Ten Commandments is also problematic, and certainly neither approach would do for a life of Christ film. Ben-Hur gets around this dilemma by keeping the Gospel story in the background and making another more appropriate tale the subject of its melodrama.

One other version of Ben-Hur is worth mentioning. In 2003, Charlton Heston reprised his greatest role, if in voice only, in an animated made-for-TV version from the director and producers of the “Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible” series.

Though no classic, the animated Ben-Hur easily outclasses the “Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible” series (as well as the comparable “Animated Passion” trilogy directed by Richard Rich), simply because the drama is so strong and is less dependent on the story adaptation. (The absence of cheesy songs is also a major plus.)

The animated Ben-Hur is a great way to introduce even the youngest, who might not be ready for the epic length or action violence of the live-action versions, to this classic tale of adversity, heroism, forgiveness, and redemption.

CONTENT ADVISORY: Both live-action versions of Ben-Hur on the four-disc set contain action violence and battle scenes. The silent version also contains brief partial nudity. The animated version contains no problematic content.