Ben-Hur/1959

Ben-Hur has been filmed three times. The protagonist of the film, who was shot during the time of silent cinema in 1925, was Ramon Novarro, the great star of the era. The most memorable one, which won 11 Oscars and has an important place in cinema history, is the 1959 film by the master director William Wyler. This review focuses on the 1959 film, considered more successful due to its impressive, sincere, and convincing spatial setup.

Judah Ben-Hur was a wealthy Jewish merchant prince, living in Jerusalem in 26 AD (early first century). What is told in the movie is the story of a large family who lived in Jerusalem when the cruel and imperious administration of the Roman Empire was ruling, and Jesus Christ was spreading his teachings.

In this section, the construction of space that can form the common language of both disciplines in the cinema-architecture relationship, design, innovations and invention, inspiration for real-life, and beyond, the richness of imaginary fiction, ideas about different lives and worlds, art and aesthetics in space setup, and the similarities of cinema and architecture will be the topics of interest. Since the film occurs in the atmosphere of ancient cities such as Rome and Jerusalem, which were at the center of classical world civilization, it provides a suitable setting for conducting analyses in this field. The film presents a wide range of architectural facades within these rich themes. “Power and architecture,” “Faith and architecture,” and “Politics and architecture” are the main ones. The method of the article will be to explain the analysis of the Ben-Hur film over these themes.

The influence of government power on shaping the city and its architecture is excellent. The ideologies, administrative approaches, and practices of the rulers of Rome and Jerusalem were created through monumental buildings that command, subjugate, and spiritually influence, and magnificent architectural works that oppress the ruled. Today, we often cannot show the ability to look at the texture and layers of cities from a historical perspective. However, a well-executed political-religious-architectural film can turn into a civilization narrative that reveals these issues in detail and history. That is what happened with Ben-Hur.

Keywords: Al-Aqsa Mosque, architecture, Ben-Hur, Christianity, Crusader Army, Colosseum, Church of Resurrection, faith, Ibrahim, Islam, Jerusalem, Jesus, Judaism, power, politics, Rome, Roman Empire, Roman architecture, Masjid al-Haram, William Wyler.