Ben Hur

[dwight]

The Blu-Ray BEN HUR is a gorgeous release! It is perhaps the best restoration of a 50's 6 track score, from a fidelity standpoint. I am still waiting for someone in the industry to include the original 6 channels for listening purposes as an extra...what a joy that would be...it will happen, but I'll be dead...LOL.....Enjoy! This is really worth the money. I was 12 years old when I first saw this on a huge curved screen in the full 2:75 perspective. WB have given us something to cherish.
Dwight

 

[Analogueghost]

Ben-Hur is easily one of my all-time favorite movies. I'm eagerly awaiting my copy in the mail. I had faith in Warner on this project, and it sounds like it was well placed.

I would LOVE to see the score released in 5.1 someday. Guess we'll have to live with the re-recorded snippets on the Erich Kunzel - Miklos Rozsa: Three Choral Suites SACD.

 

[JonUrban]

I saw this in BB when I picked up the Floyd box. I suppose now I have to go get one. Of course, I'll price search first. Maybe Costco will have them.

 

[EMB]

DVD Talk gave the audio and video of this one high ratings, but except for the chariot race--which really is incredible, the kind of elaborate nonsense you could love going to the cinema for--this is just the kind of movie I could never much stand: bloated, overheated melodrama in the usual neo-Bibical/sword'n'sandals settings, lotsa talk but in the end (at least for me) not a lot to like. Heston and Boyd do make a fine pair of adversaries, but it takes too long to get to the chase (er, race), and after that the rest is anticlimactic. But the multichannel sound ought to be a treat since, while it wasn't bad on CD, I'd like to hear it in a much wider, dynamic context than that. As for the MGM Camera 65 image, as big a screen as you can find, of course...

ED

 

[StarTrek1701]

Guess we'll have to live with the re-recorded snippets on the Erich Kunzel - Miklos Rozsa: Three Choral Suites SACD.

FYI. It is not the original soundtrack, however Rozsa recorded most of the film music in an expanded suite (about 40 minutes), much more than the Kunzel recording; good as it is. The recording is coupled with the re-recording of his score for Quo Vadis. Both recorded during the mid-70's by Decca on their Phase 4 label. The recordings have been remastered by Dutton Labs and released on their Vocalion label. I own these myself. A little pricey, but worth it.

 

[kap'n krunch]

Oh , dude , I have a 70's reissue of the score on the London Phase 4 label ; Rozsa National Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus...it's the one with a painting of the chariot in the race (very brown based)..
Sounds great!

 

[leevitalone1]

one heck of a movie. one must keep in mind those days there was no cgi or much in the way of special effects, so all the crowd scenes are real as is the chariot race, heston drove the chariot in the race most of it anyway, and the sets! Incredible! No CGI! No PC's!

 

[StarTrek1701]

I have a 70's reissue of the score on the London Phase 4 label ; Rozsa National Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus

Just an FYI. The recording above is NOT the original soundtrack but a re-recording of the original score by Rozsa with the forces mentioned.