Thread: Ben-Hur Casting

Let's be honest - On the Waterfront is better than any of Heston's movies.

Lets be honest - Secret of the Incas is better than anything Fat Boy did. "The internet is for lonely people. People should live." Charlton Heston

IMHO, I think that Wyler might have been one of the few directors at that time to keep Brando motivated. He was also a real tough director and could handle the likes of Bette Davis, who never suffered fools. I think that part, is often what caused Brando to screw around. Sydney Lumet talks about it in his book "On Directing". I'm paraphrasing so do check the book out for a more accurate statment. But either Brando...

"...cracks walnuts between his ass cheeks tough guy..." Ha ... like that term!

I cant imagine another actor of the time having the dedication to do properly all the work that Heston did, learning to drive chariots and so forth. There is only one shot in the movie that he is doubled and thats the jump over the chariot wreckage....the fact that it is actually him in all the action footage adds considerably to the realism of the film. As for Marlon Brando...i dont see it...he was not an actor who came across well in period...

Blah! Blah! Blah! The only man who could ever have given Ben Hur the emotional depth required for the role is none other than Spongebob Squarepants. I can hear him laughing as the chariots round the arena. I love you all.

For the abuse that Heston takes for supposed woodenness, lack of acting ability, later offscreen politics blah blah he's just so identified with these epic heroic lead roles that I honestly can't think of anyone else being Ben-Hur. Well maybe Leslie Nielsen..... Except for On the Waterfront and The Godfather I'm not much of a Brando fan. He probably was a better actor/showed more range than Heston (is there much argument there?)...

Lets be stupid - and carry on this pathetic conversation.

Kirk Douglas? Hmmm, I wonder if getting turned down for the lead role is the reason he did "Spartacus"- similar plots, same setting as BH, but with himself in the title role (it helps when you are also the film's producer). Burt Lancaster would have had to dump his New York accent, and play a character using his usually intense on-screen persona. I don't see him as being very good at soul-searching, or tenderness....

I agree with every point that you made about all the actors that I truly admire. Chuck was, without a doubt, the only one at the time who could've played Judah Ben-Hur.