I avoided this film for the longest time.  How could I get excited about a 4 hour epic, starring Charleton "Soylent Green" Heston, that couldn't possibly live up to all of its accolades?  Well...I was wrong.  BEN HUR is an astonishing film.  That chariot race is one of the best action sequences in the history of cinema...exciting and dangerous to a level I never though imaginable from a film made in the 1950s.  Also, Heston can actually ACT!!!  I was so surprised.  The plot of BEN HUR is not that different from GLADIATOR, but also has all of the Christ encounters, that never felt forced or cheesy.  When/if they ever make a Charleton Heston biopic...Patrick Wilson BETTER play him, because as I sat through BEN HUR, the entire time, I thought it was Wilson on screen.  It's a perfect match.