Carson Timar ClapperCast Aug 10, 2026

The last gasp of a dying Hollywood, Ben-Hur doesn't have the substance to fill its epic size.

Go to Full Review

W. Ward Marsh Cleveland Plain Dealer Jun 17, 2026

Perhaps the perfect picture has not yet been filmed -- any more than the perfect novel has been written or the perfect painting yet put on canvas -- but Ben-Hur will do, and will do for a long time, too.

Go to Full Review

Michael Kenney Hartford Courant Jun 17, 2026

The chariot race has all the impact and terror that one could imagine. For minute after minute it holds the viewer in almost sinister fascination.

Go to Full Review

Mildred Stockard Houston Chronicle Jun 17, 2026

It is much more than mere spectacle. It is a picture that has warmth and romance, excitement, drama, tragedy, humor and inspiration blended into one absorbing drama.

Go to Full Review

R.H. Gardner Baltimore Sun Jun 17, 2026

One of the largest, loudest and certainly longest, Ben-Hur is also one of the best of the Hollywood spectaculars. Exclude The Bridge on the River Kwai, and it may be the best.

Go to Full Review

Philip K. Scheuer Los Angeles Times Jun 17, 2026

MGM has delivered the Ben-Hur it promised. It is, whatever the minor pros and cons that will rage over it, magnificent, inspiring, awesome, enthralling and all the other adjectives you have been reading about it.

Go to Full Review

Mildred Martin Philadelphia Inquirer Jun 17, 2026

This is a Ben-Hur to stir the imagination and move the heart. It has spectacle, of course. But it is spectacle which, exciting beyond words in the stunningly handled chariot race, does not overwhelm the basic truths of Wallace's story of faith.

Go to Full Review

Jay Carmody Washington Star Jun 17, 2026

After decades of failure, the movies finally scale the lofty peak of the word "Colossal" with Ben-Hur.

Go to Full Review

Paine Knickerbocker San Francisco Chronicle Jun 17, 2026

Promises of the chariot race, which is presented early in the second half of the film, are dangled often like a carrot before the nose of the audience, and when it finally takes place, the sequence proves well worth waiting for.

Go to Full Review

John Waterman London Evening Standard Jun 17, 2026

Asked to say what feature lifts it far above other spectaculars, I would say in one word: dialogue. It is not difficult to detect the words of Christopher Fry.

Go to Full Review

Helen Bower Detroit Free Press Jun 17, 2026

To conclude with one more superlative, Ben-Hur -- for spectacle and excitement -- is the shortest long movie ever filmed.

Go to Full Review

George Bourke Miami Herald Jun 17, 2026

This is by far, the most thrilling piece of motion picture action this fan has seen in a half century of movie-watching. It beggars description.

Go to Full Review

Stanley Kauffmann The New Republic Jun 17, 2026

I greatly enjoyed Hugh Griffith's performance as a wily Arabian sheikh, and I thought the chariot race superb. But I was disappointed in the gifted William Wyler's inability to lift the religious scenes above the Christmas-card level.

Go to Full Review

Alexander Walker Birmingham Post Jun 17, 2026

A $15,000,000 film lasting 215 minutes, 15 of them the most furiously exciting I can recall undergoing in a cinema.

Go to Full Review

Frank Morriss Globe and Mail Jun 17, 2026

Ben-Hur has its uneven moments. It is at least half an hour too long -- but for all that it is an impressive job of motion picture making.

Go to Full Review

Ron Johnson Toronto Star Jun 17, 2026

The initial reaction to this three-hour and 35-minute picture is overpowering. It can only be compared to waking suddenly to find yourself standing at the foot of Niagara Falls.

Go to Full Review

Arnold Marks Oregonian Jun 17, 2026

From a standpoint of spectacle, the climactic chariot race is a masterpiece. This writer has seen the picture twice and that race is more exciting the second time than the first.

Go to Full Review

Guardian Staff Guardian Jun 17, 2026

I think this vast production is what it says it is -- the biggest of the lot. It is also rather well made.

Go to Full Review

Sun-Herald Staff The Sun-Herald (Australia) Jun 17, 2026

Director William Wyler, served by some brilliant actors and some whom he lifts plausibly out of the second-rate category, allows his characters a dignity and depth which are uncommon in pageant films.

Go to Full Review

Des Hickey Sunday Independent (Ireland) Jun 17, 2026

If Ben-Hur does not prove a tremendous experience for you, then you are a Philistine or a cynic. Or your heart is made of stone.

Go to Full Review