Scott Lord Silent Film: Ben Hur, A Tale of Christ (Fred Niblo, 1925)

Ben Hur

Director Fred Niblo brought the running length of the silent film to twelve reels with the 1925 film "Ben Hur" bringing the adjective "epic" to the historiography of genre theory during the development of "religious drama", subtitling the film "A Tale of Christ". Hollywood was notorious for not allowing films to be made with visual images of the historical Jesus so as not to perturb religious organizations and delegated Ancient Civilizations to sensational, if not tawdry exploitation, archeologists falling in love in the film .Made for Love. Paul Rotha, in his volume Film Til Now deigned "Ben Hur" to be "the spectaces of spectacles" but only after deriding Cecil B De Mille as a "psuedo-artist" who could be watched with curiousity but not sincerity, DeMille having a "flair for the spectacular and tremendous."

Fred Niblo

Fred Niblo

Fred Niblo Silent Film Silent Film