Ben-Hur (1959)
I splurged and got a 4K player and this as my first UHD title. Hard to imagine a better showcase with the absolute greatest of all film epics. A story and a film that is larger than life in all aspects. Still as engaging from start to finish as the first time I saw it. This film manages to circumvent my usual taste, as it is more or less the opposite of subtle, melodramatic, clear cut good and evil, and heavy in religious message. But the epic music, the classic heroic characters, and the biblical scale of events simply wins me over in a way that is impossible to resist. There is no dull or bad scene across the almost 4 hours. The pacing holds, without missing a beat. The high paced scenes like the chariot race is just as gripping as the scenes with the big emotions like the valley of the lepers. The big budget Hollywood blockbuster peaked here.
Rating: 5