Ben Hur, Review: Chariots for hire What do you remember about the 1959 screen version of the 1880 story? Nothing, unless you are a Senior Citizen, even if the Indian release was probably two years later than the Hollywood opening. I remember the chariot race, with Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur and Stephen Boyd as Messala. Edge of the seat stuff, especially Messala. The sub-text of Christ, Christianity, Judaism, and the Roman Empire’s sadistic tyranny, was lost on the bunch of school-...

  You cannot talk about world cinema of the 1970s and 1980s without mentioning (and lionizing) the name of Peter Weir. A key innovator of the Australian New Wave of those decades, and one of the few who made major successes in both his native land and in the wilds of Hollywood, Peter Weir is being celebrated this weekend at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, with a showcasing of some of his most important works and a preview screening of his latest film. From the outback of his n...