1 Film Essay 1 Film from 1940-1970 Garrett Lollis ARTH 334 Professor Tom Fallows April 04, 2021 2 Part 1 The film I chose was Ben-Hur (1959), which is an adventure/historical film by director William Wyler. The film is a work of fiction based on the 1880 book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by author Lee Wallace and is the third film adaption of multiple films based upon the story of the fictional character Ben-Hur (Brayson, 2016). I personally enjoyed this 3 hour and 42-minute film due to the directors’ masterful work even though the film was made in 1959. William Wyler utilized different cinematography and editing tools such as D.W. Griffiths intercutting, panning, close-up, and dissolve techniques throughout the film to depict each scene and enhance the quality of the film (Gutmann, 2010). With the use of D.W. Griffiths cinematography/editing techniques, William Wyler managed to show different angles of a scene better and pan for more use of the space because of newer technology unlike the straight on view that had to be used in George Melies’s A Trip To The Moon (1902) due to the technology at that time. Sound syncing really came a long way from the early 1900’s and this film perfectly synced the sounds with what was happening in each scene (The History of Sound at the Movies, 2014). There is a scene about an ancient Roman naval battle taking place and I believe all parts from sound, to editing, and cinematography come together during this battle scene. Before the battle takes place the Admiral of the ship tests the boat rowers which were slaves by having them run through different battle speeds of the ship. There is a drummer that helps keep the rowers in sync, so as the Admiral yelled out “attack speed” the drummer started drumming and you can hear the multitude of sounds from the music intensifying, the drummer drumming faster to the changing ship speeds, to the exhaustion of the men as they row throughout this particular scene. Once the battle begins, the battle music intensifies, and the director used cross-cutting to go between the battle taking place outside the ship and back to the men under the deck rowing the 3 boat as the battle draws on. The director also used close-up shots to show the different expressions on a few characters faces during the battle and finishes with the dissolve effect after the battle is over to transition to Ben-Hur and the Admiral being stranded in the ocean. William Wyler used the dissolve feature multiple time throughout the film to transition between locations and nighttime and daytime, I really enjoy this feature because it makes the scenes flow smoothly instead of just abruptly cutting off. Another interesting thing added into the film is an intermission because the length of the film, this gives time to get a drink or more popcorn and something I have only seen down in very few films. The dir ...

1. 1
Film Essay 1
Film from 1940-1970
Garrett Lollis
ARTH 334
Professor Tom Fallows
April 04, 2021

2. 2
Part 1
The film I chose was Ben-Hur (1959), which is an
adventure/historical film by director
William Wyler. The film is a work of fiction based on the 1880
book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the
Christ by author Lee Wallace and is the third film adaption of
multiple films based upon the
story of the fictional character Ben-Hur (Brayson, 2016). I
personally enjoyed this 3 hour and
42-minute film due to the directors’ masterful work even though
the film was made in 1959.
William Wyler utilized different cinematography and editing
tools such as D.W.
Griffiths intercutting, panning, close-up, and dissolve
techniques throughout the film to depict
each scene and enhance the quality of the film (Gutmann, 2010).
With the use of D.W. Griffiths
cinematography/editing techniques, William Wyler managed to
show different angles of a scene

3. better and pan for more use of the space because of newer
technology unlike the straight on view
that had to be used in George Melies’s A Trip To The Moon
(1902) due to the technology at
that time. Sound syncing really came a long way from the early
1900’s and this film perfectly
synced the sounds with what was happening in each scene (The
History of Sound at the Movies,
2014). There is a scene about an ancient Roman naval battle
taking place and I believe all parts
from sound, to editing, and cinematography come together
during this battle scene. Before the
battle takes place the Admiral of the ship tests the boat rowers
which were slaves by having them
run through different battle speeds of the ship. There is a
drummer that helps keep the rowers in
sync, so as the Admiral yelled out “attack speed” the drummer
started drumming and you can
hear the multitude of sounds from the music intensifying, the
drummer drumming faster to the
changing ship speeds, to the exhaustion of the men as they row
throughout this particular scene.
Once the battle begins, the battle music intensifies, and the
director used cross-cutting to go

4. between the battle taking place outside the ship and back to the
men under the deck rowing the
3
boat as the battle draws on. The director also used close-up
shots to show the different
expressions on a few characters faces during the battle and
finishes with the dissolve effect after
the battle is over to transition to Ben-Hur and the Admiral being
stranded in the ocean. William
Wyler used the dissolve feature multiple time throughout the
film to transition between locations
and nighttime and daytime, I really enjoy this feature because it
makes the scenes flow smoothly
instead of just abruptly cutting off. Another interesting thing
added into the film is an
intermission because the length of the film, this gives time to
get a drink or more popcorn and
something I have only seen down in very few films. The
director added as much realism to each
scene from the backdrops to the cloths of the characters. One
thing I did dislike was that the intro
to the film took six minutes before the film even started. Even

5. though I paid to rent the movie on
Amazon Prime, I almost thought it was not the correct movie
due to the intro. I believe this film
was successful in creating a work of fiction, especially for the
time period of the film. The level
of realism and the way the director portrayed the story of Ben-
Hur, it would almost seem like
Ben-Hur was not a fictional character, but a real person in
history.
Part 2
I believe that William Wyler was a great director since he
already had a few films under
his belt before directing Ben-Hur. Even though the movie was
long, William Wyler seemed to
know how to keep the film interesting as it progressed through
the story of Ben-Hur. William
Wyler used time jumps in a few areas of the film as to not draw
out the film, but slightly
referenced back to some of the events that occurred throughout
the time jumps. William Wyler’s
directing style seemed to have turned the story of Ben-Hur from
an average story to a work of
art. In my opinion there are two characters of importance in this
film, the main character, and his

6. best who later becomes his arch nemesis. In the beginning of
the film, I was not real sure how I
4
felt about Charlton Heston as Ben-Hur, it might not have been
his portrayal of the character, but
more the story of Ben-Hur in the beginning just was not
interesting yet. Stephen Boyd’s
character, Messela seemed to overshadow the main character at
first. Stephen Boyd’s portrayal
of Messela seemed to match what a bad guy is supposed to be
like and act like, especially as he
betrayed his best friend Ben-Hur and imprisoned him and his
family. As the story progressed,
Charlton Heston started to mesh with the character of Ben-Hur
and started showing the depth of
the character. Charlton Heston did a good job of portraying
different emotional stages seen
throughout the film after his character was betrayed and sent
away to live the life of a prisoner,
but it did take the development of the character before Charlton
Heston brought out the full

7. potential of Ben-Hur. Even though Stephen Boyd’s character
Messela was not seen much
throughout a lot of the movie his portrayal of a bad guy was
masterfully done. Stephen Boyd
made it seem like his character was an awfully bad person and
made you dislike him for
betraying his friend like he did. Even as Messela was on his
death bed after being trampled by
horses during his sanctioned race in a stadium for all to see
against Ben-Hur, he tells Ben-Hur
about his family and how they were placed with lepers (leprosy
was a very contagious disease,
especially during the time period depicted in the film) adding to
Messela’s villainy. After the
character progression of the main character, I think both actors
managed to portray their
characters very well and captured the emotions of their
respective character.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, this film was enjoyable to watch even though it was
made in 1959 and I would
recommend it to others even though there are newer renditions
of the film out such as an
animated version and an updated version produced in 2016.

8. William Wyler managed to produce
a great film in the adventure/historical genre. With the
production skills of William Wyler as a
5
director and the actors’ portrayal of their characters, I would
say this is the best movie from a
time period before 1960 that I have seen thus far. Ben-Hur was
enjoyable from start to finish.

9. 6
Resources
Brayson, J. (2016). Ben-Hur's History Goes Back A Ways.
Retrieved from 'Ben-Hur' Isn’t A True
Story, But It Was Inspired By A Powerful Historical Figure
(bustle.com)
Gutmann, P. (2010). Editing, Panning, Close-Ups, & the
Dissolve. Retrieved from D. W. Griffith
and the Dawn of Film Art -- Part 6: Editing, Panning, Close-Ups
and the Dissolve, by
Peter Gutmann (classicalnotes.net)
(2014). The History of Sound at the Movies. Retrieved from The
History of Sound at the
Movies - YouTube

10. https://www.bustle.com/articles/178991-ben-hur-isnt-a-true-
story-but-it-was-inspired-by-a-powerful-historical-figure
https://www.bustle.com/articles/178991-ben-hur-isnt-a-true-
story-but-it-was-inspired-by-a-powerful-historical-figure
http://www.classicalnotes.net/griffith/part6.html
http://www.classicalnotes.net/griffith/part6.html
http://www.classicalnotes.net/griffith/part6.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot5IryUt9SM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot5IryUt9SM
7
My Criteria for Quality in Film
1. Music/sound choice matches what is happening in the movie
to draw on the emotional
effect of a scene.
2. The actor’s ability to portray their specific character a nd
bring out every aspect of that
character
3. The visual effects have continuity and blend well throughout
the movie
4. The “storyline” has to draw interest to its specific topic.
Zachary’s Post:
I have been looking forward to this topic for some time because
I really love a good Western! I was raised on Eastwood's
spaghetti westerns and as I look for a good movie to talk about

11. that came out over the last 30 years, I realized I actually
watched one recently! No Country for Old Men, 2007 is
absolutely one of my favorite Westerns from the past 30 years
(although there are so many other brilliant movies to choose
from.) Long story short, this is a crime western taking place in
modern day (2007) and it involves a bad drug deal gone wrong
with the Mexican cartel, a lot of unaccounted for money, a bad
guy, a good guy, and a "cowboy." If you have not watched this
movie, please put this on your to-do list because you will not be
disappointed. This movie has actors in it such as Josh Brolin,
Tommy Lee Jones, and Javier Bardem.
This film has a ton of similarities from the films in this week's
genre. As I mentioned earlier, there is a defined good buy and a
bad guy, the terrain shares the same with Westerns of old being
the deserts of Mexico and western U.S., lots of gunfights, and
has a lot in common with The Great Bank Robbery, 1903, the
very first Western film. There is something captivating about
watching a fight between good v evil especially when it
involves good guys versus bad guys and a definitive "her o
cowboy." Now, Tommy Lee Jones does not have the same scale
of role as John Wayne did in his Westerns, but he is old
fashioned, slow speaking, and lethal with a revolver; all of
things similar with John Wayne.
Special effects played a relatively large role in this film,
primarily in the gun fighting scenes and the gore. This movie is
rated R and mostly due to the language and very gory scenes
involving gun fights and melee weapons. The first scene that
stands out to me where special effects were used were when the
villain, Bardem, used a bolt gun to shoot a policeman in the
head. The sounds and picture of a bolt going in a nd out of
someone's brain is only something that could have been
captured with a high level of special effects, and boy you will
remember this image. Second place where a special kind of
cinematography stood out to me was when Jones was giving a
soliloquy in the beginning of the movie which used a
considerable amount of intercutting and flashbacks to describe

12. his days where his father taught him how to be a cop and defend
himself. This scene was very dramatic and helped the viewers
draw a lot of empathy for Jones who was now an old man and it
also provided a little foreshadowing as to how he might be in
danger later in the movie. Lastly, the last scene in the move
where Bardem wrecked his getaway vehicle containing all the
cash used a ton of special effects; it was a head-on collision and
Bardem sustained a ton of injuries and a lot of CGI and SFX
was needed to accurately depict this scene and make it have a
long lasting effect on the audience even after the movie had
ended.
Reference:
“Western Movies History - Film Genres and
Hollywood.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=h
HARlbUktEA.
Jillian’s Post:
The musical I decided to watch for this week’s discussion
was Burlesque (2010). I am not a huge fan of musicals, but I
loved this one! Something I really enjoyed about this film is it
doesn’t have moments that just turn into song, like most
musicals do. I know that’s normally a main factor in a musical,
but that’s why I choose not to watch them. Ironically I also love
the movie Singing in the Rain (1952) and Chicago (2002); both
of which have do exactly what I mentioned. There are many
differences when it comes to Burlesque and Singing in the Rain,
but they both are very well done. Burlesque, for example, has
many singing numbers, but they are all part of “the show.”
There’s no point where Tess (Cher) or Ali (Christina Aguilera)
just burst into song and dance while they’re walking down the
street, or doing the dishes. All of their musical numbers were
set up as a performance for the club they worked in, or a
practice for a performance. There was also no use of diegetic
sound, which Tran (2016) explains is any natural sound caught
while filming. All noises used in the signing numbers
in Burlesque is non-diegetic sound; unnatural sound added to

13. the film post filming (Tran, 2016.) With that being said, Singing
in the Rain has numerous numbers where the characters just
burst into song and dance as if it’s normal, and continue about
their day. Which most “top” musicals do, such as The Wizard of
Oz (1939), Mary Poppins (1964), The Sound of Music (1965),
Chicago (2002), and many more. Of course, that is how most
musicals are. When it comes to sounds, Singing in the Rain does
incorporate diegetic sound. In the scene where Kathey Selden
(Debbie Reynolds), Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) and Don
Lockwood (Gene Kelly) sing “Good Morning” after staying up
all night, they incorporate tap dancing into their dance routine.
The sound from the tapping is diegetic, it was from the actual
scene and not added in post-filming.
Cinematography, “the process of capturing movement on film,”
(Kuhn & Westwell, 2012), is a huge part of what makes a film
good. Burlesque (2010) had great cinematography. Starting with
the Club the burlesque show was held at, was a great set choice.
It felt unique and welcoming, which I believe is what the idea
was. There’s a scene where Ali is searching for a place to work
at, and it shows her looking at many physical locations and
having no connection with them, then she sees Burlesque and is
instantly drawn in, as is the audience. An addition to this, the
angle this scene was film at was a high angle, making the club
look like it was towering over Ali, but not in an intimidating
way. The lighting used was warm and welcoming, another
addition to the great cinematography work. Another film
technique Burlesque uses are personal shots. According to Tran
(2016) personal shots are used to show the emotion from the
character and gain empathy form the audience; this tied in with
the correct lighting ensures the audience feels what they were
supposed to during that moment. There’s a scene where Tess
stays late to practice a song for an upcoming show by herself.
She is sitting on a chair on stage, with the spotlight pointed on
her, and this is being filmed using a personal shot. The lighting
is a cool blue color and makes you feel more intimate in the
moment, and the personal shot shows al her emotions as she’s

14. signing “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me.” Thanks to the
cinematography, this scene definitely played on my empathy
and made me feel her sadness and strength. This scene was also
filmed at a high angle, to make Tess look more vulnerable, but
as the song went on, it turned into a low angle to make her seem
more powerful.
Overall I truly enjoyed this assignment. As I mentioned,
musicals aren’t my favorites, but I enjoy them from time to
time. Burlesque (2010) is not like your average musical, which
is why I enjoyed it so much. The cinematography work put into
this film, definitely made it a great watch!
References:
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2012). Oxford
Reference. http://www.oxfordreference.com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/
view/10.1093/acref/9780199587261.001.0001/a cref-
9780199587261-e-0124?rskey=jRCezZ&result=1.
Tran, L. (2016, May 22). Film techniques for students.
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvybQ5RpMkc.
Film Essay Paper 1 progress critique and review
CRITIQUE TWO STUDENTS’ POST/PAPER
GARRETT LOLLIS POST:
I chose (1959) film Ben-Hur directed by William Wyler. This is
a fictional story based on a book from the late 1800's about a
Jewish prince that gets betrayed and imprisoned by his best
friend that is a Roman soldier. This story takes place during the
biblical time of Jesus and shows parts of the life of Christ while
also intertwining these events with the storyline of Ben-Hur's
life. I enjoyed this film even through it almost 4 hour entirety.
JILLIAN SLOVICK POST:
I don't have a fully written paper yet, but here is what I am

15. working with...
I decided to watch Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) directed by
Blake Edwards and Back to the Future (1985) directed by
Robert Zemeckis. I chose Breakfast at Tiffany's after talking to
my mom about older movies that I haven't seen. It was her
suggestion, but I am thankful for it! She has always talked
about it and this is one I’ve ALWAYS heard bout, but never got
around to watching. I viewed the film, but I need to watch it
again to take more notes on editing. I can say I enjoyed Audrey
Hepburn as Holly Golightly, who wouldn't?
I chose Back to the Future after talking to my dad. My dad is
the movie guy, so I thought I should ask. Now, he's more into
the criteria of the movie, than the director, but they go hand-in-
hand in my opinion. Back to the Future is another one I've heard
about all my life, and I'm embarrassed to say I haven't seen it. I
will be watching it this weekend to form opinions. But, I'm sure
it will not disappoint. From my readings i have learned that
Zemeckis is "an innovator in visual effects" so, I'm looking
forward to seeing his work brought to life in this film!
I am not really sure what my approach will be to write this
paper due to my consistent 'B' grades on all of our discussions;
where I have put in tons of effort and time. This is the only
class that I've ever had an issue with writing, and I've taken
many extensive writing classes. Maybe, it's because I'm a HRM
major and not a film major, or maybe the criteria is just harder
for me to grasp. But, I'm hoping my frustration clears and I
figure out how to execute this assignment well so that it's an
enjoyable read and earns a good grade.