Il regista kazako Timur Bekmambetov, forse per seguire fino in fondo le tracce del suo modello ispiratore, a fare il film è andato a Cinecittà (oltre che a Matera). Stessi teatri di posa dove quasi sessant'anni prima William Wyler aveva parzialmente girato Ben Hur, il kolossal con Charlton Heston che detiene tutt'ora il record di Oscar vinti (undici, come Titanic e Il signore degli anelli).
Dal TG20
Il nuovo Ben Hur
Telegiornale 28.09.2016, 22:00
Il Ben Hur versione 2.0 prova con grande difficoltà a replicarne il tracciato mistico-epico, con ingredienti più fiacchi: un cast di quasi-sconosciuti (unico divo l'immarcescibile Morgan Freeman; nei panni di Giuda il britannico Jack Huston), una serie di scelte espressive a dir poco incomprensibili (il tenore dei dialoghi è da telenovela brasiliana, la luce sembra entrare nelle scene come una parodia di Caravaggio, la macchina da presa mossa e la grana fotografica algida fanno quasi pensare al real cinema) e una scontatezza complessiva che trova un unico riscatto ritmico nella famosa corsa delle bighe (che in realtà erano e restano quadrighe).
Floppissimo abbastanza meritato al botteghino americano, il film è costato 100 milioni di dollari e lentamente, grazie alle uscite mondiali, sta arrivando ad incassarne altrettanti. Al lordo di tutte le altre opportunità distributive (on demand, tv, home video, aerei e quant'altro) si avvia a diventare un'operazione persino redditizia.
Curiosità in ottica svizzero-italiana: nei panni di uno dei romani c'è Jarreth Merz, attivo anche in Ticino e già regista di An African Election, passato al Sundance e in molti altri festival.
Marco Zucchi
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