yakalskovich | Fic: Chariots (for woelfle, whose birthday it is)

Chariots

When you are young, you like to go fast. A fast horse beneath you, and your friend at your side racing you would be all the happiness you asked of the world. Messala had missed the simplicity of such sheer, simple feeling for years now while more sophisticated joys and problems and considerations kept hold of his mind and his heart and his senses.

When you are young, you throw your body uninhibitedly at the world, jumping half the staircase at a time with enthusiasm, fighting your friend all-out amid gales of laughter, running while shouting at the top of the voice. Later, he had learned to refine his enjoyments and only smile mildly at the most excruciating pleasures imaginable.

When Messala had been young, there had been two horses drawing the chariot. It was a simple hunting chariot, designed to take you and your friend and your gear out to where the game was. It was a hunting chariot where you would stand and throw javelins at deer while your friend held on to the reins and turned the chariot nimbly with the escaping herd. As Judah's family had bred the horses, they were fast and strong, and loved their master with almost the same devotion as Messala himself.

Often, they had gone hunting, and raced the chariot through the open desert for leagues on end, for the sheer exhilaration of the speed, the thundering hooves, the huge cloud of dust they trailed, the feeling of the taut, spare body of his friend in his arms as he was holding on while they were careening wildly along dusty desert roads.

In hindsight, Messala couldn't say what had been the more perfect moment: Judah clinging to him while he raced the horses at their top speed, risking life and limb; or Judah clinging to him in the shadow of a few shrubs beside a lonely watering hole, the horses peacefully grazing nearby, oblivious of their masters' antics.

But now they were grown, chariots had teams of four horses, and they had become the tool of a hatred that Messala's frustrated desire had turned into so suddenly, so unexpectedly and painfully, the tool of Judah's revenge instead of his unthinking generosity. So they had had to have a chariot each instead of one together, which finally made for eight horses. Two horses had been love, four horses were a challenge, eight horses had proved Messala's undoing.

So now he had to hold on to reins that had no horses at all on the other end, waiting for Judah - his only real love, his nemesis, his greatest shame - to arrive, trailing death after him.

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Do you know the story about the filming of Ben Hur? Apparently, the director and Gore Vidal, who helped write the screenplay, were disgusted with the casting of Charles Heston--"Cornpone Chuck," as he was known--as Ben Hur. The more they worked on the script, the more convinced both men became that there was more than friendship between Judah and Messala. Given that Judea was heavily populated by Greeks at the time, it wouldn't have been implausible (only socially solipsistic) to suggest that, as boys, Judah and Messala had been intimate, and that Messala expected the relationship to continue once Judah returned home.

So Vidal spoke to Stephen Boyd and asked if he'd mind playing a man in love rather than a man just in like. Boyd was eager for any subtext to his two-dimensional role, and jumped at the chance. Heston was never informed of the conversation.

If you watch the film, you can see that every time Boyd looks at Heston, he gives off the attitude of a spurned lover. Personally, I love it; it gives it more subtext and livens it up for me. But when Heston found out in the 90s, he was livid, and wrote furious letters denouncing the whole idea to various periodicals (TIME, Newsweek) and the Los Angeles Times. Readers answered by the majority: the only person who couldn't see what Boyd was up to was, apparently, Heston!

Oh, the slashfic. Beautiful!!

--Kris

Oh, I know! I am actually now watching the extra features on the Ben-Hur DVD where Gore Vidal tells it all quite openly. I actually bought the DVD and re-watched the most important parts of it (for the slash relationship) in order to write this piece of fic for

woelfle's very, very favourite slash pairing.

And it's in "Celluloid Closet" as well.

But I didn't know about Heston's belated denial. It rings very true, though, with the fanatical old man we meet in "Bowling for Columbine".

They have the backstory on the Ben-Hur DVD? ::squeeeeeeeeee!!!!:: I have a reason to buy it now!

I'll see what I can find on Google regarding Heston's denials. From what I've heard, he's definitely two cans shy of a sixpack, and that was before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

--Kris

I don't know if they have it on the American edition - they most certainly have it on the German one. There's a long "Making-of" feature where Vidal Tells All.

And Alzheimer? Tee-hee. That explains a lot. hah, I know that's rather unfait, but he comes over as a thoroughly unpleasant old man, in general.

Here's Gore Vidal's take on Heston's rebuttal:

http://www.isebrand.beliefnet.com/page4.html

Apparently, the latest edition of The Celluloid Closet prints the public letters Vidal and Heston exchanged over Ben Hur. Vidal actually wrote a love scene between Messala and Judah and only showed it to Boyd. :D I'd kill to find a copy of that.

--Kris

Heh! Nice and bitchy. Two toupets indeed, huh?

That would be a slash fic challenge for canon freaks: write a love scene for Messala and Ben Hur, in script format, that totally rings true with the movie. Actually, it would have to be what happens after they drink, when the camera just shows the crossed beams with their two javelins in - what a symbol! I actually gasped at that when I re-watched the movie just now. In fact, the crossed beams where their javelins were turn up again and in again in situations that are about their emotional connection while their love turns so very, very sour.

Wah - where?? Let's kill together for it, shall we?

Well it wasn't actually my very very favourite slash pairing - I rather thought it original and very very fascinating - but it is now.

Funny thing, that making-of film.

As for Heston, I always say you can hold a person's past against them even if they're nice now, so it also works the other way round. And Alzheimer and alcoholism and who knows what were between the slashiness and the horrible old man...

Heh - one just has to look at your iconage.

That reminds me: one of my specialities is screen captures. It there's any specific scene you'd like some more caps of? I do have the DVD now.

Thanks for the offer, but I've already made dozens myself.
:-D
But, as there is Gamil, shall we trade?

Nah, I wouldn't know what to do with them. This account is free anyway, hence only three icons, which are quite sufficient for all practical purposes. RPage justifies more icons, that's why the Captain's account is a paid one.

Oh, I meant screen caps. Totally aware of your selfless approach to icons. ;-)

Fic: Chariots (for woelfle, whose birthday it is)

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I've got other icons too, but well...

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