With summer just around the corner, it's almost Sword and Sandals weather!
Life's the laugh and death's the joke, it's true...
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People have a strange relationship with risk. At this very moment, the entire population of New York City is engaged in a collective action to prevent the spread of a horrible virus. The vast majority of people will survive it with only minor symptoms or no symptoms at all, yet it can be deadly to those who are high risk. And still not a day goes by that I don’t see a Wall Street bro swaddled in a face mask while zooming around on a scooter or a bicycle in the middle of the road without wearing a helmet. How does that make any sense at all!? There’s also been a surge in car crashes and reckless driving tickets issued as the quarantine has dragged on. To say that there’s paradox here is an understatement. The mortality rate for COVID-19 is somewhere around 1–2 percent (go ask a scientist if you want an exact figure). The mortality rate for a high speed collision with a bus is pretty close to 100 percent. I’m not saying that wearing a bike helmet is more important than wearing a face mask right now, just that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to wear the face mask while doing 90 MPH through a school zone.
Indeed, going out your door on any given day in the Big Apple is a dangerous proposition. There are moving vehicles, muggings, manhole cover explosions, ice sliding off of skyscrapers in the winter, air conditioners falling from upper stories in the summer, and you never know when someone’s going to snap and start whacking people with a hatchet. It’s incredible that collectively we’re working to stop the spread of COVID-19. It’s equally incredible that people go about their daily lives in the Tri-State Area. And it’s just stupid in general that people don’t wear bicycle helmets.
That’s just life, though. The same person who invests a portion of every paycheck in a low-risk, Treasury Bond heavy 401K may go to a casino and drop a bundle on roulette. And if they win, that’s just proof that they were on to something. Confirmation bias is a dangerous thing: I haven’t had an accident on my bike while not wearing a helmet before, therefore I probably won’t next time either. The flip side of this, of course, is that absolute risk aversion can be just as dangerous. Never swimming in the ocean for fear of sharks and only eating your steak well-done is a recipe for a colorless and dull life.
So here’s my advice: Take account of risk, do what you can within reason, but don’t let it define your life. Don’t put others unduly at risk. The upshot of most religious teachings—from Jesus to the Buddha—is that life sucks sometimes, it’s full of pain, and you’re definitely not as in control of things as you think. Our main job is to just survive the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as best we can—hopefully with a bit of joy—without being terrible to our neighbors. So go outside (safely), get some fresh air, ride your bike (with a helmet), don’t breath on anyone, wash your hands when you come back, put on some smooth jazz, pour yourself a class of sauvignon blanc and make a cheese plate. I promise you won’t regret it.
Today’s Film: Ben Hur (1959)
As with the recommendation of The Ten Commandments yesterday, Ben-Hur is a biblically infused sword and sandals epic starring Charlton Heston, and both films were remakes of earlier silent films. While The Ten Commandments celebrated the story of Moses—and the foundational tale of Passover—Ben-Hur tells an epic story about loss, redemption, revenge and forgiveness in the shadow of the execution of Christ by the Romans. But don’t misjudge this film: While it’s certainly infused with Christian themes, it’s very much it’s own thing and not a bible story, and it took theaters by storm when it was released.
One of the critical early scenes involves the terra cotta tiles on a roof sliding off and conking a Roman officer on the head as he processes on horseback into Jerusalem. (The risks of urban living haven’t changed all that much.) It turns out that the home belongs to a wealthy Judaean merchant, Ben-Hur, and that by chance he was the childhood friend of Messala, one of the newly arrived Roman soldiers. It doesn’t help him, and he’s enslaved on a war galley in the Mediterranean. But life takes strange turns and after saving an admiral in battle, Ben-Hur rises through the Roman hierarchy and returns to Jerusalem only to find that the love of his life has perished in his absence. There’s also a pretty terrifying leper colony. Ben-Hur confronts Messala, and they decide to settle things the old fashioned way with a chariot race. I won’t give away the ending.
Ben-Hur was the most expensive film ever made when it was released with a budget of over $15 million. With a box office take over $20 million, the film was credited with saving MGM from financial ruin and was one of the first movies to receive national marketing and merchandising, including everything from His and Hers towels to chariot-shaped tricycles. Ben-Hur was a technical masterpiece, and the chariot race holds up to this day as one of the most exhilarating sequences in film history. The special effects are supported by a compelling screenplay by the extraordinarily prolific Karl Tunberg and superstar performances from Heston and Stephen Boyd, who played Messala. Most importantly, the legendary director William Wyler pushes the performers to find depths in their characters far beyond that which was written. While the story in the wrong hands could have ended up being trite or even boring, Wyler succeeded in making it feel mythic. It ultimately won 11 Oscars, a record at the time, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Score and Best Cinematography, and it also scored a nomination for Best Screenplay.
Perhaps the only real criticism of the film is that it’s three and half hours long. But it’s not like we have anywhere else to be right now.
Ben-Hur is available to rent on a variety of streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and the iTunes store.
Reading List:
Fran Lebowitz is the quintessential New Yorker and a notorious denizen of her apartment. The New Yorker caught up with her for her take on quarantine.
Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall had a really interesting post today about the seeming tendency of FEMA to snatch medical supplies out from under hospital administrators and the Trump administration’s apparent penchant for favoring supportive politicos. Give it a read.
Benjamin Reeves is an award-winning screenwriter, journalist and media consultant based in Brooklyn, New York. Follow him on Twitter @bpreeves or write to him at breeves.writer@gmail.com.