Contest #39 - Favorite Movie with a Rivalry: Ben-Hur, Enemy at the Gates, Rush.

over 1 year ago

Rivalry occurs when people or groups of people compete in a work or personal environment in order to demonstrate a point of view, an ideology or a distinctive quality that leads to achieving a desired goal. It usually occurs for sentimental reasons, comparisons, little attention to anger or resentment, and betrayal. I know that at one time or another we have all had a rival or have been a rival of another person.

This week the theme of the initiative Cinema TV Contest #39 is rivalry. Link Aqui.

There are many stories that tell us about this theme in cinema, in particular I will talk about three films that I think reflect the theme very well:

1.- Ben-Hur (1959) by William Wyler.

This is an epic film from the late 50's that tells one of the best interactions between good and evil. It presents a brotherhood of hate and love between Messala and Judah Ben-Hur that leads to a complex rivalry.

It begins with the Magi visiting the baby Jesus and ends with a shot of the crosses at Calvary empty in the background and a shepherd with his flock.
Judah Ben Hur (Charlton Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd) grow up as brothers in a Jerusalem occupied by the Roman Empire. Messala is taken away from the Hur family when his father, a Roman senator he never met, reclaims him in Rome. Years later, Messala returns to Jerusalem as Major General in command of a garrison. Ben Hur has become a prosperous merchant and is betrothed to Esther, daughter of a faithful slave. Messala tries to resume his relationship with Ben-Hur, but the latter, being a Jew, does not accept his conditions, among which is the desire to submit the population to the Roman yoke. After strong arguments, each one decides to fight for his own interests.

The prefect of the Province of Judea visits Jerusalem and an accidental event occurs that causes the governor to fall from his horse, the Romans hold the Hur family responsible for the event and Messala, to set an example, condemns Ben-Hur to the galleys and sends his mother and sister to prison.

Ben Hur becomes a slave in the galleys, his thirst for revenge growing. After a naval battle in which his ship ends up sinking, he saves the life of the Roman commander, Arrius, who, as a token of his gratitude, takes Ben Hur to Rome and formally adopts him as his son. In Rome he becomes a champion of the Circus races for 5 years.

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From his adoptive father, he inherits both his fortune and his name, returning again to Jerusalem, where he learns that Messala is training for the games.
Judah's return is filled with resentment and resentment, and he sets out to take revenge on Massala for the death of his family. Thus, he decides to defeat him and humiliate him in the circus arena by running in the chariot race with the white horses of Sheikh Ilderim.

Ben-Hur defeats Messala who falls from his chariot being fatally run over and trampled by another chariot at the start of the last lap of the race.

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With a bloodied body, and raging Messala, he informs Judah that his mother and sister are alive, but isolated in the Valley of the Lepers, thus Ben-Hur goes from avenger to victim of a dying Messala.

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Ben-Hur goes in search of his mother and sister and meets a man who is being executed and who one day gave him to drink, this is Jesus Christ, who at no time shows his face. After the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, his blood reaches the leper's cave and miraculously cures his mother and sister.

Judah returns home telling Esther how Jesus, the man who once saved his life, spoke of forgiveness from the cross "I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand." At last Ben-Hur finds his way to redemption.

In this day and age, at least for me, it is easy to distinguish when there is a relationship that goes beyond friendship. It is obvious that Messala was in love with Ben-Hur and feeling rejected by him proceeds to take revenge on him in the worst possible way. Thus, a thirst for revenge is generated in Ben-Hur towards the one he considered to be his brother.

From this love-hate relationship Messala got the worst part by being so intransigent, spiteful and jealous, he became a person capable of harming another causing irreparable damage to his family, not even showing signs of redemption when he dies.

Ben-Hur is humiliated, stripped of his wealth, his family and condemned to forced labor, then with effort but with a thirst for revenge manages to recover to punish a rival, he succeeds but does not achieve inner peace until he manages to connect with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

2.- Enemy at the Gates (2001) by Jean-Jacques Annaud.

In the Second World War (1942), the armies of Germany and Russia fight fiercely in the battle of Stalingrad, the Russian sniper, Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law), who fulfills his duty with extraordinary skill by annihilating his enemies one by one. The officer in charge of Soviet propaganda makes him a national hero who encourages the troops to continue the fight against the enemy.

The Germans, for their part, send the brutal Major König (Ed Harris), German director of the sniper school who is assigned the mission of killing Zaitsev, will have no scruples when it comes to murder as long as he is not discovered and gets to Zaitsev.

We are shown war camps full of mutilated soldiers, devastated both by Nazi bullets and bombings and by their own superiors who, at the slightest attempt to retreat because they did not even have rifles, shot them before they reached the Soviet line.

The aim of the film is to describe the role of propaganda on both sides during World War II, using the image of the sniper as a metaphor for the struggle between the two armies.

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Wars only bring death and destruction and in this case the two characters are used as means to represent the Russian and German political ideologies, where Vasili Zaitsev is shown more humane than his German rival Major König, which reflects no mercy to their targets and before my eyes is totally dehumanized to hang a child to achieve their goal, although Vassili Zaitsev, is largely to blame for this fact to use the child as a spy. König was eliminated by Zaitsev with a shot in the head.

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Major Konig is blinded by Nazi ideology, though not far behind are Zaitsev's communist convictions.

3.- Rush (2013) by Ron Howard.

Rush, set in the glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing, tells the true story of James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl), two of the greatest rivals the world of sport has ever seen. We observe their private lives and their clashes on and off the race track.

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The two drivers push themselves to the limits of human endurance, physically and psychologically, to achieve victory without allowing themselves to make mistakes.

James Hunt is friendly and open-minded, Niki Lauda reserved and cerebral. Both characters clash head-on with their respective egos. Hunt is more passionate and Lauda more cerebral.

These characters are very well developed, they are like night and day and although they want the same thing, they do not represent the forces of good and evil. There are no good guys or bad guys.

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I have had certain types of rivalries in the work area, sometimes very harmful by people who envied my position and the power of decision that it entailed and in others to perform the work in a better way and receive praise from my superiors. I recognize that I have also had wrong behaviors towards other colleagues who performed similar tasks to mine and therefore I decided not to envy or criticize them, taking as an example my professional and personal defects, modifying them as best I can.

Many times rivalry is a competition to survive, to somehow achieve some goal and can even push us to surpass ourselves. We should not let rivalries impoverish us as people by generating feelings of envy or suspicion that trigger hatred or violence. We must use these types of situations to overcome our limits and, therefore, to move forward, to be better at what we do.

I hope this publication has been entertaining, best of luck in the contest and thanks to the CineTv community for allowing me to express my ideas. Best regards to all of you.

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