⚔️ [벤허] 역사 배경 설명 | 이스라엘, 로마 (ft.뮤지컬 벤허)

Every year, there are so many movies, plays, and musicals in the world. Among them, there are two cases that leave a mark on cultural history. One is that the work is so sophisticated, sophisticated, and outstanding that people who want to become a future culturalist or a movie or play sometimes get hurt like textbooks. We often call this a classic. Another is that this work was so popular with the general public that it becomes a memory shared by a generation or a country. In the case of the United States, there is a very famous novel in the second category. It's a novel called Ben-Hur. For Koreans, Ben-Hur is more famous for its movies than novels. It was made into a movie starring Charlton Heston in 1959. At that time, it won the Academy Award in 11 categories. That's why it was widely used in Korea, and since then, it has been re-broadcasted endlessly, and critics mention it. It is one of the movies that remains as an immortal masterpiece even for people who were not alive in that era like me. In Korea, the story of Ben-Hur is made into a creative musical. Ben-Hur is a very popular story even for Koreans who finished two seasons successfully and returned to the third season. So, in today's Joseon Diaspora Exploration Life, I would like to talk about how Ben-Hur was created and why it is loved so much internationally. First, let me summarize the story. At that time, the Roman Empire was at its peak for about 0 years. The place is Judea, Israel today. Today, Rome and Israel are very far apart. But since the Roman Empire was so huge, at that time, Rome was colonizing Israel under the name of Judea. The Jewish people who lived there resisted the Roman Empire very harshly. The Roman governor-general was appointed and moved to his base. At that time, when the Roman governor-general was appointed, he often led the army back and forth and marched. So, the march was passing some road, and a fire was falling from the roof of a house to the side of the governor-general. The Roman soldiers said that they deliberately dropped the fire in order to kill the governor-general, and they went into the house. The house was the house of a Jewish nobleman named Judah Ben-Hur. In fact, Judah Ben-Hur's sister accidentally pushed the fire and dropped it in the process of watching the governor-general's march. At that time, Messena, who was in charge of the Roman army, led Judah Ben-Hur without hesitation without hearing this story. What's more absurd is that when Messena was young, he was like a brother who grew up with Judah in Judah Ben-Hur's house. Judah asked Messena for help, but eventually Ben-Hur was punished for building a wall in front of the Roman government, which was called the Gallic Line, one of the best punishments in the Roman Empire at that time. Ben-Hur, who was trapped in the Gallic Line, was recognized for his luck, wits, and his excellent personality, and eventually became the adopted son of the commander of the Gallic Line. So, he became one of the best nobles in Rome, and eventually returned to Israel and took revenge on Messena. Ben-Hur's story is about meeting Jesus and learning forgiveness. How popular was this novel? It was published in the 1850s and had the highest cumulative sales in the U.S. It became the best-selling novel in the U.S. by pressing Tom's Cabin in an instant. Since this novel is so popular, it was made into a Broadway show in 1899. It must have been amazing for people at that time to see the story of the Bible and the Roman era reproduced on stage. It is one of the most popular works in the history of Broadway, which has attracted 20 million audiences while performing for 20 years. And we know the movie Ben-Hur, which was released in 1959, but there are more than six movies in the U.S. and Korea. Ben-Hur was recently made into a movie in 2016. There is also a creative musical in Korea. Ben-Hur is also a story of Ben-Hur that adapts this story to fit the country and constantly creates new cultural works. To understand why Ben-Hur was so popular, I think we need to look at the period of the 1880s when this novel was published. The 1880s is only 15 years after the end of the South-North War. In other words, people over the age of 20 who read this novel must have experienced the South-North War directly or indirectly. The South-North War was a terrible civil war between the South and the North, whether the U.S. would become a country of slavery or a country where everyone was free and equal. That's why I think the theme of Ben-Hur is related to the slavery system. I think it would have created a lot of sympathy for people at that time. In the history of the world, which country is the largest slave empire familiar to Westerners? It's the Roman Empire. But if you look at Ben-Hur's story, Rome invaded someone else's country, completely ignored the personality of the people of that country, and used them recklessly. It is described as a merciless country that uses it as a swordsman. The first person who showed up in that merciless country and planted the hope of mercy is described as Jesus Christ. At that time, most Americans were Christians. The fact that the U.S. maintains the slavery system I think Ben-Hur is a novel that indirectly tells the story of getting out of the Christian spirit. The writer who actually wrote this Ben-Hur is a man named Lew Wallace. He has a deep relationship with the history of slavery liberation. In 1848, he was a politician in a political party aimed at eliminating slaves in the United States called Free Soil Party. When the South and North War broke out, he became a general. He was the general of the Northern Army in the slave exclusion movement, and he was also the chief of a joint operation with Ulysses Grant, the most famous person. Many people say that Rome, a country that honors the achievements made based on the labor of slaves, such as conquering the world or building a Colosseum, was actually a cruel and inhumane country, and the story of Jesus being born to point out that inhumanity was of course very sympathetic to Americans who experienced the South and North War. Listening to a lot of the lyrics of the new Ben-Hur musical that came back in season 3, I had a song that overlaps in my head. It is famous as a praise song in Korea, but in the United States, there is a military song called the forward praise song of the Republic. He was a soldier of the Northern Army during the South and North War. But if you look at the lyrics of this song, he was born across the sea in a beautiful white ship. With the glory to transform you and me in my heart. He died to make humans holy, so we will die to make humans free. God is marching with us. While singing this song, the general, who led the operation, knew the story of Ben-Hur, so whether you watch it in a movie, a musical, or a novel, you can understand it in a completely different way. Also, the story of Ben-Hur moved a lot of people over 140 years. When we hear a story, it's much more fun if we know the background. If you watch a movie based on history like Sado, you have to know who Sado Seje is to understand the movie. But Ben-Hur is based on two eras that everyone knows. One is based on the history of the Greco-Roman era, which was one of the most important parts of Western public education at the time. The other is based on the New Testament. But the moment when the two meet, the moment when two rivers come down and become a new lake called Western culture. Because it was captured and made into a movie, people who left school in the West could understand it at that time. I think it was very popular because it was based on a reference. In fact, when the musical version came out in 1900, soldiers came out in Roman armor or Roman tanks came up to the stage. People were impressed by these scenes. Now, we watch a lot of movies that reenact the Roman era, movies like Gladiator, but at that time, people probably read only in books and imagined only in their heads. Roman Lorica Segmentata armor, square shield, and the appearance of a tank in a Roman tank game. I think it was a huge shock to see such a thing being reproduced. When I was young, I watched Ben Hur in a movie theater, and I remember that the image of Plutarch's heroic battle that I was absorbed in at that time came to me more imaginatively. And I love Roman movies so much that I've seen almost all the movies from the Roman era. I went to see the musical this time. But there, I saw the actors who were in good shape who were really responsible for the Roman army marching in step with each other. If there were thousands of people like that in my neighborhood, I thought I was really experiencing how terrified the people who lived in the Roman era were. So, I imagine that many people would have had the same experience that they read in such a book when they were young. In fact, one of the biggest ironies of Western civilization is that they tried to combine the Greek-Roman philosophy and Christianity at the same time. These two civilizations don't get along well with each other. In particular, in the case of Roman civilization, it was a system that prioritized the powerful and the strong. And then, Christianity was a trend among the most persecuted people in the Roman Empire. But Europe is trying to combine these two after the Renaissance. So, if we look at the sculpture of Bernini in the Volga Palace in Rome, there are a lot of works that we see as very violent or extroverted because they are made from the contents of Greek-Roman mythology. On the other hand, if you find out that the person who ordered the work was Chugikyeong, there are many cases where you wonder if a person representing Christianity can make such a work. Especially in the 1880s, the imperialism of Europe was at its peak. Therefore, in the case of the elites of imperialist countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and the United States at that time, they were often educated to resemble the nobility of the Roman Empire. At the same time, they must have experienced a lot of conflicts between living as an elite of a country that dominates the world by force and living as a Christian. If you look at the musical, Banner eventually becomes an elite of Rome. So, whether to live as an elite of Rome or to go to Judea and find his old roots, his source, and fight for those who are persecuted, there is a scene where you think about it. Because these concerns were contradictions in the fact that the two raw materials of Western civilization collide, I think that's why Banner gained so much popularity. Also, when this work was made into a movie, I think there is a reason why it has a global reputation. This movie was released in 1959. Even from the perspective of Korea, it was released about 15 years after the Korean War. Korea gained independence right after the Second World War, but many countries became independent in the 50s and 60s. I think that the story of Banner overlaps with the stories of countries such as Algeria and Vietnam that fight for such independence. The story of Banner seems to be a problem of how to solve sorrow. Banner was doing well, but suddenly the Roman army came to his house and he got sorrow. His mother and sister-in-law were in prison, but they got sick with a terrible disease called insomnia, and he became a slave. So, first, he tries to solve his sorrow through success by becoming a noble of Rome, but he can't solve his sorrow with that. Second, he tries to solve his sorrow by winning a life-and-death fight with Messina in the stadium, but he can't solve his sorrow through revenge, and while he was walking on the road with that sadness, Jesus taught him to forgive, so his sorrow was solved. As long as there are people who live with our resentment, I think it's a story that can resonate with many people. So, Banner is constantly reborn, but it seems to be touching with a new meaning to people of a new generation. That's it for today's Joseon Diaspora Exploration. I'll see you next time with a more interesting cultural and historical story. Goodbye.