Silent Film Series with Live Score: Ben-Hur

Transport your family to a luxe movie palace of yesteryear, featuring famous films and a live orchestra of sound from MBT’s pipe organ.

The universal themes of the fight against oppression and spiritual redemption are the source of Ben-Hur’s continued appeal. Condemned to a lifetime of slavery by Roman officers, the son of a wealthy Jewish family embarks on an epic quest to reclaim his family and freedom, rising from lowly ship slave to champion charioteer. The film cost 20 times the average MGM release in 1925 and featured an infamous chariot race scene—the product of 200,000 feet of film from 42 cameras, this death-defying sequence is still a thrilling theatre experience today.

“[Dennis] James masterfully recreates the musical scores with which these early films were meant to be seen. The Mount Baker Theater, which opened in 1927, is one of the last of the Grand Silent Movie Palaces built in the Pacific Northwest and, as such, is the perfect setting for James’ performances and showing of these films.” -Scot Casey, What’s Up Magazine