Ben and Arthur

Ben and Arthur
DVD cover
Directed by	Sam Mraovich
Written by	Sam Mraovich
Produced by	Sam Mraovich
Starring	Sam Mraovich Jamie Brett Gabel Michael Haboush Bill Hindley Julie Belknap Gina Aguilar
Cinematography	Michael Haboush Sam Mraovich
Edited by	Chris Mraovich Sam Mraovich
Music by	Phil Garcia Michael Haboush Chris Mraovich Robert Mraovich Sam Mraovich Louis Matta
Distributed by	Ariztical Entertainment
Release date	September 9, 2002 (2002-09-09)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$40,000

Ben and Arthur is a 2002 American romantic-drama film written, directed, produced, edited, scored by and starring Sam Mraovich, and distributed by Ariztical Entertainment. The film concerns a recently married gay couple who face opposition from one partner's brother, who plots to murder them after being ostracized by his church.

The film was a box office bomb, having earned only $40,000 as of 2011. It is considered by some to be one of the worst movies ever made.

Plot

Ben Sheets and Arthur Sailes are a couple in Los Angeles, cheering over the legalization of same-sex marriage in Hawaii which means they can marry there. However very quickly, the judge requests a lengthy judicial review by the Supreme Court. Ben takes this time to inform Arthur that he is actually already married to a woman named Tammy, whom he wed out of heteronormative pressure. Arthur becomes angry but decides to stay with Ben anyway. Shortly thereafter, Ben comes out to Tammy and files for divorce.

Ben and Arthur work at a small diner. Although Ben—a former nurse who quit to pursue a music career—enjoys the job, Arthur has grown impatient, deciding to quit and go to a business school so he can open a sex shop. Though the loss of income means that Ben will have to return as a nurse, he agrees to do so in order to help Arthur. For funding, Arthur meets his brother, Victor, whom he has not spoken to for seven years. Victor, a homophobic but gay religious fanatic, offers to help Arthur if he brings Ben by the apartment to be evangelized. Meanwhile, the couple hires an attorney, Margaret, who advises that they go to Vermont to be wed in a civil union allowing them to be recognized in California. There, the two are wed privately.

Victor hires a private investigator and learns of their marriage; he then shoots Margaret dead. Meanwhile, Tammy visits Arthur's apartment with a gun, but Ben takes it and kicks her out. Ben and Arthur agree to visit Victor, who with another congregant from his church, Stan, hurl homophobic insults. They then secretly devise a plan to exorcise the couple using homemade holy water. The plot fails, and the couple enjoys a honeymoon in Hawaii. Victor's priest Rabin excommunicates him because of the congregation's fear on him as the relative of a gay person. Stan helps Victor convince Rabin to undo his decision if he can murder Ben and Arthur. They hire the hitman Scott, who gay bashes Ben upon his and Arthur's arrival, hospitalizing him.

Suspecting his involvement, Arthur breaks into Victor's apartment and taps his phone. After intercepting a call between Victor and Rabin, Arthur goes to the church and burns Rabin. When Ben recovers, Arthur takes him back home. Victor goes to the couple's apartment and shoots Ben dead, then forces Arthur to strip naked at gunpoint, performing an impromptu baptism in the bathtub. While Victor contemplates his actions, Arthur gets Tammy's gun and shoots Victor in his right shoulder. Victor then shoots him in the back eight times and receives a headshot in return, rendering the two dead.

Cast

• Sam Mraovich as Arthur Sailes
• Jamie Brett Gabel as Ben Sheets
• Michael Haboush as Victor Sailes
• Bill Hindley as Rabin
• Julie M. Zimmerman as Tammy Sheets (billed as Julie Belknap)
• Gina Aguilar as Margaret
• Arthur Huber as Justin Abraham, Victor's private investigator
• Oto Brezina as the Vermont priest who officiates Ben and Arthur's wedding
• Richard Hitchcock as Stan, Victor's friend who helps with his plot against Ben and Arthur
• Bruce Lurie as Morren, a Los Angeles Police Department detective who deals with the case of Ben's gay bash
• Buck Elkin as a bar owner
• Nick Bennet as Scott
• Loretta Altman as Mildred, Ben and Arthur's homophobic neighbor
• Holly Mraovich as a lady in a grocery store scene

Production

Sam Mraovich assumed most of the film's production and creative duties; in addition to writing, directing, and starring in the film, he handled cinematography duties, scored the film, and edited it. Aside from Mraovich's compositions, the film also contains public domain recordings of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" and Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D, which play over the opening and closing credits, respectively.

The original script featured a female antagonist named Victoria rather than a male antagonist named Victor. Some of Victor's lines are still listed as belonging to "Victoria" in the film's final shooting script, but any references to her relationship with Arthur have been excised. Following the film's release, Sam Mraovich received numerous complaints that, although ostensibly a homophobe, the character of Victor is played by a gay actor and portrayed as flamboyantly gay in the film. Mraovich responded by saying that the casting and direction were intentional and by saying he meant to convey that Victor is a self-loathing gay man in the vein of James McGreevey:

James McGreevey could not deny it. Gov. James McGreevey was totally against gay marriage and didn't even support civil unions or domestic partnerships. Also, look at Mayor Jim West, he's totally gay yet against gay rights and says bad things about us but privately he was giving his gay lovers jobs...the bottom line is the character in my movie, Victor, is an example of a gay man who hates himself for being gay."

Release

The film premiered at the Sunset 5 theater in West Hollywood. As of 2011, the film has only earned $40,000, making it a box office bomb.

Home media

Ben and Arthur was released on Region 1 DVD in the United States by Ariztical Entertainment on April 13, 2004, and was re-released on January 24, 2018 through Amazon Prime, but both are now out of print. On February 1, 2017, the film was made available online to rent or buy on Vimeo through Ariztical Entertainment.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes' editorial staff ranked it #15 on its list of "Films So Bad They're Unmissable", stating "If Tommy Wiseau's The Room is the over-wrought, melodramatic and self-pitying heterosexual camp classic of choice, then Sam Mraovich's Ben & Arthur is its gay equivalent." Rotten Tomatoes cited the poor production values and Arthur's "hissy fits", concluding that the quality of the film was so poor that "Mraovich might as well have shot his story of gay persecution and fightback on a cell phone". Pop culture review site insert-disc likewise compared it to The Room, stating "The Room was better than this. The acting, special effects, music, and writing are bad even compared to 'The Room.'" Total Film included Ben and Arthur on its list of the 66 worst films of all time. Netflix reviews have been negative. One review wrote "I rarely get angry at a movie, this is an exception."

The film also took particular criticism from the gay community: The gay pop culture site Queerty called it "the worst gay movie ever", only to later retract the "gay" qualifier and simply declare it the worst in general. The gay film review site Cinemaqueer indicated that it was the worst film to have ever been featured on the site, suggesting that the film was too bad to even be parodied on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

See also

• List of films considered the worst

External links

• Official website via Internet Archive
• Ben and Arthur at IMDb