Martin Sheen has had his ups and downs, but throughout his career he has played the stern-but-loving father figure with grace and menace in equal dose. His Uncle Ben is no exception. Unlike the Ben in Raimi’s (superior) film, Sheen imbues the character with rough edges; he’s a man of principle who believes in the responsibility of good, but falls victim to the petty whims of anger. This, of course, is best exemplified in the scene where Ben, full of rage and righteousness, recounts to Peter the “moral obligation” of doing good — the embodiment of the difficulty to live up to your principles. Basically Sheen turns an iconic character into a living, breathing man, and Webb’s film is better for it.
