Ben-Hur () is a 1959 American religious epic film directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist, and starring Charlton Heston as the title character. A remake of the 1925 silent film with a similar title, it was adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg, but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The cast also features Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell and Sam Jaffe.
Ben-Hur had the largest budget ($15.175 million), as well as the largest sets built, of any film produced at the time. Costume designer Elizabeth Haffenden oversaw a staff of 100 wardrobe fabricators to make the costumes, and a workshop employing 200 artists and workmen provided the hundreds of friezes and statues needed in the film. Filming commenced on May 18, 1958, and wrapped on January 7, 1959, with shooting lasting for 12 to 14 hours a day and six days a week. Pre-production began in Italy at Cinecittà around October 1957, and post-production took six months. Under cinematographer Robert L. Surtees, executives at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made the decision to produce the film in a widescreen format. Over 200 camels and 2,500 horses were used in the shooting of the film, with some 10,000 extras. The sea battle was filmed using miniatures in a huge tank on the back lot at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City, California. The nine-minute chariot race has become one of cinema's most famous action sequences, and the score, composed and conducted by Miklós Rózsa, was at the time the longest ever composed for a film, and was highly influential on cinema for over 15 years.
Following a $14.7 million marketing effort, Ben-Hur premiered at Loew's State Theatre in New York City on November 18, 1959. It was the fastest-grossing as well as the highest-grossing film of 1959, becoming the second highest-grossing film in history at the time, after Gone with the Wind. It won a record eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Wyler), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Heston), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Griffith), and Best Cinematography – Color (Surtees); it also won Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Stephen Boyd. In 1998, the American Film Institute named it the 72nd best American film and the second best American epic film in the AFI's 10 Top 10. In 2004, the National Film Preservation Board selected Ben-Hur for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
The Three Wise Men, including Balthasar, visit Bethlehem to worship the infant Jesus. Years later, in AD 26 Jerusalem, Judah Ben-Hur, a wealthy Jewish prince, lives with his mother Miriam and younger sister Tirzah. The family's steward, Simonides, has a daughter named Esther who was born a slave and whom Judah has not seen since they were children. As their master, Judah (who shows affection for Esther) allows her to marry a freeman and emancipates her as a wedding gift.
Judah's Roman childhood friend, Messala, returns to Jerusalem as tribune and second-in-command to the new Roman governor of Judea, Valerius Gratus. He fully embraces Rome's glory and imperial power while Judah remains devoted to his faith and to the Jewish people's freedom. Messala demands that Judah denounce potential Jewish rebels to him; Judah refuses, and they part as enemies. Later, Messala uses an innocuous incident (Gratus's horse being spooked by loose roof tiles tumbling off Judah's house) to condemn Judah to the galleys, imprison Miriam and Tirzah, and arrest Simonides. Judah, marched with other prisoners through Nazareth, has a brief chance encounter with Jesus Christ, who gives him water.
Imprisoned, Judah rows on Roman Consul Quintus Arrius's flagship. During a battle, Arrius's ship sinks, and Judah rescues Arrius. Despite the sinking, Arrius is victorious; in Rome, Emperor Tiberius gives Judah to Arrius as his slave. Judah becomes a champion charioteer and Arrius adopts him as his son.
Judah travels home. En route, he meets the chariot-loving Arab Sheik Ilderim. In Jerusalem, Judah finds Esther (who never married) living in Judah's abandoned house. Wielding his status as Arrius's adopted son, Judah confronts Messala and demands Miriam and Tirzah's freedom. They are located in a jail, alive but as lepers, and are thus swiftly expelled from the city. Before departing, Miriam and Tirzah seek out Esther and beg her to never tell Judah their true fate. Esther tells Judah they are dead, enraging Judah.
Judah partners with Sheik Ilderim in a chariot race, hoping to defeat Messala. Messala, in a long race setpiece, drives a "Greek" chariot that wrecks several rivals' chariots; when he attempts to wreck Judah's chariot, Messala falls from his chariot and is gruesomely trampled. Judah wins the race. Before dying, Messala spitefully tells Judah his mother and sister are alive and are in the Valley of the Lepers.
After refusing to accompany Esther to hear Jesus Christ speak on a hillside, Judah meets with the new governor, Pontius Pilate, who tells him he has been made a citizen of Rome. Judah rejects Roman citizenship and renounces the Arrius name. Pilate, fearing Judah's influence, pressures Judah to leave Judea.
Judah and Esther remove Miriam and a dying Tirzah from the Valley of the Lepers and seek out Jesus Christ just as the trial of Jesus has begun. While carrying his cross through the streets, Jesus collapses. Judah, realizing Jesus is the man who gave him water in Nazareth, tries to approach but is stopped by a Roman soldier.
Judah and Balthasar witness Jesus's crucifixion. Miriam and Tirzah hide in a cave with Esther as a violent storm descends; when it lifts, their leprosy vanishes. Realizing from Jesus's example that forgiveness is better than revenge, Judah returns to his house and finds them there. Embracing, the four rejoice at the miracle.
Cast
Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur Jack Hawkins as Quintus Arrius Haya Harareet as Esther Stephen Boyd as Messala Hugh Griffith as Sheik Ilderim Martha Scott as Miriam Cathy O'Donnell as Tirzah Sam Jaffe as Simonides Finlay Currie as Balthasar Frank Thring as Pontius Pilate Terence Longdon as Drusus George Relph as Tiberius Caesar André Morell as Sextus All the above appear in the opening credits, the rest are uncredited. Laurence Payne as Joseph Marina Berti as Flavia Richard Hale as Gaspar David Davies as Quaestor Ady Berber as Malluch Mino Doro as Valerius Gratus Duncan Lamont as Marius Howard Lang as Hortator Robert Brown as Galley Overseer Lando Buzzanca as Prisoner Giuliano Gemma as Centurion John Le Mesurier as Physician Claude Heater as Jesus Christ José Greci as Mary, mother of Jesus
Production
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) originally announced a remake of the 1925 silent film Ben-Hur in December 1952, ostensibly as a way to spend its Italian assets. Stewart Granger and Robert Taylor were reported to be in the running for the lead. Nine months later, MGM announced it would make the film in CinemaScope, with shooting beginning in 1954. In November 1953, MGM announced it had assigned producer Sam Zimbalist to the picture and hired screenwriter Karl Tunberg to write it. Sidney Franklin was scheduled to direct, with Marlon Brando intended for the lead. In September 1955, Zimbalist, who continued to claim that Tunberg's script was complete, announced that a $7 million, six- to seven-month production would begin in April 1956 in either Israel or Egypt in MGM's new 65mm widescreen process, MGM Camera 65. MGM, however, suspended production in early 1956, following Franklin's resignation.
By the late 1950s, the consent decree of 1948 forcing film studios to divest themselves of theater chainsUnited States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., 334 US 131 (1948) and the competitive pressure of television had caused significant financial distress at MGM.Block and Wilson, p. 411. In a gamble to save the studio, and inspired by the success of Paramount Pictures' 1956 Biblical epic The Ten Commandments, studio head Joseph Vogel announced in 1957 that MGM would again move forward on a remake of Ben-Hur.Eagan, pp. 558–59. Filming started in May 1958 and wrapped in January 1959, and post-production took six months. Although the budget for Ben-Hur was initially $7 million, it was reported to be $10 million by February 1958, reaching $15.175 million by the time shooting began—making it the costliest film ever produced up to that time. When adjusted for inflation, the budget of Ben Hur was approximately $ in constant dollars.
One notable change in the film involved the opening titles. Concerned that a roaring Leo the Lion (the MGM mascot) would create the wrong mood for the sensitive and sacred nativity scene, Wyler received permission to replace the traditional logo with one in which Leo the Lion is quiet.
Development Lew Wallace's 1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, ran to about 550 pages. Zimbalist hired a number of screenwriters to cut the story down and turn the novel into a script. According to Gore Vidal, more than 12 versions of the script had been written by various writers by the spring of 1958.Vidal, p. 73. Vidal himself had been asked to write a version of the script in 1957, refused, and been placed on suspension for his decision. According to Vidal, Karl Tunberg was one of the last writers to work on the script. Other sources place Tunberg's initial involvement much earlier. Tunberg cut out everything in the book after the crucifixion of Jesus, omitted the sub-plot in which Ben-Hur fakes his death and raises a Jewish army to overthrow the Romans, and altered the manner in which the leperous women are healed.Morsberger and Morsberger, p. 482. According to Wyler, Vidal, their biographers (see bibliography below) and the sources that follow them, Zimbalist was unhappy with Tunberg's script, considering it to be "pedestrian" and "unshootable".Kaplan, p. 440.
The writing effort changed direction when director Sidney Franklin fell ill and was removed from the production. Zimbalist offered the project to William Wyler, who had been one of 30 assistant directors on the 1925 film,Freiman, p. 24. in early 1957. Wyler initially rejected it, considering the quality of the script to be "very primitive, elementary" and no better than hack work.Herman, p. 394. Zimbalist showed Wyler some preliminary storyboards for the chariot race and informed him that MGM would be willing to spend up to $10 million, and as a result, Wyler began to express an interest in the picture.Herman, p. 395. MGM permitted Wyler to start casting, and in April 1957, mainstream media outlets reported that Wyler was giving screen tests to Italian leading men, such as Cesare Danova.
Wyler did not formally agree to direct the film until September 1957, and MGM did not announce his hiring until January 3, 1958. Even though he still lacked a leading man, Wyler took the assignment for many reasons: He was promised a base salary of $350,000 as well as 8 percent of the gross box office (or 3 percent of the net profits, whichever was greater),Herman, p. 393. and he wanted to work in Rome again (in Hollywood on the Tiber, where he had filmed Roman Holiday).Eagen, p. 559. His base salary was, at the time, the largest ever paid to a director for a single film. Professional competitive reasons also played a role in his decision to direct, and Wyler later admitted that he wished to outdo Cecil B. DeMille, and make a "thinking man's" Biblical epic.Eldridge, p. 15. In later years, William Wyler would joke that it took a Jew to make a good film about Christ.
Writing