As he and other slaves are marched to the galleys, they stop in Nazareth to water the Romans' horses. Simonides confronts Messala and is also imprisoned. Although Messala knows this was an accident, he condemns Judah to the galleys and imprisons Miriam and Tirzah. Gratus is thrown from his horse and nearly killed. This difference causes tension between the friends, and results in their split after Messala issues an ultimatum demanding that Judah deliver potential rebels to the Roman authorities.ĭuring a parade for the new governor of Judea, Valerius Gratus, loose tiles fall from the roof of Judah's house. Messala believes in the glory of Rome and its imperial power, while Judah is devoted to his faith and the freedom of the Jewish people. After several years away from Jerusalem, Judah's childhood friend Messala returns as commander of the Fortress of Antonia. Seeing each other for the first time since childhood, Judah and Esther fall in love, but she is betrothed to another. The family's loyal slave, the merchant Simonides, pays a visit with his daughter, Esther. 26, Judah Ben-Hur is a wealthy Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem, living with his mother, Miriam, and his sister, Tirzah.
In the Prologue, a baby is born in Bethlehem among the shepherds and visited by Magi in a cave. In 2004, the National Film Preservation Board selected Ben-Hur for preservation by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". 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. 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. 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. 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.įollowing a $14.7 million marketing effort, Ben-Hur premiered at Loew's State Theatre in New York City on November 18, 1959. The sea battle was filmed using miniatures in a huge tank on the back lot at the MGM Studios in Culver City, California. Over 200 camels and 2,500 horses were used in the shooting of the film, with some 10,000 extras.
Surtees, executives at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made the decision to produce the film in a widescreen format. Pre-production began in Italy at Cinecittà around October 1957, and post-production took six months. 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. 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. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry.īen-Hur had the largest budget ($15.175 million), as well as the largest sets built, of any film produced at the time. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg, but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. 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.
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.
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