It wasn't always thus: Ben-Hur was once one of Hollywood's most reliable chariot-pullers, with no fewer than five adaptations since 1907 – two are preserved in the US Library of Congress.
Not very. While many details are correct, there is one glaring error: the Roman admiral Quintus Arrius would not have been granted a triumph after defeating the pirates.
It's a sweet chariot. That's worth the ride. Winner of 11 Academy Awards in 1959, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor. 'Ben-Hur' remains one of the most inspirational, epic action spectacles ever made by a major Hollywood studio.
Ben-Hur is a story of a fictional hero named Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish nobleman who was falsely accused and convicted of an attempted assassination of the Roman governor of Judaea and consequently enslaved by the Romans. He becomes a successful charioteer.
Several actors were offered the role of Judah Ben-Hur before it was accepted by Charlton Heston. Burt Lancaster stated he turned down the role because he found the script boring and belittling to Christianity. Paul Newman turned it down because he said he didn't have the legs to wear a tunic.
Ben-Hur (3/10) Movie CLIP - The Chariot Race (1959) HD
Why did Ben-Hur flop?
However, the film failed to generate the same kind of excitement as the Heston epic. The filmmakers had some success attracting faith-based consumers, but couldn't grow the audience beyond the devout. Kids stayed away, critics lobbed bombs, and secular consumers took a hard pass.
In the novel it is clear that hate had nothing to do with Ben-Hur's survival, contrary to Arrius' assertion. Instead, Wallace intended to show God's benevolence through the compassion of strangers—one of the strangers being Christ, who gives Ben-Hur water and hope on his march to become a Roman galley slave.
At the time, shooting on location was all the rage and Ben-Hur began photography in Italy. The production suffered from long delays, underwhelming dailies, and deaths (more than 100 horses, and at least one person).
On 3 February 2021, Harareet died at her home in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, at age 89 from natural causes. At the time of her death, she was the last surviving credited cast member of Ben Hur.
The Longest Movie Certificated by Guinness World Records
The longest film ever made, according to Guinness World Records, is "The Cure for Insomnia" (1987), directed by John Henry Timmis IV. It lasts 85 hours and is considered an extraordinary achievement in the film industry.
The third and fourth Avengers films (Infinity War and Endgame) stand as the most expensive back-to-back film production, with combined production costs of over $1 billion, according to one of the directors. Ben-Hur (1925) was the most expensive film of the silent era, possibly holding the record for over twenty years.
As filming progressed, Heater was given more time in front of the camera and a few lines, but British law at the time forbid Jesus to speak or his face to be seen if he were a “secondary character.” So, Heater as Jesus appears only from behind, as when he gives water to Charlton Heston's enslaved Judah Ben-Hur.
He is sent to be a slave, and his mother and sister are imprisoned. Years later he returns, wins a chariot race against Messala, and is reunited with his now leprous mother and sister. The mother and sister are cured on the day of the Crucifixion, and the family is converted to Christianity.
It is the fifth film adaptation of the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace following the 1907 silent short film, the 1925 silent film, the Academy Award-winning 1959 film and the 2003 animated film; it is the third version produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Did Charlton Heston really ride the chariot in Ben-Hur?
A total of 18 Roman chariots were built; half of them went to Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd. Both actors had to spend long hours training to learn to ride the chariots. For Heston, it was faster and easier to learn to ride the chariot, as he was a gifted and talented horse rider.
There was, from the start, something monumental, something reminiscent of Mount Rushmore, about Heston with his 6ft 3in height and chiselled features. He could be angry, threatening and cruel, but he couldn't be commonplace, diffident or funny.
Charlton Heston kept his two Academy Awards — the best actor Oscar for the 1959 film “Ben-Hur” and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award he won in 1978 — in a side table in his study where he read every morning, his family told The Hollywood Reporter.
Why did Ben-Hur only gross 147 million even though it won 12 Academy Awards? Actually the gross of Ben-Hur (1959) was very impressive considering that the budget of the movie was $15.2 million (in 1959 dollars).
How long did it take to film the chariot race in Ben-Hur?
In all, the chariot scene took five weeks (spread over three months) to film at a total cost of $1 million and required more than 200 miles (320 km) of racing to complete. Two of the $100,000 70mm lenses were destroyed during the filming of the close-up shots.
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.
