Ben-Hur (1959 film)

Ben-Hur (or Benhur)

film poster by Reynold Brown
Directed by William Wyler
Produced by Sam Zimbalist
William Wyler
Written by Karl Tunberg
Gore Vidal (uncredited)
Christopher Fry (uncredited)
Starring Charlton Heston
Jack Hawkins
Haya Harareet
Stephen Boyd
Hugh Griffith
Music by Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography Robert L. Surtees
Editing by John D. Dunning
Ralph E. Winters
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Warner Bros (2005 DVD)
Release date(s) Flag of the United States November 18, 1959 (NYC)
Flag of the United Kingdom December 16, 1959
Running time 212 mins.
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $15,000,000

Ben-Hur (or Benhur) is a 1959 movie directed by William Wyler, and is the third film version of Lew Wallace's novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880). It premiered at Loews Theater in New York City on November 18, 1959. The film went on to win a record of eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, a feat equaled only by Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).

Contents

Plot

The film's prologue shows the traditional story of the birth of Jesus Christ. 26 years later, Judah Ben-Hur is a rich merchant of noble blood in Jerusalem. Preceding the arrival of a new governor, Ben-Hur's childhood friend Messala, a Tribune, arrives as military commanding officer of the Roman garrison. At first Judah and Messala are happy to meet after years apart, but their differing political views separate them; Messala believes in the glory of Rome and worldly imperial power, while Ben-Hur is devoted to his faith and the Jewish people. Messala asks Ben-Hur to caution his countrymen about protests, uprisings, or criticism of the Roman government. Judah complies, but refuses to disclose dissidents' names, and the two part in anger.

Judah's family has two slaves, who are treated more as respected servants; an older man, Simonides, and his daughter Esther, who is preparing for an arranged marriage. Judah gives her freedom as a wedding present, and the two realize they are attracted to one another.

During the welcoming parade for the new Roman governor, a roofing tile falls down from Ben-Hur's house and startles the governor's horse, throwing him off and nearly killing him. Although Messala knows that it was an accidental, he condemns Judah to the galleys and throws Miriam and Tirzah, Judah's mother and sister, into prison in order to intimidate the restive Jewish populace by punishing a powerful local family and personal friend. Ben-Hur swears to return and take revenge. En route to the sea, he is denied water when his slave gang arrives at Nazareth. He collapses, having lost the will to live, when a then-unknown Jesus Christ gives him water and a motivation to survive. After three years as a galley slave, the ship to which Ben-Hur is assigned becomes the flagship of Quintus Arrius, sent by the Emperor to destroy a fleet of Macedonian pirates. Ben-Hur's new commander notices his resolve and will to survive, although he declines the offer to transfer to Arrius' gladiatorial or charioteer team, declaring that God will aid him.

The pirates attack the Roman galley and Arrius' galley is sunk, but Ben-Hur saves the life of Arrius after he did not chain Judah to his oar. They are soon rescued by the victorious Roman fleet. Arrius is credited with the victory, and in gratitude petitions Tiberius Caesar to drop all charges against Judah, eventually adopting Judah as his son. Having regained his freedom and wealth, Judah learns Roman ways, including becoming a victorious charioteer.

Returning to Judea, Judah finds that Esther did not go through with her arranged marriage and is still in love with him. He demands that Messala free his mother and sister. When the soldiers enter the cell, they discover that Miriam and Tirzah have contracted leprosy, and turn them out of the city. Esther discovers this reality when she finds the two women after nightfall, and they beseech her to allow them to be remembered as they were. Esther tells Judah that his mother and sister have died in prison.

The Arab sheik Ilderim, who has befriended him, owns four magnificent white Arabian horses, and wishes them to be well-trained for chariot racing. Seeing that Judah knows the fine points, Ilderim introduces him to his "children" and requests that he drive his quadriga chariot in the upcoming race before the new governor, Pontius Pilate. Ben-Hur accepts upon learning that Messala, considered the finest charioteer in Judea, is going to be in the race too. Judah wins the violent and grueling chariot race, defeating Messala. Messala is mortally wounded in the race, but bitterly tells Judah where he can find his mother and sister: in the "Valley of the Lepers". Although he has accomplished his goal of revenge on Messala, Judah's soul remains tormented.

The film is subtitled "A Tale of the Christ", and it is at this point that Jesus' presence is substantially increased. Esther witnesses the Sermon on the Mount and is moved by Christ's words. She tells Ben-Hur about it, but he remains bitter and will not be consoled. Learning that Tirzah is dying, they take her and Ben-Hur's mother to see Jesus, but they cannot get near him, as his trial has begun. Recognizing Jesus from his encounter with him as he was being taken to the galleys, Judah attempts to give him water during his march to Calvary, echoing Jesus' kindness to him, but is shoved away by the guards. Judah witnesses the Crucifixion. Immediately after Christ's death, Miriam and Tirzah are healed by a miracle (Christ's blood from the Crucifixion washes into the cave where the women are hiding and touches them), as are Judah's heart and soul. He returns to his home and tells Esther that as he heard Jesus talk of forgiveness while on the cross, "I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand." The film, which began with the Magi visiting the infant Jesus, ends with the empty crosses of Calvary in the background and a shepherd and his flock (a prominent Judeo-Christian symbol) in the foreground.

Cast

Claude Heater (uncredited) as Jesus, whose presence is evident with his face concealed

Music

Production

Financing

Ben-Hur was an extremely expensive production, requiring 300 sets scattered over 340 acres (1.4 km²). The $15 million production was a gamble made by MGM to save itself from bankruptcy; the gamble paid off when it earned a total of $75 million.

Aspect ratio

The movie was filmed in a process known as "MGM Camera 65", 65mm negative stock from which was made a 70mm anamorphic print with an aspect ratio of 2.76:1, one of the widest prints ever made, having a width of almost three times its height. An anamorphic lens which produced a 1.25X compression was used along with a 65mm negative (whose normal aspect ratio was 2.20:1) to produce this extremely wide aspect ratio. This allowed for spectacular panoramic shots in addition to six-channel audio. In practice, however, "Camera 65" prints were shown in an aspect ratio of 2.5:1 on most screens, so that theaters were not required to install new, wider screens or use less than the full height of screens already installed.

Casting

Many other men were offered the role of Ben-Hur before Charlton Heston. Burt Lancaster claimed he turned down the role of Ben-Hur because he "didn't like the violent morals in the story". Paul Newman turned it down because he said he didn't have the legs to wear a tunic. Rock Hudson was also offered the role.

Out of respect, and consistent with Lew Wallace's stated preference, the face of Jesus is never shown. He was played by opera singer Claude Heater, who received no credit for his only film role.

Galley sequence

The original design for the boat Ben-Hur is enslaved upon was so heavy that it couldn't float. The scene therefore had to be filmed in a studio, but another problem remained: the cameras didn't fit inside, so the boat was cut in half and made able to be wider or shorter on demand. The next problem was the oars were too long, so those were cut too; however, this made it look unrealistic, because the oars were too easy to row; so weights were added to the ends.

During filming, director Wyler noticed that one of the extras was missing a hand. He had the man's stump covered in blood, with a false bone protruding from it, to add realism to the scene when the galley is rammed. Wyler made similar use of another extra who was missing a foot.

The galley sequence includes the successive commands from Arrius, “Battle speed, Hortator... Attack speed... Ramming speed!” The word hortator is no longer in use, and is notably absent from most modern dictionaries. It was a Latin word that on a ship meant “chief of the rowers”, or “he who has command over the rowers”,[1] and likely has roots in the Latin verb hortor (“to exhort, encourage”). The command "Ramming speed, Hortator!", which is widely remembered and parodied, never occurs.

The galley sequence is purely fictional, as the Roman navy, in contrast to its early modern counterparts, did not employ convicts as galley slaves.[2]

Chariot race

The chariot race in Ben-Hur was directed by Andrew Marton, a Hollywood director who often acted as second unit director on other people's films. Even by current standards, it is considered to be one of the most spectacular action sequences ever filmed. Filmed at Cinecittà Studios outside Rome long before the advent of computer-generated effects, it took over three months to complete, using 8000 extras on the largest film set ever built, some 18 acres (73,000 m2). Eighteen chariots were built, with half being used for practice. The race took five weeks to film. Tour buses visited the set every hour.

The section in the middle of the circus, the spina, is a known feature of circi, although its size may be exaggerated to aid filmmaking. The golden dolphin lap counter was a feature of the Circus Maximus in Rome.

Charlton Heston spent four weeks learning how to drive a chariot. He was taught by the stunt crew, who offered to teach the entire cast, but Heston and Boyd were the only ones who took them up on the offer (Boyd had to learn in just two weeks, due to his late casting). At the beginning of the chariot race, Heston shook the reins and nothing happened; the horses remained motionless. Finally someone way up on top of the set yelled, "Giddy-up!" The horses then roared into action, and Heston was flung backward off the chariot.

To give the scene more impact and realism, three lifelike dummies were placed at key points in the race to give the appearance of men being run over by chariots. Most notable is the stand-in dummy for Stephen Boyd's Messala that gets tangled up under the horses, getting battered by their hooves. This resulted in one of the most grisly death scenes in motion pictures at this time and shocked audiences.

There are several urban legends surrounding the chariot sequence, one of which states that a stuntman died during filming. Stuntman Nosher Powell claims in his autobiography, "We had a stunt man killed in the third week, and it happened right in front of me. You saw it, too, because the cameras kept turning and it's in the movie".[3] There is no conclusive evidence to back up Powell's claim and it has been adamantly denied by director William Wyler, who states that neither man nor horse was injured in the famous scene. The movie's stunt director, Yakima Canutt, stated that no serious injuries or deaths occurred during filming.[4]

Another urban legend states that a red Ferrari can be seen during the chariot race; the book Movie Mistakes claims this is a myth.[5] (Heston, in the DVD commentary track, mentions a third urban legend that is not true: That he wore a wristwatch. He points out that he was wearing leather bracers right up to the elbow.)

However, one of the best-remembered moments in the race came from a near-fatal accidental. When Ben-Hur's chariot jumps another chariot which has crashed in its path, the charioteer is seen to be almost thrown from his mount and only just manages to hang on and climb back in to continue the race. In reality, while the jump was planned, the character being flipped into the air was not, and stuntman Joe Canutt, son of stunt director Yakima Canutt, was considered fortunate to escape with only a minor chin injury. Nonetheless, when director Wyler intercut the long shot of Canutt's leap with a close-up of Heston clambering back into his chariot, a memorable scene resulted.[6]

Differences between novel and film

There are several differences between the original novel and the film. The changes made serve to make the film's storyline more immediately dramatic.

Awards and honors

The film won an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards, a number matched only by Titanic in 1997 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003. It won:

Additionally, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The film also won four Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture, Drama, Best Motion Picture Director, Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Stephen Boyd, and a Special Award to Andrew Marton for directing the chariot race sequence. It won the BAFTA Award for Best Film, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Picture and the DGA award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Motion Picture.

American Film Institute recognition

DVD release

Ben-Hur has been released to DVD on three occasions. The first was on March 13, 2001 as a one-disc Widescreen Release, the second on September 13, 2005 as a four-disc set, and the third as part of the Warner Brothers Deluxe Series.

2001 release

(2-Disc release in some countries, a 2 sided disc in the U.S.) Disc One & Two: The Movie + Extras

2005 release

(4-Disc) Discs One & Two: The Movie

Disc Three: The 1925 Silent Version

Disc Four: About the Movies

Also Included in paperback form

Notes

  1. ↑ http://books.google.com/books?id=hU8MAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA344&dq=hortator
  2. ↑ Casson, Lionel (1971). Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 325-326. 
  3. ↑ Nosher Powell (2001). Nosher!: p.254
  4. ↑ Canutt, Yakima and Drake, Oliver "Stunt Man: The Autobiography of Yakima Canutt, Chapter 1: The Race to Beat"(1979)
  5. ↑ John Sandys (2002, 2005). Movie Mistakes Take 4: p.5
  6. ↑ Canutt, Yakima and Drake, Oliver "Stunt Man: The Autobiography of Yakima Canutt" (1979) p. 16-19

External links

Awards
Preceded by
Gigi		 Academy Award for Best Picture
1959		 Succeeded by
The Apartment
Preceded by
Room at the Top		 BAFTA Award for Best Film from any Source
1960		 Succeeded by
The Apartment
Films directed by William Wyler
1920s
The Crook Buster (1925) • The Gunless Bad Man (1926) • Ridin' for Love (1926) • The Fire Barrier (1926) • Don't Shoot (1926) • The Pinnacle Rider (1926) • Martin of the Mounted (1926) • Lazy Lightning (1926) • The Stolen Ranch (1926) • The Two Fister (1927) • Kelcy Gets His Man (1927) • Tenderfoot Courage (1927) • The Silent Partner (1927) • Blazing Days (1927) • Shooting Straight (1927) • Galloping Justice (1927) • The Haunted Homestead (1927) • Hard Fists (1927) • The Lone Star (1927) • The Home Trail (1927) • Gun Justice (1927) • The Phantom Outlaw (1927) • The Square Shooter (1927) • The Horse Trader (1927) • Daze of the West (1927) • The Border Cavalier (1927) • Desert Dust (1927) • Thunder Riders (1928) • Anybody Here Seen Kelly? (1928) • The Shakedown (1929) • The Love Trap (1929)
1930s
Hell's Heroes (1930) • The Storm (1930) • A House Divided (1931) • Tom Brown of Culver (1932) • Her First Mate (1933) • Counsellor at Law (1933) • Glamour (1934) • The Good Fairy (1935) • The Gay Deception (1935) • Barbary Coast (1935) • These Three (1936) • Dodsworth (1936) • Come and Get It (1936) • Dead End (1937) • Jezebel (1938) • Wuthering Heights (1939)
1940s
The Westerner (1940) • The Letter (1940) • The Little Foxes (1941) • Mrs. Miniver (1942) • Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944) • The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) • Thunderbolt (1947) • The Heiress (1949)
1950s
Detective Story (1951) • Carrie (1952) • Roman Holiday (1953) • The Desperate Hours (1955) • Friendly Persuasion (1956) • The Big Country (1958) • Ben-Hur (1959)
1960s
The Children's Hour (1961) • The Collector (1965) • How to Steal a Million (1966) • Funny Girl (1968)
1970s
The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)
Academy Award for Best Picture

How Green Was My Valley (1941) · Mrs. Miniver (1942) · Casablanca (1943) · Going My Way (1944) · The Lost Weekend (1945) · The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) · Gentleman's Agreement (1947) · Hamlet (1948) · All the King's Men (1949) · All About Eve (1950) · An American in Paris (1951) · The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) · From Here to Eternity (1953) · On the Waterfront (1954) · Marty (1955) · Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) · The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) · Gigi (1958) · Ben-Hur (1959) · The Apartment (1960)

Complete List · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)