| Ben-Hur | |
|---|---|
Original film poster by Reynold Brown |
|
| Directed by | William Wyler |
| Produced by | Sam Zimbalist |
| Screenplay by | Karl Tunberg Uncredited: Gore Vidal Christopher Fry Maxwell Anderson S. N. Behrman |
| Based on | Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace |
| Narrated by | Finlay Currie |
| 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 |
| Release date(s) | November 18, 1959 |
| Running time | 212 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $90 million |
Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Hugh Griffith and Haya Harareet. It won a record 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, the screenplay is credited to by Karl Tunberg but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The motion picture was the most expensive ever made at the time, and its sets were the largest yet built for a film. The film contains a nine-minute chariot race which has become one of the most famous sequences in cinema. The score composed by Miklós Rózsa was highly influential on cinema for more than 15 years, and is the longest ever composed for a motion picture.
Contents |
The film's prologue depicts the traditional story of the nativity of Jesus.
In AD 26, Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is a wealthy prince and merchant in Jerusalem. Childhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd), now a tribune, arrives as the new commander of the Roman garrison. Messala believes in the glory of Rome and its imperial power while Ben-Hur is devoted to his faith and the freedom of the Jewish people. Messala asks Ben-Hur for names of Jews who criticize the Romans; Ben-Hur counsels his countrymen against rebellion but refuses to name names.
Ben-Hur lives with his mother Miriam (Martha Scott), and sister Tirzah (Cathy O'Donnell). Their loyal slave Simonides (Sam Jaffe) is preparing for an arranged marriage for his daughter, Esther (Haya Harareet). Ben-Hur gives Esther her freedom as a wedding present, and the audience is shown that Ben-Hur and Esther are in love.
During the parade for new governor of Judea, Valerius Gratus, a tile falls from the roof of Ben-Hur's house. Gratus is thrown from his horse and nearly killed. Although Messala knows it was an accident, he condemns Ben-Hur to the galleys and imprisons his mother and sister. By punishing a known friend and prominent citizen, he hopes to intimidate the Jewish populace. Ben-Hur swears to take revenge. Dying of thirst when his slave gang arrives at Nazareth, Ben-Hur collapses. But a local carpenter (whom the audience realizes is Jesus) gives him water.
After three years as a galley slave, Ben-Hur is assigned to the flagship of Consul Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins), who has been charged with destroying a fleet of Macedonian pirates. The commander notices the slave's self-discipline and offers to train him as a gladiator or charioteer, but Ben-Hur declines, declaring that God will aid him.
As Arrius prepares for battle, he orders the rowers chained but Ben-Hur to be left free. Arrius' galley is rammed and sunk, but Ben-Hur unchains other rowers, saves the Roman's life and, since Arrius believes the battle ended in defeat, prevents him from committing suicide. Arrius is credited with the Roman fleet's victory, petitions Emperor Tiberius (George Relph) to free Ben-Hur, and adopts him as his son. With regained freedom and wealth, Ben-Hur learns Roman ways and becomes a champion charioteer, but longs for his family and homeland.
While returning to Judea, Ben-Hur meets Balthasar (Finlay Currie) and his host, Arab sheik Ilderim (Hugh Griffith). The sheik introduces Ben-Hur to his four white Arabian horses and asks him to drive their quadriga in a race before the new Judean governor Pontius Pilate (Frank Thring). Ben-Hur declines, but hears that champion charioteer Messala will compete; as the sheik observes, "There is no law in the arena. Many are killed."
Ben-Hur learns that Esther's arranged marriage did not occur and that she is still in love with him. He visits Messala and demands that he free his mother and sister, but the Romans discover that Miriam and Tirzah contracted leprosy in prison and expel them from the city. The women beg Esther to conceal their condition from Ben-Hur, so she tells him that his mother and sister died.
Ben-Hur enters the race. Messala drives a chariot with blades on the hubs to tear apart competing vehicles. In the violent and grueling race, Messala attempts to destroy Ben-Hur's chariot but destroys his own instead; Messala is almost killed, while Ben-Hur wins the race. Before dying, Messala tells Ben-Hur that "the race is not over" and that he can find his family "in the Valley of the Lepers, if you can recognize them."
The film is subtitled "A Tale of the Christ", and Jesus now reappears. Esther tells Ben-Hur about the Sermon on the Mount, but blaming Roman rule for his family's fate, Ben-Hur rejects his patrimony and citizenship, and plans violence against the Empire. Learning that Tirzah is dying, Ben-Hur and Esther take her and Miriam to see Jesus, but his trial before Pilate has begun. Recognizing Jesus from their earlier meeting, Ben-Hur attempts to give him water during his march to Calvary but guards separate them.
Ben-Hur witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus. Miriam and Tirzah are healed by a miracle, as are Ben-Hur's heart and soul. He 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 ends with the empty crosses of Calvary and a shepherd and his flock.
MGM originally announced a remake of Ben-Hur in 1952, ostensibly as a way to find spend its Italian assets.[1][2] Stewart Granger and Robert Taylor were reported to be in the running for the lead.[2] Nine months later, MGM announced it would make the film in CinemaScope in 1954.[3] In November 1953, MGM announced it had assigned producer Sam Zimbalist to the picture, and hired screenwriter Karl Tunberg to write it.[4] The studio even went so far as to announce in July 1954 that production would start in March 1955 with 42 speaking parts and 97 sets.[5] In January 1955, MGM said that Sidney Franklin had been hired to direct, that the script by Tunberg was finished, that shooting would occur in Rome and in Spain, and that Marlon Brando was up for the lead.[6] But production didn't start. In fact, in September 1955, Zimbalist (who still claimed a script by Tunberg was finished) said 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.[7] But MGM suspended production in early 1956.[8]
By the late 1950s, court decisions forcing movie studios to divest themselves of theater chains[9] and the competitive pressure of television had caused significant financial distress at MGM.[10] In a gamble to save the studio, and inspired by the success of Paramount Pictures' 1956 Biblical epic The Ten Commandments,[10] studio head Joseph Vogel announced in 1957 that MGM would remake its 1925 Biblical epic, Ben-Hur.[11] Studio executives again assigned the picture to Sam Zimbalist, who had produced its Best Picture-nominated Christians-and-lions epic, Quo Vadis, in 1951.
Although the budget for Ben-Hur was initially $7 million,[12] it was reported to be $10 million in February 1958.[13] It reached $15 million by the time shooting began in May 1958—making it the costliest film ever produced.[14]
Lew Wallace's novel 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.[15] Vidal himself had been asked to write a version of the script in 1957, refused, and placed on suspension for his decision.[15] Karl Tunberg was one of the last writers to work on the script. Zimbalist had initially chosen director Sidney Franklin to helm the picture.[12] Tunberg consulted with Franklin about the script.[16] Tunberg cut out everything in the book after the crucifixion of Jesus, omitted the sub-plot where Ben-Hur fakes his death and raises a Jewish army to overthrow Roman rule, and alter the way the leprous women are healed (instead of being healed during Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the women are healed after accidentally soaking in rainwater stained by the blood of Jesus after the crucifixion).[17] The silent film version had introduced Esther early in the picture, rather than midway as in the novel, and Tunberg retained this feature in his script draft as well.[18] But Zimbalist was unhappy with Tunberg's script, and felt it was "pedestrian".[17]
The writing effort changed direction when Franklin fell ill and had to be removed from the production.[12] Zimbalist offered the project to William Wyler in early 1957.[19] At first, Wyler refused to take on the film, but the more he thought about the story the more he became intrigued with the possibilities.[10] According to a published report in the New York Times, Wyler would not take the job until he was sure that he had a good leading man. In April 1957, Wyler was screening Italian leading men, including Cesare Danova.[20] By June 13, 1957, MGM was still declining to confirm that Wyler had formally been brought on board to direct.[21] Yet, production was due to start, the studio said, in March 1959.[21] MGM did not formally hire the director until January 3, 1958.[22] Wyler had just finished The Big Country when he was hired, and 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, and he wanted to work in Rome again (where he had filmed Roman Holiday).[10][12] His base salary was, at the time, the largest ever paid to a director for a single film.[10] But professional competitive reasons also played a role. Wyler later admitted that he wished to "out DeMille DeMille",[12] and that he wished to make a "thinking man's" Biblical epic.[23]
Wyler, too, was unhappy with the script. He felt Tunberg's draft was too much of a morality play overlaid with modern Western political overtones, and that the dialogue was too modern-sounding.[24] Zimbalist brought in playwrights S. N. Behrman and then Maxwell Anderson to write drafts.[12] Behrman spent about a month working on the script, and how much he contributed to the final version is unclear.[25] A contemporary account in the British magazine Films and Filmmaking claims that Anderson was ill and unable to work on the script.[16] The New York Times reported in June 1957 that Anderson was at work on the script,[21] although by 1959 it reported that Anderson was too ill to do so.[26] Gore Vidal has said that, by spring 1958, the script largely reflected Anderson and Behrman's work and nearly all the dialogue was (according to Vidal) in Anderson's "elevated poetic style."[15]
There is confusion in published sources about the next writer to work on the script. Films and Filmmaking magazine, a source contemporary with the picture, claims that British poet and playwright Christopher Fry was brought in next, crafted some critical scenes, and then left the film—at which point Vidal was brought in to finish the script.[16] Most sources (including Vidal himself) claim that Vidal followed Anderson, and that Fry did not come aboard until after Vidal left the picture. Vidal says that preproduction on the film was already under way in Italy when he flew to Rome in early March 1958 to meet with William Wyler.[15][27] Vidal claims that Wyler had not read the script, and that when he did so (at Vidal's urging) he was upset with the modernist dialogue.[15] Vidal agreed to work on the script for three months so that he would come off suspension and he could fulfill his contract with MGM.[12][15] Vidal claims that he worked on the first half of the script (everything up to the chariot race), and scripted 10 versions of the scene where Judah Ben-Hur confronts Messala and begs for his family's freedom.[28][29] The eleventh version, Vidal claims, inserted an unspoken homoerotic subtext into Messala's dialogue that made Messala's anger at Ben-Hur's rejection of Roman ways more plausible.[29]
Vidal's claim about a homoerotic subtext is hotly debated. Vidal first made the claim in an interview in the 1995 documentary film The Celluloid Closet, and asserted that he persuaded Wyler to direct Stephen Boyd to play the role as if he were a spurned homosexual lover.[30] Vidal says that he believed that Messala's vindictiveness could only be motivated by the feeling of rejection that a lover would feel. Vidal also says he suggested to Wyler that Stephen Boyd be told to play the role that way, but that Heston stay in the dark about each character's motivations.[29] Vidal claims that Wyler took his advice. Whether Vidal wrote the scene in question, had the acting conversation with Wyler, and whether Wyler shot what Vidal wrote remain issues of debate. In 1980, Wallace biographers Robert and Katharine Morsberger said that Vidal's contribution to the script remains unclear.[17] Heston has asserted that Wyler felt Vidal did not solve the problem of motivation, that Wyler shot little of what Vidal wrote, and that Vidal made little contribution to the script.[29][31] Wyler himself says that he does not remember any such conversation with Gore Vidal,[29] and that he discarded Vidal's draft in favor of Fry's.[12] Film critic Gary Giddins also dismisses Vidal's claims, concluding that 80 percent of the script had been written "years before" Vidal came aboard the production.[28] But Jan Herman, one of Wyler's biographers, asserts "there is no reason to doubt" Vidal's claim, and that Wyler's inability to remember the conversation was just part of the director's notorious caginess.[29] Vidal has questioned Heston's own honesty and claims about Wyler,[31] and asserted that Wyler wanted Vidal and Fry to share credit for the script.[28] Film critic F. X. Feeney, in a comparison of script drafts, concludes that Vidal made significant and extensive contributions to the script.[32]
The final writer on the film was Christopher Fry. Heston has claimed that Fry was Wyler's first choice as screenwriter, but that Zimbalist forced him to use Vidal.[29] Whether Fry worked on the script before Vidal or not, sources agree that Fry arrived in Rome in early May 1958 and spent six days a week on the set, writing and rewriting lines of dialogue as well as entire scenes until the picture was finished.[33] In particular, Fry gave the dialogue a slightly more formal and archaic tone without making it sound stilted and medieval.[33] For example, the sentence "How was your dinner?" became "Was the food not to your liking?"[33] Film historian Daniel Eagan, however, claims that as time went on, Wyler stopped seeking improvements to the script in order to finish the picture.[12] According to Giddins, Wyler tried to get Fry an unshared credit for the screenplay.[34]
A public dispute erupted over who would receive screen credit. According to the New York Times, Gore Vidal initiated the dispute when he learned that Wyler and MGM intended to have Tunberg and Fry share credit on the film.[26] The Screen Writers' Guild arbitrated the credit under its screenwriting credit system, and unanimously awarded full and sole credit for the script to Tunberg.[26][35] Both director William Wyler and Sol C. Siegel, head of production at MGM, appealed the Guild's ruling.[26] Tunberg also agreed to share credit, but the Guild refused to change its ruling.[26]
The final script ran 230 pages.[36]
Many other actors were offered the role of Judah Ben-Hur before Charlton Heston. Burt Lancaster claimed he turned down the role of Ben-Hur because he found the script boring (among other reasons).[37] Paul Newman turned it down because he said he didn't have the legs to wear a tunic.[38] Marlon Brando,[38] Rock Hudson,[39] Geoffrey Horne,[40] and Leslie Nielsen[41] were also offered the role, as were a number of very muscular, handsome Italian actors (many of whom did not speak English).[42] Among the Italians tested were Cesare Danova.[43] Kirk Douglas was interested in the role, but was turned down in favor of Heston. This inspired Douglas to make Spartacus a year later.[44] Heston was formally cast on January 22, 1958.[45]
Stephen Boyd was cast as the antagonist, Messala, on April 13, 1958.[46] William Wyler originally wanted Charlton Heston in the role, but sought another actor when he was forced to moved Heston into the role of Judah Ben-Hur.[47] Wyler next tried to interest Kirk Douglas in the role, but Douglas turned him down.[48] Boyd was a contract player at 20th Century Fox when Wyler sought him out for the role.[12] Because Heston had blue eyes, Wyler had Boyd outfitted with brown contact lenses as a way of contrasting the two men.[49]
Largely speaking, Wyler decided to cast the Romans with British actors and the Jews with American actors to help underscore the divide between the two groups.[14][50] Marie Ney was originally cast as Miriam, but was fired after two days of work.[51] Heston says that he suggested to Wyler that Martha Scott (who had played the mother of Heston's Moses in The Ten Commandments, and with whom he'd worked on Broadway) be cast as Miriam.[52] Scott was hired on July 17, 1958.[53] Cathy O'Donnell was Wyler's sister-in-law, and although her career was in decline (Ben-Hur would be her last screen performance) Wyler cast her as Tirzah.[54] More than 30 actresses were considered for the role of Esther.[55] The exotically beautiful Israeli actress Haya Harareet, a newcomer to film, was cast as Esther on May 16, 1958,[55] after providing a 30-second silent screen test.[43] Wyler met her at the Cannes Film Festival, and she impressed him with her conversational skills and force of personality.[56] Both Zimbalist and Wyler were very excited about her looks and acting.[24] Sam Jaffe was cast as Simonides on April 3, 1958,[57] primarily because he had become famous for his roles as a wise old patriarch in a number of films.[58] Finlay Currie was cast as Balthasar the same day as Jaffe.[57] Wyler had to persuade Jack Hawkins to appear in the film after Hawkins expressed unwillingness to do another epic motion picture so soon after The Bridge on the River Kwai.[24] Hawkins was cast on March 18, 1958.[59] Hugh Griffith, who had gained acclaim in the post-World War II era in Ealing Studios comedies, was cast as the comical Sheik Ilderim.[60] Finlay Currie had worked with Zimbalist before on Quo Vadis, playing St. Peter.[61]
Out of respect for the divinity of Christ, and consistent with Lew Wallace's stated preference, Wyler decided before the production began that the face of Jesus would not be shown.[62] The role of Jesus was played by Claude Heater. Heater was an American opera singer performing with the Vienna State Opera in Rome when he was asked to do a screen test for the film.[63] He received no credit for his role.
Wyler placed heavy emphasis on characterization, rather than looks or acting history.[54] He cast a British actor for the role of the centurion who denies Judah Ben-Hur water at Nazareth. But when the actor held out for more money, the first assistant director selected a different actor. Wyler, who believed the centurion's reaction to his confrontation with Jesus Christ was critical, shut down the production at a cost of $15,000 while the original actor was retrieved from Rome.[64]
MGM announced that casting for the film was complete on September 12, 1958, when Kamala Devi was cast as Iris, Sheik Ilderim's daughter.[65] However, neither the character nor the actress appeared in the film. A total of 365 actors had speaking parts in the film, although only 45 of them were considered "principal" performers.[66] According to the New York Times, only four of the actors (Heston, O'Donnell, Jaffe, and Scott) had worked in Hollywood.[66]
Robert Surtees, who had filmed many of the most successful epics of the 1950s and who had worked with Sam Zimbalist on Quo Vadis in 1951, was hired as cinematographer for the film.[67] Wyler strongly disliked the widescreen format, saying:[68]
The cameras were also quite large, very heavy, and difficult and time-consuming to move.[68] Surtees and Wyler collaborated to utilize the widescreen lenses, film stocks, and projection technologies then in vogue to create highly detailed images for the film. For establishing shots, they planned vast lines of marching Roman troops and ships, vast architectural structures lined with thousands of extras, use of expansive landscapes, and action which rolled across the screen.[69] Wyler was best known for composition in depth, a visual technique in which people, props, and architecture are not merely composed horizontally but in depth of field as well. He also had a strong preference for long takes, during which his actors could move within this highly detailed space. But widescreen cinematic technology limited depth of field. Surtees and Wyler worked to overcome this limitation by creating scenes in which one half of the screen is filled with a foreground object while the other half is filled with a background area, and then rack-focusing between the two as the action shifts from foreground to background.[69] Notable instances of this occur when the injured Messala waits for Judah Ben-Hur to appear in the racecourse surgery, when Judah Ben-Hur hides behind a rock to avoid being seen by his mother and sister in the Valley of the Lepers, and during the Sermon on the Mount scene.[70]
The movie was filmed in a process known as "MGM Camera 65". The success of The Ten Commandments convinced MGM to license the CinemaScope process from 20th Century Fox, and Ben-Hur along with 1957's Raintree County were the first MGM films to use the process.[71] The MGM Camera 65 used special 65mm Eastmancolor film stock with a 2.76:1 aspect ratio.[72] 70mm anamorphic camera lenses developed by the Mitchell Camera Company were tailored to specifications submitted by MGM,[73] and these lenses squeezed the image down 1.25 times to fit on the image area of the film stock.[74] The 65mm images were printed on 70mm film stock.[75] The extra 5mm of space on the 70mm film stock permitted the studio to use the new six-track stereo sound, which audiences rarely heard at the time.[76]
To make a 35mm print (the type of film stock most smaller theaters could project), a 35mm print with black borders along the top and bottom of each frame was used.[72] When projected, the 2.76:1 aspect ratio was retained (although special plates had to be attached to the front of the projector in order to crop the borders, which results in slight letterboxing).[72] Because the 65mm film could be adapted to the requirements of individual theaters, theaters did not need to install the special, expensive 70mm projection equipment.[77]
Six of the 70mm lenses, each worth $100,000, were shipped to Rome for use by the production.[61][78]
All told, there were 1,100,000 feet (340,000 m) of film shot.[35] According to editor John Dunning, the first cut of the film was four and one-half hours long[79] (although a mass media report in March 1959 indicated the running time was closer to five hours).[80] William Wyler said his goal was to bring the running time down to three and a half hours.[80] Editors Dunning and Winters saw their job as condensing the picture to retain all the information but not to lose any information or emotional impact.[79] Dunning later said that he felt some of the leper colony sequence could have been cut.[79] The most difficult editing decisions, according to Dunning, came during scenes which involved Jesus Christ, as these scenes contained almost no dialogue and most of the footage was purely reaction shots by actors.[81] Editing was also complicated by the 70mm footage being printed. Because no editing equipment (such as the Moviola) existed which could handle the 70mm print, the 70mm footage would be reduced to 35mm and then cut. This caused much of the image to be lost, and according to Dunning "you didn't even know what you had until you cut the negative. We'd print up the 70 now and then, and project it to see what we were getting against what we were seeing in the 35. We really did it blind."[82] When the film was edited into its final form, it ran 213 minutes and included just 19,000 feet (5,800 m) of film.[35] It was the third-longest motion picture ever made at the time, behind Gone With The Wind and The Ten Commandments.[35]
The editors had little do with inserting music into the film. Composer Miklós Rózsa viewed a near-final cut of the film, and then made scoring notes. Rózsa consulted afterward with the editors, who made suggestions, and then Rózsa wrote his score and had music inserted where he wished.[83]
One notable change in the film concerned its opening titles. Concerned that a roaring Leo the Lion (the MGM mascot) before the opening titles would create the wrong mood for the sensitive and sacred nativity scene, Wyler received permission to replace the traditional roaring logo with one in which Leo the Lion is quiet.[84] It was the first time in MGM history that the lion logo was not seen roaring.[84]
MGM location scouts arrived in Rome ("yet again", according to the New York Times) to identify shooting locations in August 1957.[85] Cinecittà Studios, a very large motion picture production facility constructed in 1937 on the outskirts of Rome, was identified early on as the primary shooting location, and pre-production began there around October 1957.[13] Location shooting in Africa was actively under consideration.[86] By mid-January 1958, MGM said that shooting in North Africa (later to be revealed as Libya) would begin on March 1, 1958, and that 200 camels and 2,500 horses had already been procured.[87] The production was scheduled to move to Rome on April 1, where Andrew Marton had been hired as second unit director and 72 horses were already being trained for the chariot race sequence.[87] The Libyan government canceled the production's film permit for religious reasons on March 11, 1958, just a week before filming was to have begun there.[88]
The Ben-Hur production utilized 300 sets scattered over 148 acres (60 ha) and nine sound stages.[89] It was filmed largely at at Cinecittà Studios. Several sets still standing from Quo Vadis in 1951 were refurbished and used for Ben-Hur.[89] By the end of the production more than 1,000,000 pounds (450,000 kg) of plaster and 40,000 cubic feet (1,100 m3) of lumber were used.[66][90] The budget called for more than 100,000 costumes and 1,000 suits of armor to be made, and for the hiring of 10,000 extras as well as hundreds of camels, donkeys, horses, and sheep.[14][36] More than 1,000 feet (300 m) of track were laid down for the camera dollies.[66] A workshop employing 200 artists and workmen was constructed to provide the hundreds of friezes and statues needed.[36] The mountain village of Foggia, 40 miles (64 km) from Rome, served as a stand-in for the town of Nazareth.[33] Beaches near Rome were also used.[89] The film was also intended to be historically accurate. Hugh Gray, a noted historian and motion picture studio researcher, was hired by Zimbalist to be the film's historical advisor. A veteran of the Hollywood historical epic, it was the last film he worked on.[71]
The sea battle was filmed using miniatures in a huge tank on the back lot at the MGM studios in Culver City, California.[89] Shot in November and December 1957,[45] it was one of the first sequences created for the film.[79] The script contained no description of or dialogue for the sea battle, and none had been written by the time the production schedule got around to filming the live-action sequences. According to editor John Dunning, screenwriter Christopher Fry looked at rough footage of the miniature footage which Dunning had edited together, and then wrote the interior and above-deck scenes.[91] Two 175-foot (53 m) long Roman galleys, each of them seaworthy, were built for the live-action segment.[36] An artificial lake with equipment capable of generating sea-sized waves was built at the Cinecittà studios to accommodate the galleys and pirate ships.[66] A massive backdrop, 200 feet (61 m) wide by 50 feet (15 m) high, was painted and erected to hide the background.[66] Third unit director Richard Thorpe was hired on July 17, 1958, at the request of William Wyler to film the above-decks sequences,[51] but a directing commitment back in the United States required him to leave the production with filming still incomplete.[79] Dunning says he then directed most of the below-decks scenes, including the sequence in which Quintus Arrius' flagship is rammed.[79] According to Dunning, to make the scene bloodier, he sought out Italian extras who had missing limbs, and had the makeup crews rigged them with fake bone and blood to make it appear as if they had lost a hand or leg during the battle.[79] When Dunning later edited his own footage, he made sure that these men were not on screen for long so that audiences would not be upset.[79] (There was so much footage of the sea battle left over that Charlton Heston used it in his 1972 film Antony and Cleopatra.)[92] The above-decks footage was integrated with the miniature work using process shots and traveling mattes.[93]
Dunning also says that he directed most the critical scene in which Quintus Arrius first confronts Judah Ben-Hur on the galley, and the following segment in which Arrius forces the rowers to row at high speed.[79] Some of the dialogue in the scene, he says, was shot by Wyler, but most of the rest (including the high-speed rowing) was shot by Dunning himself.[79] Dunning says that he spent several days on the high-speed rowing segment, shooting the entire sequence over and over from different angles to ensure that there was plenty of coverage. He then edited the immense amount of footage down to obtain a rough cut that matched the script, and then re-edited the footage to be more cinematic and work emotionally on the screen.[79] The galley sequence is purely fictional, as the Roman navy, in contrast to its early modern counterparts, did not employ convicts as galley slaves.[94]
One of the most sumptuous sets was the villa of Quintus Arrius, which included 45 working fountains.[89] Extras during the party were wealthy citizens of Rome, who wanted to portray their ancient selves.[89] To recreate the ancient city streets of Jerusalem, a vast set covering 0.5-square-mile (1.3 km2) was built,[10] which included a 75-foot (23 m) high Joppa Gate.[89]
The sets were so vast and visually exciting that they became a tourist attraction.[10] Tour buses visited the site hourly, and entertainers such as Harry Belafonte, Kirk Douglas, Susan Hayward, Audrey Hepburn, and Jack Palance stopped in Rome to see the production.[95] The huge sets could be seen from the outskirts of Rome, and MGM estimated that more than 5,000 people were given tours of the sets.[66] The New York Times reported that thousands more viewed the sets without entering the grounds.[66] Some additional desert panoramas were shot in Arizona, and some close-up inserts taken at the MGM studios, with the final images photographed on February 3, 1958.[35]
Principal photography began on May 18, 1958.[35] Shooting took nine months, which included three months for the chariot race scene alone.[96] Principal photography ended on January 7, 1959, with filming of the crucifixion scene.[97][98] The sequence took four days to film.[99] Post-production took another six months.[97]
Dismantling the sets cost $125,000.[66] Almost all the filmmaking equipment was turned over to the Italian government, which sold and exported it.[66] MGM turned title to the artificial lake was turned over to Cinecittà.[66] MGM retained control over the costumes and the artificial lake background, which went back to the United States.[66] The chariots were also returned to the U.S., where they were used as promotional props.[66] The life-size galleys and pirate ships were dismantled to prevent them from being used by competing studios.[66] Some of the horses were adopted by the men who trained them, while others were sold.[66] Many of the camels, donkeys, and other exotic animals were sold to circuses and zoos in Europe.[66]
Film critic Kevin Brownlow has called the chariot race sequence as creative and influential a piece of cinema as the famous Odessa Steps sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin, which introduced modern concepts of film editing and montage to cinema.[100]
The chariot race in Ben-Hur was directed by Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt,[101] filmmakers who often acted as second unit directors on other people's films. Each man had an assistant director, shooting additional footage.[102] William Wyler shot the "pageantry" sequence that occurs before the race, and the scenes of the jubilant crowd and the victory scenes after the race is over.[103] The "pageantry" sequence before the race begins is a shot-by-shot remake of the same sequence from the 1925 silent film version.[100] The original screenwriter, Karl Tunberg, had written just three words ("the chariot race") to describe the now-famous sequence, and no other writer had enlarged on his description.[62] Marton and Canutt wrote 38 pages of script which outlined every aspect of the race, including action, stunts, and camera shots and angles.[62] According to editor John Dunning, producer Sam Zimbalist was deeply involved in the planning, construction, and shooting of the chariot sequence.[102]
The chariot arena was modeled on a historic circus in Jerusalem.[89] Covering 18 acres (7.3 ha), it was the largest film set ever built at that time.[104] Constructed at a cost of $1 million, it took several hundred workmen more than a year to carve the oval out of a rock quarry.[89] The oval featured 1,500-foot (460 m) long straightaways and five-story-high stands.[89] Over 250 miles (400 km) of metal tubing were used to erect the stands.[66] Matte paintings were used to create the upper stories of the stands and the background mountains.[105] The production crew researched ancient Roman racetracks, but were unable to determine what the track surface was like. The crew decided to create their own racecourse surface, one that would be hard enough to support the steel-rimmed chariot wheels but soft enough to not harm the horses after hundreds of laps. The construction crew laid down a bed of crushed rock topped by a layer of ground lava and finely ground yellow rock.[62] More than 40,000 short tons (36,000 t) of sand were brought in from beaches on the Mediterranean to cover the track.[106] Elements of the circus were historically accurate. Imperial Roman racecourses also featured a spina (the center section), metae (columnar goalposts at each end of the spina), dolphin-shaped lap counters, and carceres (the columned building in the rear which housed the cells which housed the horses prior to the race).[105] The four statues atop the spina were 30 feet (9.1 m) high.[36]
Planning for the chariot race took nearly a year to complete.[89] Seventy-eight horses were brought imported from Yugoslavia and Sicily, exercised into peak physical condition and trained to pull the quadriga (a Roman Empire chariot drawn by four horses abreast).[89] Andalusian horses played Ben-Hur's Arabians, while the others in the chariot race were primarily Lipizzans.[107] Eighteen chariots were built,[108] each weighing 900 pounds (410 kg).[14] Principal cast members, stand-ins, and stunt people made 100 practice laps of the arena in preparation for shooting.[96] Because the chariot race was considered so dangerous, an infirmary was built next to the set to care for anyone injured during shooting.[109]
Heston and Boyd both had to learn how to drive a chariot. Heston, an experienced horseman, took three-hour lessons in chariot driving from the day he arrived in Rome and picked up the skill quickly.[33][110] (He also learned swordfighting, how to throw a javelin, camel riding, and rowing.)[111] Heston was outfitted with special contact lenses to prevent the grit kicked up during the race from injuring his eyes.[110] Boyd, however, needed four weeks of training to feel comfortable (but not expert) at driving the quadriga.[33]
The production schedule originally called for the chariot race to be shot in the spring, when weather was cooler for the horses and when Wyler would not be placing heavy demands on Heston and Boyd's time. But the arena surface was not ready, the arena set was not finished, and the horses had not finished with their training.[33] Shooting of the chariot sequence began on the same day as principal photography. But again filming was delayed. This surface proved so soft that it slowed the horses down and a day of shooting was lost as the yellow rock and all but 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) of crushed lava was removed.[112]
Marton and Canutt filmed the entire chariot sequence with stunt doubles in long shot, edited the footage together, and showed the footage to Zimbalist, Wyler, and Heston to show them what the race should look like and to indicate where close-up shots with Heston and Boyd should go.[62] Seven thousand extras were hired to cheer in the stands.[10][104][113] Economic conditions in Italy were poor at the time, and as shooting for the chariot scene wound down only 1,500 extras were needed on any given day. On June 6, more than 3,000 people seeking work were turned away. The mob rioted, throwing stones and assaulting the sets gates until riot police arrived and dispersed the crowd.[114] Dynamite charges were used to show the chariot wheels and axles splintering from the effects of Messala's barbed-wheel attacks.[105] Three lifelike dummies were placed at key points in the race to give the appearance of men being run over by chariots.[109]
Filming itself also encountered problems. The 70mm lenses had a minimum focal length of 50 feet (15 m). The camera had been mounted on a small Italian-made car. But the horses accelerated down the 1,500-foot (460 m) straightaway much faster than the car could, and the long focal length left Martin and Canutt with too little time to get their shots. The production company purchased a more powerful American car. But the horses proved so fast that, even with a head start, the American car could give the filmmakers only a few more seconds of shot time. Since the horses had to be running at top speed for the best visual impact, Marton chose to film the chariot race with a smaller lens with a much shorter minimum focal length and to stay only a few feet ahead of the horses.[68] This was highly dangerous, for if the car did not make its turns or slowed down a deadly crash with the horses could occur. Vast amounts of footage were shot for this sequence. The ratio of footage used to footage shot was 263:1, one of the highest ratios ever for a film.[109]
John D. Dunning and Ralph E. Winters edited the footage of the chariot sequence. According to Dunning, Winters edited most of the chariot race but the two men discussed it at length with some input from Wyler.[115] The two editors decided that once the race was under way, one of the charioteers should be killed immediately to demonstrate to the audience that the race could be deadly. Inserts of the barbs on the hub of Messala's chariot were inserted repeatedly throughout the sequence to make it as obvious as possible that his chariot was highly dangerous. As footage was shot, it would be roughly edited by Ralph Winters, and if footage was poor, the stunts didn't come off on camera well, or coverage was lacking then more footage would be shot. At the end of three months, Dunning says, Winters had so much footage on hand that he asked Dunning to come to Rome to help him put together the final sequence.[102]
One of the most notable moments in the race came from a near-fatal accident. Joe Canutt, Yakima Canutt's son, did Heston's more dangerous stunts during the sequence.[89] When Judah Ben-Hur's chariot jumps over the wreckage of a chariot in its path, Ben-Hur is almost thrown out of his chariot. He hangs on and climbs back aboard to continue the race. While the jump was planned, stunt man Joe Canutt being tossed into the air was an accident; he incurred a minor chin injury.[116] When the long shot of Canutt's accidental leap was cut together with a close-up of Heston climbing back into his chariot, this resulted in one of the race's most memorable moments.[117] Boyd, however, did all but two of his own stunts.[97] For the sequence where Messala is dragged under his horses and trampled to death, Boyd wore steel armor under his costume and acted out the first shot in this sequence. A dummy was used to obtain the second shot in this sequence.[116]
In all, the chariot scene took five weeks (spread over three months) to film at a total cost of $1 million,[62] and required more than 200 miles (320 km) of racing to complete.[104] Two of the $100,000 70mm lenses were destroyed during the filming of the close-up shots.[61]
Several urban legends exist regarding the chariot sequence. One claims 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."[118] As of 2005, there were no published accounts of any serious injuries or deaths during filming of the chariot race.[89] The only death to occur on the film was that of producer Sam Zimbalist, who died of a heart attack at the age of 57 on November 4, 1958, while on the set.[119] Production manager Henry Henigson was so overcome by stress-related heart problems during the shoot that doctors feared for his life and ordered him off the set.[10] Nor were any horses injured during the shoot; in fact, the number of hours the horses could be used each day was actually shortened to keep them out of the summer heat.[120]
Another urban legend states that a red Ferrari can be seen during the chariot race; the book Movie Mistakes claims this is a myth.[121] Heston, in the DVD commentary track, mentions a third urban legend that is false: That he wore a wristwatch. He points out that he was wearing leather bracers up to the elbow.[122]
The film score was composed and conducted by Miklós Rózsa, who scored most of MGM's epics. More than three hours of music were composed and included in the movie,[123] making it (as of 2001) the longest score ever composed for a motion picture.[124] Unlike previous efforts for films set in the distant past, Rózsa quoted no ancient Greek or Roman musical themes in his score.[124] However, he did reuse music he had composed for Quo Vadis in his Ben-Hur score.[124]
Rózsa won his third Academy Award for his score. As of 2001, it was the only musical score in the ancient and medieval epic genre of film to win an Oscar.[124] Like most film musical soundtracks, it was issued as an album for the public to enjoy as a distinct piece of music. But the score was so lengthy, it had to be released on two LP records. To provide a more "listenable" album, Rózsa arranged his score into a "Ben-Hur Suite", which was released in 1959.[123] Rózsa's score for Ben-Hur was the first film musical score to be released not only in its entirety but also as a separate album.[124]
The Ben-Hur score is considered to be the best of Rózsa's career.[125] The musical soundtrack to Ben-Hur remained deeply influential into the mid 1970s, when film music composed by John Williams for films such as Jaws, Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark became more popular among composers and film-goers.[126]
The screenplay differed from the original novel. Some changes made the film's storyline more dramatic; the tone of the film reflected admiration for Jewish people (who had founded Israel by this time) and the more pluralistic society of 1950s America rather than the "Christian superiority" view of Wallace's novel.[127]
A massive $3 million marketing effort helped promote Ben-Hur.[128] MGM established a special "Ben-Hur Research Department" which surveyed more than 2,000 high schools in 47 American cities to gauge teenage interest in the film.[129] A high school study guide was also created and distributed.[129] Sindlinger and Company was hired to conduct a nationwide survey to gauge the impact of the marketing campaign.[130] In 1959 and 1960, more than $20 million in candy; children's tricycles in the shape of chariots; gowns; hair barrettes; items of jewelry; men's ties; bottles of perfume; "Ben-Her" and "Ben-His" towels; toy armor, helmets, and swords; umbrellas; and hardback and paperback versions of the novel (tied to the film with cover art) were sold.[96][128]
It premiered at Loew's State Theatre in New York City on November 18, 1959. Present at the premiere were William Wyler, Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet, Martha Scott, Ramon Novarro (who played Judah Ben-Hur in the 1925 silent film version), Spyros Skouras (president of the 20th Century Fox), Barney Balaban (president of Paramount Pictures), Jack Warner (president of Warner Bros.), Leonard Goldenson (president of the American Broadcasting Company), Moss Hart (playwright), Robert Kintner (an ABC Television executive), Sidney Kingsley (playwright), and Adolph Zukor (founder of Paramount Pictures).[131] Ben-Hur earned $17,300,000 at the box office.[132] It was the fastest-grossing film[10] as well as the highest grossing film of 1959,[133] and it saved MGM from financial disaster.[134] It made $19.5 million on its initial release, and another $10.1 million when re-released in 1969.[10] It ranked ninth on the list of all-time money-making films until 1975.[96]
Ben-Hur received overwhelmingly positive reviews upon its release.[135] Bosley Crowther, writing for the New York Times, called Ben-Hur "a remarkably intelligent and engrossing human drama".[136] While praising the acting and William Wyler's "close-to" direction, he also called had high praise for the chariot race: "There has seldom been anything in movies to compare with this picture's chariot race. It is a stunning complex of mighty setting, thrilling action by horses and men, panoramic observation and overwhelming use of dramatic sound."[136] Jack Gaver, writing for United Press International, also had praise for the acting, calling it full of "genuine warmth and fervor and finely acted intimate scenes".[137] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times called it "magnificent, inspiring, awesome, enthralling, and all the other adjectives you have been reading about it."[138] He also called the editing "generally expert" although at times abrupt.[138] Ronald Holloway, writing for Variety, called Ben-Hur "a majestic achievement, representing a superb blending of the motion picture arts by master craftsmen," and concluded that "Gone With the Wind, Metro's own champion all-time top grosser, will eventually have to take a back seat."[139] The chariot race "will probably be preserved in film archives as the finest example of the use of the motion picture camera to record an action sequence. The race, directed by Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt, represents some 40 minutes of the most hair-raising excitement that film audiences have ever witnessed."[139]
There were some criticisms, however. Crowther felt the film was too long.[136] Scheuer felt the film's biggest fault was "overstatement", and that it hammered home at points long after they had been made. He singled out the galley rowing sequence, Jesus' journey to the place of crucifixion, nearly all the sequences involving the lepers. He also lightly criticized Charlton Heston for being more physically than emotionally compelling.[138]
Not all reviews were positive, however. John McCarten of The New Yorker was strongly critical of the film. He singled out Heston in particular, writing that he "speaks English as if he'd learned it from records."[140] Even William Wyler later privately admitted he was disappointed with Heston's acting.[97] Film critic Dwight Macdonald also was largely negative.[135] He found the film so uninvolving and lengthy that he said, "I felt like a motorist trapped at a railroad crossing while a long freight trains slowly trundles by."[141] British film critic John Pym, writing for Time Out, was equally dismissive, calling the film a "four-hour Sunday school lesson".[142] Many French and American film critics who believed in the auteur theory of filmmaking saw the film as confirmation of their belief that William Wyler was "merely a commercial craftsman" rather than a serious artist.[143]
Ben-Hur was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won an unprecedented 11. As of 2011[update] only Titanic in 1998 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004 have matched the film's wins.[144][145] As of 2011, it remains the only remake to win a Best Picture Oscar.[134] The lone category where Ben-Hur did not win was for Best Adapted Screenplay, and most observers attributed this to the controversy over the writing credit.[97][146]
Ben-Hur won the following Oscars:
Ben-Hur also won three Golden Globe Awards — Best Motion Picture, Drama, Best Motion Picture Director, Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Stephen Boyd — and received a Special Achievement Award (which went to Andrew Marton for directing the chariot race sequence).[147] Heston was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama category, but did not win. It won the BAFTA Award for Best Film,[148] the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film,[149] and the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Motion Picture.[150]
Ben-Hur also appears on several "best of" lists generated by the American Film Institute, an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1967. The "AFI 100 Years... series" were created by juries consisting of over 1,500 artists, scholars, critics, and historians, with movies selected based on the film's popularity over time, historical significance, and cultural impact. Ben-Hur appeared on the following lists:
In 2004, the National Film Preservation Board selected Ben-Hur for preservation by the National Film Registry for being a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" motion picture.[151]
The film's first telecast took place on Sunday, February 14, 1971.[152] The complete film was shown over four nights, and was the most-watched movie ever screened on television up to that time.[152]
Ben-Hur has been released on home video on several occasions. Recent releases have all been on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. A two-sided single disc widescreen release occurred in the United States on March 13, 2001.[122] This release included several featurettes, including a commentary by Charlton Heston, a making-of documentary (made for a laserdisc release in 1993), screen tests, and a photo gallery.[122] This edition was released soon thereafter as a two-disc set in other countries. The film saw another DVD release on September 13, 2005.[153] This four-disc edition included remastered images and audio, an additional commentary, two additional featurettes, and a complete version of the the 1925 silent version of Ben-Hur.[153] A boxed "Deluxe Edition", issued in 2002, included postcard-sized reprints of lobby cards, postcard-sized black-and-white stills with machine-reproduced autographs of cast members, a matte-framed color image from the film with a 35mm film frame mounted below it, and a 27-by-40-inch (69 by 100 cm) reproduction movie poster.[154]
In 2009, Warner Home Video released a 50th anniversary edition on Blu-ray Disc. The film image and soundtrack were again remastered, and a new musical soundtrack-only option and six new featurettes (one of which was an hour long) included. It was re-released in September 2011.[155]
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| Preceded by The Best Years of Our Lives |
Academy Award winner for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor | Succeeded by Mystic River |
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