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 nine-minute chariot race has become one of cinema’s most famous action sequences. It won a record eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best actor in a Supporting Role, and Best Cinematography – Color.
About Ben-Hur (1959 film) in brief
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 nine-minute chariot race has become one of cinema’s most famous action sequences, and the score, composed and conducted by Miklós Rózsa, is the longest ever composed for a film. It won a record eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best actor in a Supporting Role, and Best Cinematography – Color ; 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. It was the fastest-grossing, as well as the highest-grossed film of 1959, becoming the second highest- grossing film in history at the time, after Gone with the Wind. 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. The film was released on November 18, 1959, following a USD 14. 7 million marketing effort, and premiered at Loew’s State Theatre in New York City on November 17, 1959.
It has been selected for preservation by the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress for being \”culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. In 2004, the National film Preservation Board selected Ben- Hur for preservation in the National Archive’s National Film Registry of the Museum of American History and Culture. It is one of the few films to have been preserved in both English and Spanish, along with The Lord of the Rings and The Godfather. The movie was released in Italy at Cinecittà around October 1957, and post-production took six months. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg, but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. It had the largest budget, as well and the largest sets built, of any film produced by the time. It also had 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. After three years as a slave, Judah is assigned to the flagship of Quintus Arrius, who has been charged with destroying a fleet of Macedonian pirates. Judah declines the offer to train him as a gladiator or charioteer, but he is rammed and freed as a rower.
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