32nd Academy Awards · 1960
Ben-Hur
Directed by William Wyler
“The entertainment experience of a lifetime!”
The story
In ancient Judea, a Jewish aristocrat opposing Roman occupation of his homeland reunites with his childhood friend, now a Roman commander — setting in motion a saga of betrayal, adventure, tragedy, revenge, and faith.
What critics & audiences say
Tomatometer87%Fresh#71 of 98 winnersFamous lines
Your eyes are full of hate, Forty-One. That's good. Hate keeps a man alive. It gives him strength.
May God grant me vengeance. I pray that you live till I return.
You are all condemned men. We keep you alive to serve this ship. So row well... and live.
It goes on. It goes on, Judah. The race... the race is not over!
Rome is an affront to God. Rome is strangling my people and my country and the whole earth, but not forever. I tell you, the day Rome falls, there will be a shout of freedom such as the world has never heard before.
Sextus: …But how do you fight an idea?
Messala: Sextus, you ask how to fight an idea. Well, I'll tell you how... with another idea!
Messala: …You're either for me or against me!
Judah: If that is the choice, then I am against you.
One wife? One God, that I can understand - but one wife! That is not civilized. It is not generous.
Judah: For this death?
Balthasar: For this beginning.
Judah: Almost at the moment He died, I heard Him say, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
Esther: Even then.
Judah: Even then. And I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Fun facts
- One of the chariot race's most memorable moments was an accident: stuntman Joe Canutt was tossed into the air, and the shot was cut together with a close-up of Charlton Heston climbing back aboard.Wikipedia · Chariot race sequence
- Paul Newman turned down the role of Judah Ben-Hur because he said he didn't have the legs to wear a tunic, and Burt Lancaster passed because he found the script boring.Wikipedia · Casting
- William Wyler had been one of 30 assistant directors on the 1925 silent Ben-Hur, and he later joked that it took a Jew to make a good film about Christ.Wikipedia · Development
- Gore Vidal claimed he persuaded Wyler to have Stephen Boyd play Messala as a spurned lover while keeping Charlton Heston in the dark, a claim Heston said 'irritates the hell out of me.'Wikipedia · Writing
- The chariot arena covered 18 acres and was the largest film set ever built at that time; it took a thousand workmen more than a year to carve it out of a rock quarry.Wikipedia · Chariot race sequence
- Ben-Hur's $15.175 million budget made it the costliest film ever produced at the time, a gamble that saved MGM from financial disaster with a $20 million profit on its initial release.Wikipedia · Production
- The shooting pace was so grueling that a doctor gave vitamin B injections to anyone who asked, shots Wyler and his family later suspected may have contained amphetamines.Wikipedia · Principal photography
- When 3,000 people seeking work as extras were turned away during the chariot race shoot, the crowd rioted, throwing stones at the set's gates until police dispersed them.Wikipedia · Chariot race sequence
- Wyler worried a roaring MGM lion would spoil the mood of the nativity scene, so he received permission to use a version of the logo in which Leo the Lion stays quiet.Wikipedia · Production
- Ben-Hur won a record 11 of its 12 Oscar nominations, losing only Best Adapted Screenplay, a loss most observers blamed on the controversy over the writing credit.Wikipedia · Accolades