Ben-Hur (1959 film)
| Ben-Hur | |
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Original theatrical poster by Reynold Brown
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| Directed by | William Wyler |
| Produced by | Sam Zimbalist |
| Screenplay by | Karl Tunberg |
| Based on |
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by General Lew Wallace |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Finlay Currie |
| Music by | Miklós Rózsa |
| Cinematography | Robert L. Surtees |
| Edited by | |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Loew's, Inc. |
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Release date
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Running time
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212 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15.2 million |
| Box office | $146.9 million (initial release) |
| Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
| 1. Best Picture – Sam Zimbalist (posthumous award) | |
| 2. Best Director – William Wyler | |
| 3. Best Actor in a Leading Role – Charlton Heston | |
| 4. Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Hugh Griffith | |
| 5. Best Art Direction-Set Decoration – Color – Edward C. Carfagno and William A. Horning (posthumous award) (art direction); Hugh Hunt (set decoration) | |
| 6. Best Cinematography – Color – Robert L. Surtees | |
| 7. Best Costume Design – Color – Elizabeth Haffenden | |
| 8. Best Special Effects – A. Arnold Gillespie, Robert MacDonald, and Milo Lory | |
| 9. Best Film Editing – John D. Dunning and Ralph E. Winters | |
| 10. Best Music – Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture – Miklós Rózsa | |
| 11. Best Sound Recording – Franklin Milton, MGM Studio Sound Department | |
| Golden Globe Awards | |
| 1. Best Motion Picture – Drama | |
| 2. Best Director – William Wyler | |
| 3. Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture – Stephen Boyd | |
Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic historical drama film, directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Charlton Heston as the title character. A remake of the 1925 silent film with the same name, Ben-Hur was adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry.
Ben-Hur had the largest budget ($15.175 million) as well as the largest sets built of any film produced at the time. Costume designer Elizabeth Haffenden oversaw 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. Filming commenced on May 18, 1958, and wrapped on January 7, 1959, with shooting lasting for 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week. Pre-production began in Italy at Cinecittà around October 1957, and post-production took six months. Under cinematographer Robert L. Surtees, MGM executives made the decision to film the picture in a widescreen format, which Wyler strongly disliked. More than 200 camels and 2,500 horses were used in the shooting of the film, with some 10,000 extras. The sea battle was filmed using miniatures in a huge tank on the back lot at the MGM Studios in Culver City, California. The nine-minute chariot race has become one of cinema's most famous sequences, and the film score, composed and conducted by Miklós Rózsa, is the longest ever composed for a film and was highly influential on cinema for more than 15 years.
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