The 1959 Hollywood epic Ben-Hur, which won a then-record 11 Academy Awards, airs on BBC Two this Sunday at 12pm and will be available on BBC iPlayer afterwards for a limited time.
A Record-Breaking Hollywood Production
MGM's remake of the 1925 silent film Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ starred Charlton Heston, who had recently played Moses in 1956's The Ten Commandments. Heston portrayed Judah Ben-Hur, a wealthy 1st century Jewish prince from Jerusalem falsely accused of treason and enslaved by the Romans, with his life intersecting with Jesus Christ. William Wyler directed the Biblical epic, which became a record breaker of Hollywood's Golden Era.
At the time, Ben-Hur had the biggest movie budget ever at over $15 million (equivalent to $174 million today) and featured the largest sets ever built. The production employed 100 wardrobe fabricators and 200 artists and workmen to create the hundreds of friezes and statues in the film.
Six-Month Shoot and Iconic Chariot Race
Filming spanned six months with 12-14 hour days, six days a week, followed by another half year of post-production. The production featured over 2,500 horses, 200 camels and 10,000 extras. The film's iconic nine-minute chariot race remains one of cinema's most celebrated sequences.
Ben-Hur went on to win 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Heston, making it the second-highest-grossing film ever made at the time after Gone with the Wind.
