Chuck and His Chariot: The remake of the classic 1925 Ben-Hur
There was so much for moviegoers to love about the biblical epic “Ben-Hur”: a riveting performance by Charlton Heston in his second major starring role. Hundreds of extras, elaborately clothed in hand-crafted wardrobe. An amazing chariot race that still stands as one of the most exciting action scenes ever filmed. A moving storyline of friendship, betrayal, a drive for revenge and, finally, forgiveness.
“Ben-Hur” was released in theaters on Nov. 18, 1959 — 65 years ago Monday after next. It would go on to win 11 Academy Awards.
A Remake of A 1925 Silent Film
“Ben-Hur” is about a rich Jewish prince in Jerusalem whose childhood friend, Messala, is appointed a commanding officer of Roman troops. The two have drifted apart and soon realize how large their differences have become when Messala has Judah and his family arrested for an attempted assassination of the Roman governor of Judea.
Judah is sent in chains to be a rower on Roman galleys and his mother and sister are imprisoned. In his efforts to return and extract revenge, Judah happens to come across another Jew who also seems oddly persecuted: Jesus of Nazareth.
“Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ” was a lengthy novel written by Lew Wallace, a lawyer and politician who had served as a Union general in the Civil War. Published in 1880, it was one of the highest-selling novels of all time until Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind” was released in 1936.
A silent movie version was made in 1925, but in 1952, MGM announced plans to remake that film as a big-budget epic and shoot it in Rome and Spain.
Budget constraints caused MGM to put those plans on hold. With the studio’s finances at risk to total collapse — and after the success of Paramount Pictures’ “The Ten Commandments” —
MGM announced another try in 1957.
Over six years, MGM commissioned 40 scripts. The director hired to helm the project brought in Gore Vidal — who, at the time, was researching a book on the fourth century Roman emperor Julian — to rewrite the screenplay. Even after Vidal’s work, MGM hired writers to polish the script even while the film was in production.
No expense was spared on costume production, set design and hiring 10,000 extras for various crowd scenes.
The pressure MGM felt to create a blockbuster caused the studio to more than double the $7 million budget it had originally approved for “Ben-Hur.” But their money would show up on the screen.
An Enormous Production Effort
Paul Newman was offered role of Judah Ben-Hur, but turned it down — he had previously starred in another biblical film, “The Silver Chalice” and said he didn’t have the legs to wear a tunic. Also considered were Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson before Charlton Heston was given the role.
Kirk Douglas declined the role of Messala because he wanted to play Judah instead. The next year, Douglas had his own production company build “Spartacus” around himself. And Leslie Nielsen also tried out for the role. Stephen Boyd was hired and grew a bushy beard, only to be told that fashionable Roman men in first-century Judea were clean-shaven.
Gore Vidal said his intent was for Judah and Messala to be former lovers. This might explain why Messala betrays Judah: He was angry their relationship was over. Vidal told this to Boyd but not to Heston before their scenes were filmed — Heston found out later and wrote about Vidal’s intent in his 1978 autobiography, “An Actor’s Life.”
Wyler spent $4 million filming the climatic chariot race. The arena was based on a real Roman-era circus in Jerusalem. The set covered 18 acres. More than 7,000 extras filled the grandstands, which were five stories tall. An infirmary was set up to deal with injuries from accidents but most of those seeking treatment suffered from sunburn.
The race sequence was filmed over five weeks. Heston, already an experienced horseman, trained for the scene by taking daily three-hour lessons and quickly caught on. At one point, exasperated by Heston’s questions, stunt coordinator Yakima Canutt told him: “Just stay in the chariot, Chuck. You’ll win the damned race.”
Eleven Academy Awards
All-Time Highest-Grossing Movies,
Adjusted for inflation.
Creating “Ben-Hur” involved hiring 100 wardrobe fabricators, 200 artists — to create the friezes and statues — 10,000 extras, and bringing in 2,500 horses and more than 200 camels.
Production costs of $15.175 million made this the most expensive ever made at the time. In addition, MGM Pictures spent another $14.7 million marketing the picture.
“Ben-Hur” earned $66 million at the box office, making it the second highest-grossing movie in film history at the time, behind “Gone With the Wind,” 20 years before.
Even now — 65 years later and adjusting for inflation — “Ben-Hur” is the 14th highest-grossing movie of all time.
