Ben-Hur is a 1959 American religious epic film[1] directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist, and starring Charlton Heston as the title character.

The cast also features Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, and Sam Jaffe.

As Judah and Balthasar witness Jesus' crucifixion, Miriam and Tirzah are sheltered in a cave with Esther during a violent storm and are miraculously cured.

[17] By the late 1950s, the consent decree of 1948 forcing film studios to divest themselves of theater chains[18] and the competitive pressure of television had caused significant financial distress at MGM.

Tunberg cut out everything in the book after the crucifixion of Jesus, omitted the sub-plot in which Ben-Hur fakes his death and raises a Jewish army to overthrow the Romans, and altered the manner in which the leperous women are healed.

[19] Professional competitive reasons also played a role in his decision to direct, and Wyler later admitted that he wished to outdo Cecil B. DeMille,[22] and make a "thinking man's" Biblical epic.

[27][41] Vidal agreed to work on the script for three months so that he would come off suspension and fulfill his contract with MGM,[22][27] although Zimbalist pushed him to stay throughout the entire production.

Vidal first made the claim in an interview in the 1995 documentary film The Celluloid Closet, and asserted that he persuaded Wyler to direct Stephen Boyd to play the role as if he were a spurned homosexual lover.

[51] A highly publicized bitter dispute later broke out over screenplay credits to the film, involving Wyler, Tunberg, Vidal, Fry and the Screen Writers' Guild.

[f][52] In 1996, the Los Angeles Times published a brief letter from Charlton Heston taking issue with Vidal's version which, he wrote, "irritates the hell out of me".

[53] Three months later, the paper published a 1,200 word response from Vidal, which included the statement that, with regard to the controversial scene's subtext, he had been delegated to inform Boyd (who was "delighted"), but that Wyler had warned "don't tell Chuck because he'll fall apart".

[62] Marlon Brando,[62] Rock Hudson,[h] Geoffrey Horne,[i] and Leslie Nielsen[63] were also offered the role, as were a number of muscular, handsome Italian actors (many of whom did not speak English).

[39] Hugh Griffith, who gained acclaim in the post-World War II era in Ealing Studios comedies, was cast as the colorful Sheik Ilderim.

[94] The production was then scheduled to move to Rome on April 1, where Andrew Marton had been hired as second unit director and 72 horses were being trained for the chariot race sequence.

The pace of the film was so grueling that a doctor was brought onto the set to give a vitamin B complex injection to anyone who requested it (shots which Wyler and his family later suspected may have contained amphetamines).

Actresses Martha Scott and Cathy O'Donnell spent almost the entire month of November 1958 in full leprosy make-up and costumes so that Wyler could shoot "leper scenes" when other shots did not go well.

[103] Cinecittà Studios, a very large motion picture production facility constructed in 1937 on the outskirts of Rome, was identified early on as the primary shooting location.

Special silk was imported from Thailand, the armor manufactured in West Germany, and the woolens made and embroidered in the United Kingdom and various countries of South America.

[107] More than 400 pounds (180 kg) of hair were donated by women in the Piedmont region of Italy to make wigs and beards for the production,[108] and 1,000 feet (300 m) of track laid down for the camera dollies.

[113] The most difficult editing decisions, according to Dunning, came during scenes that involved Jesus Christ, as these contained almost no dialogue and most of the footage was purely reaction shots by actors.

The chariot race in Ben-Hur was directed by Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt,[123] filmmakers who often acted as second unit directors on other people's films.

[128] Knowing that the chariot race would be primarily composed of close-up and medium shots, Wyler added the parade in formation (even though it was not historically accurate) to impress the audience with the grandeur of the arena.

[137] For the other charioteers, six actors with extensive experience with horses were flown in from Hollywood, including Giuseppe Tosi, who had once been a bodyguard for Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.

The production company purchased a more powerful American car, but the horses were still too fast, and even with a head start, the filmmakers only had a few more seconds of shot time.

[149] MGM established a special "Ben-Hur Research Department" which surveyed more than 2,000 high schools in 47 American cities to gauge teenage interest in the film.

[163] Ronald Holloway, writing for Variety, called Ben-Hur "a majestic achievement, representing a superb blending of the motion picture arts by master craftsmen", and concluded that "Gone With the Wind, Metro's own champion all-time top grosser, will eventually have to take a back seat".

The race, directed by Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt, represents some 40 minutes [sic][r] of the most hair-raising excitement that film audiences have ever witnessed.

[160] He found the film so uninvolving and lengthy that he "felt like a motorist trapped at a railroad crossing while a long freight train slowly trundles by".

The critics consensus reads, "Uneven, but in terms of epic scope and grand spectacle, Ben-Hur still ranks among Hollywood's finest examples of pure entertainment.

The "AFI 100 Years... series" were created by juries consisting of over 1,500 artists, scholars, critics, and historians, with movies selected based on the film's popularity over time, historical significance, and cultural impact.