Movie: Ben-Hur (1959)

• Director: William Wyler
• Release Date: 16 November 1961 (Hong Kong)
• Writers: Lew Wallace (novel) Karl Tunberg (screenplay)  
• Run Time: 212 min | Sweden:219 min (1970) | Sweden:224 min (1962) | UK:222 min (1993 re-release) | 214 min (DVD edition) | 222 min (2005 DVD)
• Country: USA
• Genre: Action , Adventure , Drama , History , Romance  

Tagline: A Tale of the Christ  

Trivia: Upon reading Karl Tunberg’s original script, William Wyler had written in the margins “awful…horrible”. Consequently, he brought in Gore Vidal – who was on contract with MGM at the time and hated being so – to rewrite the screenplay. Vidal also thought that Tunberg’s script was dreadful and initially didn’t even want to take on the project. He changed his mind when Wyler promised to get him out of the remaining two years of his contract. Christopher Fry then polished up Vidal’s work on the screenplay and wrote a new ending. Neither Fry or Vidal received screen credit for their work on the film, something which infuriated Wyler so much that he leaked the story to the press.
 

Goofs: Revealing mistakes: Due to the relative widths of the horses pulling the chariots and the chariots themselves, there is actually no way that the cutting hubs on Messala’s wheels could actually make contact with the wheels of any other chariots.
 

“Judah Ben-Hur lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. Together with the new governor his old friend Messala arrives as commanding officer of the Roman legions. At first they are happy to meet after a long time but their different politic views separate them. During the welcome parade a brick falls down from Judah’s house and barely misses the governor. Although Messala knows that they are not guilty he sends Judah to the galleys and throws his mother and sister into prison. But Judah swears to come back and take revenge. Written by Matthias Scheler <tron@lyssa.owl.de>”