Ben-Hur

1 9 5 9 (USA)

This vast fifteen-million dollar epic set in the Roman Empire's province of Judea, starred Charlton Heston as the Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur, whose childhood friendship with the Roman tribune Messala (Stephen Boyd) turns to enmity when Messala destroys the Hur family for the sake of his career.

Sentenced to the galleys, Ben-Hur rescues a Roman admiral (Jack Hawkins) during a sea battle and is adopted by him.

Making his way back to Jerusalem, he defeats Messala in a climactic chariot race and rescues his mother and sister who have become lepers. They are cured by Christ at the moment of the Crucifixion.

The bare bones of the plot do not even begin to reveal the pomp and pageantry of this film which was lucky enough to also have an extremely literate script, written with assistance from Christopher Fry, Gore Vidal and S N Berman (although screen credit was given to Karl Tunberg). The chariot race was directed by Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt.

The picture won eleven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Heston), Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith as Sheik Ilderim who provides Ben-Hur with his team for the race).