Movie

As early as 1907, director Sidney Olcott created a short silent movie version based on the theatre production of “Ben Hur”. This production caused conflict with the heirs of Lew Wallace due to copyright violations, finally leading to one of the first legal cases of its kind in America.

In 1925 the premiere of the silent movie version by Fred Niblo took place in New York.  After three years in production, this was the most expensive movie ever produced to date. The movie became a great box office success in the United States. It was made with the help of several technical innovations used for the first time ever – for example, it was the first film with colour sequences.

Best known, of course, is the legendary film realization of 1959, directed by William Wyler, who had worked as an assistant for the 1925 version.  It starred   Charlton Heston as Judah Ben Hur. The movie set new standards in the complexity of mass scenes and stunts. It became an outstanding popular and critical success and won 11 Oscars.

Finally a cartoon version directed by Bill Kowalchuk was released in 2003 featuring Charlton Heston as commentator and narrator.