Directed by William Wyler • 1959 • United States
Starring Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith

Winner of a record eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, this gargantuan sword-and-sandals spectacle stands as one of the greatest Hollywood epics ever filmed. A member of the Jewish nobility in Jerusalem, Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) lives a religious life in peaceful opposition to the tyrannical occupation of Judea by Rome. When Messala (Stephen Boyd), a boyhood friend, betrays him to the Romans and condemns him to a life of slavery, Ben-Hur resolves to regain his freedom and exact his revenge—a quest that culminates at the chariot races in one of the most exciting action sequences ever captured on film.