G | 3h 32min | Drama, Epic | 1959
Imagine you’re a 23-year-old Jewish assistant director and production manager to 51-year-old director Fred Niblo. The year is 1925. You’re in Rome, shooting an MGM epic about a Jewish prince, based on a screenplay by one of the most influential women in Hollywood at the time, June Mathis.
That’s how it starts for a young William Wyler. Over 30 years later, based on Karl Tunberg’s screenplay and work by skilled writers Gore Vidal, S.N. Behrman and Christopher Fry, Wyler remakes the original and his film wins 11 Oscars. Wyler’s film is, of course, “Ben Hur,” the epic of epics, inspired by Lew Wallace’s book “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ.”…