--- title: Ben-Hur Remake: See Photos From the Original description: Revisit the classic Hollywood film that's now being reimagined with Morgan Freeman canonical: https://time.com/4430862/ben-hur-original-photos/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-18T13:00:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:26.162Z article:section: History og:title: Literally Epic Photos From the Making of the Classic 'Ben-Hur' og:description: Revisit the classic Hollywood film that's now being reimagined with Morgan Freeman og:url: https://time.com/4430862/ben-hur-original-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt422c81965c00f418/6988a056524fc0734adf8f88/160729-ben-hur-05.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ben Hur 1959 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Literally Epic Photos From the Making of the Classic 'Ben-Hur' twitter:description: Revisit the classic Hollywood film that's now being reimagined with Morgan Freeman twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt422c81965c00f418/6988a056524fc0734adf8f88/160729-ben-hur-05.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Literally Epic Photos From the Making of the Classic _Ben-Hur_ by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Aug 18, 2016 1:00 PM UTC  Charleton Heston in a scene from Ben-Hur. Charleton Heston in a scene from Ben-Hur.MGM by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Aug 18, 2016 1:00 PM UTC The new movie version of _Ben-Hur_ that’s [about to land in theaters,](http://time.com/4261425/ben-hur-trailer-jack-huston/) featuring Morgan Freeman, isn’t just a reimagining of one classic movie. The hit 1880 Lew Wallace novel of that name has been adapted for the stage and screen several times—TIME [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1926-01-11/page/20/) that the 1925 version “reveals what seems to be more scenery and more people than in any recent spectacle.” But, more than 100 years since the story was first told, there remains one version that stands above the rest, a version that would easily dwarf that “more” of 1925: the 1959 Charlton Heston epic, photos from the making of which can be seen here. It was, at the time, the most expensive movie ever made, by far, with a budget of $15 million. (That’s [about](http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=15&year=1959) $122 million today.) It was also, by TIME’s [count](http://time.com/vault/issue/1959-11-30/page/57/), the third longest, ranking behind only _Gone With the Wind_ and _The Ten Commandments_.  1959 Ben Hur poster. Universal History Archive/UIG—Getty Images “_Ben-Hur_, 1959, by MGM’s statistics, is adorned with more than 400 speaking parts, about 10,000 extras, 100,000 costumes, at least 300 sets,” the magazine continued. “One of them, the circus built for the chariot race in Rome’s Cinecitta, was the largest ever made for any movie. It covered 18 acres, held 10,000 people and 40,000 tons of sand, took a year to complete, and cost $1,000,000\. The race itself, which runs only nine minutes on the screen, ran three months before the cameras and cost another million.” But, for all its gargantuan proportions, it was a gargantuan success. Though the “movie hero is pretty much an overgrown boy scout who never experiences the moral struggles that beset the hero of the book,” TIME’s critic [declared](http://time.com/vault/issue/1959-11-30/page/57/), “the religious theme is handled with rare restraint and good taste.” By the end of the year, the magazine had [decided](http://time.com/vault/issue/1960-01-04/page/67/) that _Ben-Hur_ was one of 1959’s best films—”certainly the biggest and probably the best of all the big ones”—and at that year’s Oscars it racked up nearly a dozen trophies, including Best Picture.  Charlton Heston competes in a chariot race in a still from the film Ben-Hur, directed by William Wyler. MGM Studios—Getty Images  Charleton Heston wardrobe still for Ben-Hur. MGM  Barbara Shelley wardrobe still for the roll of Esther. The role went to Haya Harareet. MGM  Behind the scenes with Charleton Heston and William Wyler during the filming of Ben-Hur. MGM  Charleton Heston in a scene from Ben-Hur. MGM  Charleton Heston on the set of Ben-Hur in Rome with his three-year old son Fraser (center). and co-star Jack Hawkins. MGM  Charlton Heston begins to get his face cast in publicity portrait from the film Ben-Hur 1959. Archive Photos—Getty Images  Extras and film technicians from the film Ben-Hur by William Wyler, are gathered on a hill near Jerusalem to film. Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone—Getty Images  Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston behind the scenes at Cinecitta Studios in Rome, as they appear in the movie Ben-Hur, 1959. Archive Photos—Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4430862/ben-hur-original-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4430862/ben-hur-original-photos/"},"headline":"Literally Epic Photos From the Making of the Classic Ben-Hur","datePublished":"2016-08-18T13:00:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:50:26.162Z","description":"Revisit the Hollywood film that's now being reimagined with Morgan Freeman","url":"https://time.com/4430862/ben-hur-original-photos/","keywords":["movies","Hollywood","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt422c81965c00f418/6988a056524fc0734adf8f88/160729-ben-hur-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Liz Ronk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt422c81965c00f418/6988a056524fc0734adf8f88/160729-ben-hur-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ben Hur 1959","caption":"Film stills from the original production of Ben Hur in 1959.","creditText":"MGM","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4430862/ben-hur-original-photos/","name":"Literally Epic Photos From the Making of the Classic Ben-Hur"}}]}] ```