The Chariot Race in William Wyler’s Ben-Hur

Martin M. Winkler (George Mason University)

Actor Charlton Heston once characterized the 1959 version of Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur as “a movie about a chariot race.” Not only is the chariot race this film’s spectacular highlight, but it is also considered the greatest action sequence in cinema history. Wallace himself had taken pains to make this decisive part of his novel’s plot as vivid and visually imaginable as possible, and stage and screen adaptations became increasingly elaborate and spectacular.

This paper briefly reviews the history of the chariot race on stage and silent screen and then examines in greater detail the staging and editing of the race in Wyler’s film and the “myths” surrounding it. The chariot crashes in this version look so realistic that many believe a stuntman to have been killed during filming. Fortunately this was not the case. But digital technology now makes it possible for us to discover one dangerous crash that no theater audience has ever seen.