History Literature / BenHur

* AdaptedOut: The novel featured another love interest for Judah besides Esther - Iras daughter of Balthazar (one of the biblical Magi). She never appears in any of the film adaptations. The latter half of the plot, where Judah attempts to construct a revolution for Christ to lead, is also usually either left out or heavily compressed.

* ChariotRace: The film version of the race is the TropeCodifier featuring SpikedWheels (Messala's "Greek chariot"), Messala whipping his horses and any driver within range. If you're tossed from the chariot, there's a token attempt at retrieval. Both the silent 1925 movie and the 1959 version featured spectacular accidents in each race that [[EnforcedMethodActing weren't staged]], [[invoked]] and the stunt drivers in each case only barely escaped with their lives. Ironically, while Messala exhibits an appaling lack of sportsmanship during the novel's version of the race and whips drivers who come in reach, it is ''Ben-Hur'' who uses a quick trick with the reigns and the axle of his chariot to crush Messala's wheel and wreck him, though admittedly only after Messala was trying to do the same to him first.

** In the novel and 1959 and 2016 films Jesus gives Judah water when the latter is a prisoner. In the films Judah repays this by giving Jesus water as he is taken to be crucified. The novel goes further and makes Judah both the man who is attacked and stripped naked while attempting to follow Jesus after he's arrested, and the man who gives Jesus sour wine on a sponge, both mentioned in the Gospel of Mark.

** Averted for Judah when he comes to realize Jesus' role in saving Judea is a different thing then the revolutionary freedom fighter he envisioned in. Straight when Judah discovers the beautiful and mysterious Iras is actually a BitchInSheepsClothing.

* ChariotRace: The film version of the race is the TropeCodifier featuring SpikedWheels (Messala's "Greek chariot"), Messala whipping his horses and any driver within range. If you're tossed from the chariot, there's a token attempt at retrieval. Both the silent 1925 movie and the 1959 version featured spectacular accidents in each race that [[EnforcedMethodActing weren't staged]], [[invoked]] and the stunt drivers in each case only barely escaped with their lives. Ironically, while Messala exhibits an appaling lack of sportsmanship during the novel's version of the race and whips drivers who come in reach, it is ''Ben-hur'' who uses a quick trick with the reigns and the axle of his chariot to crush Messala's wheel and wreck him, though admittedly only after Messala was trying to do the same to him first.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: "Ben-Hur", meaning "Son of Hur", is a title of the men of the House of Hur. They are descended from the Hur who was mentioned in the Literature/BookOfExodus, he who helped Joshua hold Moses's arms up during a battle. Judah's actual father was named Ithamar, so his proper name would be "Judah ben Ithamar", but he just goes by Ben-Hur.

* Fiction500: Simonides, despite being crippled under torture, never cracks, and manages to secure the Hur family fortune, and devotes himself to growing it with shrewd investments. By the time he learns Judah is alive and meets with him, it has become an enormous fortune with which to allow Judah to finance his revenge, his attempt at a revolution, and, finally, protecting the nascent church.
* TheGhost: After being crippled physically and financially by the climactic chariot race, Messala never appears again in-person, only sometimes sending proxies or assassins after Ben-hur.
* GoldenMeanFallacy: Actually presented within the work. Balthazar sees the Messiah as a figure who will bring spiritual enlightenment and salvation to humanity, Ilderim a military leader who will drive out the Romans and establish a monotheistic empire. Judah spends most of the later half of the story arguing they're both right, and trying to set up cells of trained soldiers for when Jesus declares himself king in the Temple, only to realize, no, Balthazar was correct all along as the events of the Passover progress.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: The story happens in the background of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, arguably a more important series of events. The later half of the novel is slower-paced and more centered around the life and movements of Christ leading up to the Crucifixion and resurrection, but most adaptations leave these parts out.

** In the prologue, an old acquaintance of Joseph’s mistakes Mary for his daughter. Downplayed because offense is neither meant or taken.

* TellMeAboutMyFather: Downplayed. The Bethlehem Innkeeper knew of Mary's parents. Quintus Arrius knew of Judah's father. Neither acknowledgement results in getting information about dead parent.
* TimeSkip: The novel has several: (1) The decades between the Nativity and Gratus' arrival to Jerusalem. (2) The three years of Judah as a galley slave. (3) The five years of the adopted-Judah experiencing Rome. (4) Judah following Jesus' ministry. (5) The decades between the Crucifixion and Neronian persecutions. Most adaptations adapt 1 and/or 2.

* ShownTheirWork: Lew Wallace, the author, sought to make the novel as historically accurate as possible, studying the Bible and looking into Roman history, geography, culture, language, customs, architecture, and daily life in ancient Rome, among other things, but he did not visit Rome or the Holy Land until after his novel was published. He wrote in his autobiography that he went to "Washington, thence to Boston, for no purpose but to exhaust their libraries in an effort to satisfy [himself] of the mechanical arrangement of the oars in the interior of a trireme", a boat that got its name from its three rows of oars. He went to the Holy Land in the mid-1880s to trace the steps of Ben-Hur and test the accuracy of his description of Jerusalem. He wrote in his autobiography: "I found the descriptive details true to the existing objects and scenes, and I find no reason to make a single change in the text of the book."

* ShownTheirWork: Lew Wallace, the author, sought to make the novel as historically accurate as possible, studying the Bible and looking into Roman history, geography, culture, language, customs, architecture, and daily life in ancient Rome, among other things, but he did not visit Rome or the Holy Land until after his novel was published. He wrote in his autobiography that he went to "Washington, thence to Boston, for no purpose but to exhaust their libraries in an effort to satisfy [himself] of the mechanical arrangement of the oars in the interior of a trireme", a boat that got its name from its three rows of oars. He went to the Holy Land in the mid-1880s, after he published his novel, to trace the steps of Ben-Hur and test the accuracy of his description of Jerusalem. He wrote in his autobiography: "I found the descriptive details true to the existing objects and scenes, and I find no reason to make a single change in the text of the book."

* ShownTheirWork: Lew Wallace, the author, sought to make the novel as historically accurate as possible, studying the Bible and looking into Roman history, geography, culture, language, customs, architecture, and daily life in ancient Rome, among other things, but he did not visit Rome or the Holy Land until after his novel was published. He once tried to find the exact proportions for the oars of a Roman trireme, a boat that got its name from its three rows of oars. He went to the Holy Land in the mid-1880s and found his estimations accurate, writing that he could "find no reason to make a single change in the text of the book."

* BadassIsraeli: As part of becoming the adopted son of Quintus Arrius, Judah is trained in combat by ''lanistas'', or retired gladiators. He begins training others to, in effect, present Jesus with an army, but ultimately comes to understand the nature of the Christ's mission through the latter's death, which he witnesses. His men (save for a few, who accompany Judah) [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere abandon their cause]] after they also realize Jesus will not be the warrior-king Christ they all thought he would be.

* BadassIsraeli: Judah definitely fits the bill. Part of becoming the adopted son of Quintus Arrius, he is trained in combat by ''lanistas'', or retired gladiators. He begins training others to, in effect, present Jesus with an army, but ultimately comes to understand the nature of the Christ's mission through the latter's death, which he witnesses. His men (save for a few, who accompany Judah) [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere abandon their cause]] after they also realize Jesus will not be the warrior-king Christ they all thought he would be.

* BadassIsraeli: Judah definitely fits the bill. Part of becoming the adopted son of Quintus Arrius, he is trained in combat by ''lanistas'', or retired gladiators. He begins training others to, in effect, present Jesus with an army, but ultimately comes to understand the nature of Christ's mission and disbands them.

* ''Ben-Hur'' (2010), starring Creator/JosephMorgan as Ben-Hur, Stephen Campbell Moore as Messala and Creator/EmilyVanCamp as Esther.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: In the novel and 1959 and 2016 films Jesus gives Judah water when the latter is a prisoner. In the films Judah repays this by giving Jesus water as he is taken to be crucified. The novel goes further and makes Judah both the man who is attacked and stripped naked while attempting to follow Jesus after he's arrested, and the man who gives Jesus sour wine on a sponge, both mentioned in the Gospel of Mark.

** In a subversion, Judah's mother and sister are healed of their leprosy by Jesus personally when they meet him on the road to Jerusalem as he's riding a donkey and followed by crowds (i.e. Palm Sunday) but this doesn't make it into the Gospels. The 1959 movie changed this to them being healed as a result of the Crucifixion, when rainwater mixed with the blood of Christ drips/flows into the cave they're sheltered in.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: In the novel and 1959 and 2016 films Jesus gives Judah water when the latter is a prisoner. In the films Judah repays this by giving Jesus water as he is taken to be crucified. The novel goes further and makes Judah both a man who is attacked and loses his fine turban while attempting to follow Jesus, and the man who gives Jesus sour wine on a sponge, both mentioned in the Gospel of Mark.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: The story happens in the background of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, arguably a more important series of events. The later half of the novel is slower-paced and more centered around the life and movements of Christ leading up to the Crucifixion and resurrection, but most adaptations leave these parts out.

* RealMenLoveJesus: Judah is a BadassIsraeli, and devout in his Jewish faith. In the end, he embraces the teachings of Jesus as a miracle saves his family.

* BadassIsraeli: Judah definitely fits the bill. Part of becoming the foster son of Quintus Arrius, he is trained in combat by ''lanistas'', or retired gladiators. He begins training others to, in effect, present Jesus with an army, but ultimately comes to understand the nature of Christ's mission and disbands them.

''Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ'' -- UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} does have an important role in this story, [[HeroOfAnotherStory but it's often tangential]] -- is a novel written by Lewis "Lew" Wallace, a Union general in the American Civil War and Governor of New Mexico, and published in 1880. It was later adapted for several media, starting with theatre as soon as it was published and later inspiring several {{epic movie}}s.

* GoldenMeanFallacy: Actually presented within the work. Balthazar sees the Messiah as a figure who will bring spiritual enlightenment, Ilderim a military leader who will drive out the Romans and establish a monotheistic empire. Judah spends most of the later half of the story arguing they're both right, and trying to set up cells of trained soldiers for when Jesus declares himself king in the Temple, only to realize, no, Balthazar was correct all along as the events of the Passover progress.

* ChariotRace: The film version of the race is the TropeCodifier featuring SpikedWheels (Messala's "Greek chariot"), Messala whipping his horses and any driver within range. If you're tossed from the chariot, there's a token attempt at retrieval. Both the silent 1925 movie and the 1959 version featured spectacular accidents in each race that [[EnforcedMethodActing weren't staged]], [[invoked]] and the stunt drivers in each case only barely escaped with their lives. Ironically, while Messala exhibits an appaling lack of sportsmanship during the novel's version of the race, it is ''Ben-hur'' who uses a quick trick with the reigns and the axle of his chariot to crush Messala's wheel and wreck him.

* TheGhose: After being crippled physically and financially by the climactic chariot race, Messala never appears again in-person, only sometimes sending proxies or assassins after Ben-hur.

* ChariotRace: The race is the TropeCodifier featuring SpikedWheels (Messala's "Greek chariot"), Messala whipping his horses and any driver within range. If you're tossed from the chariot, there's a token attempt at retrieval. Both the silent 1925 movie and the 1959 version featured spectacular accidents in each race that [[EnforcedMethodActing weren't staged]], [[invoked]] and the stunt drivers in each case only barely escaped with their lives.

* {{Nepotism}}: Joseph being a descendant of the House of David is major clout.
* OccupiersOutOfOurCountry: The point of view of the zealots concerning the Romans, especially in the 2016 film.
* {{Pride}}: This proves to be Messala's financial undoing. Sheik Ilderim- backed by Judah's fortune- makes an expensive wager on the race, with all participants paying said sum to the winner. Messala knows that his own finances can't match the sum. If he bids and loses the race, he is bankrupt. On the other hand, his Pride as a Roman (and social standing) cannot allow him to refuse, especially to a rival he has deemed inferior. He joins the wager, loses the race, and is financially and socially ruined.

* SparedByTheAdaptation:
** In the 2003 film, Messala lives on as a cripple and is healed at the death of Christ where he reconciles with the House of Hur.
** Both the 1925 and 1959 versions spare Quintus Arrius. Drowned at Sea in the novel (in a later, unrelated incident), the adaptations make his final appearance give a heartfelt goodbye to Judah before he leaves Rome to locate his family.

* DemotedToExtra: Amrah, the Hur maid. In the novel, she is keeper of the abandoned Hur Palace, becomes SecretKeeper about the Hur Women being Lepers & becomes their caregiver, and persuades the women to see Jesus for their healing. The 1925 and 1959 film versions demote Amrah to a cameo and gives her actions to Esther (although the 1925 version of Amrah does live in the Palace and is the one to tell Esther about Jesus' healing powers, inspiring her to get the women).

* CompressedAdaptation
** Excluding the Nativity prologue and the Neronian Epilogue, the main narrative of the novel spans eleven years (although most of those years are diluted by time-skips like the three years between Judah's arrest and the Sea Battle that saves him, the five years between Judah's adoption by Arrius to his return to Judea, and the three years between Judah joining Jesus and the Passion. The 1925 and 1959 versions compressed the timeline to about four years.

* AdaptationalHeroism:
** In the novel, when Judah is on a sinking slave ship, and finds himself unchained, he immediately gets off the ship. In the 1959 and 2016 movies, Judah takes the opportunity to punch out a guard, steal his keys, and free all the other slaves on the ship, before escaping himself.
** Virtually all adaptations give the character of Messala more dimensions than he possessed in the original novel; Judah's childhood friend is depicted as having gone away to Rome and come back infected with imperialist, racist, and selfish philosophies, such that he gloats about ruining Judah for his own benefit in the last words they exchange before sending him off to the galleys and demonstrates no redeeming qualities afterwards.

** In the novel and the 1925 film, the plot is kicked off when Judah accidentally knocks a roof tile on the head of a Roman centurion and gets arrested. In the 1959 movie, Judah's sister is the one who dislodges the roof tile, but Judah deliberately takes the blame in an attempt to spare his sister.

** In the 2016 film, Messala gets this, because the incident that kickstarts the plot is not a dislodged roof tile but an arrow fired [[spoiler:by a zealot from the top of the House of Hur as an actual assassination attempt on Pontius Pilate. Messala even finds evidence that the Hurs had been harboring the zealot and nursing his wounds for some time]]. This means that he actually has valid reason to do what he does to Judah and his entire family. On top of that Messala is also shown questioning some of the orders of his superiors both in the Jewish revolt and other wars he is shown participating in against enemies of Rome and even does his best to find a favorable settlement between the Jews and the Romans. Also he is shown saving Ben-Hur in his childhood and later truly begs for forgiveness from Ben after the climatic chariot race that Ben chooses to rescue him in his crippled condition.
** The 1959 version had Judah reconsider his revenge on Messala, even personally telling him he will let him go if he releases his mother and sister. When he is told about their "deaths" he goes through with his revenge, even though he acknowledges the immorality of it (before the race, he prays to God).

* DeathByAdaptation:
** In the novel Messala survives being crippled at the race and remains a thorn in Judah's side for years (like sending assassins after him), and lives past the Crucifixion, but is murdered by a rejected love interest of Judah. He dies after being trampled by his horses in the 1959 film.
** In the 2016 film [[spoiler:Quintus Arrius doesn't survive the naval battle where Judah gains his freedom. Not only does Judah not rescue him like the previous versions, but he also ''makes sure Arrius dies'']].
** In the 2016 film [[spoiler:Simonidies is killed by a Roman soldier during the Hur Family's arrest. Unlike previous versions, he doesn't survive arrest, interrogation, and torture to later help finance Judah in his revenge]].

* TheQueensLatin:
** In the 1959 film, Roman characters are mostly played by Brits, and speak accordingly.
** In the 2016 film, the only Latin spoken is the Legion's marching song as they enter Jerusalem.

** In the 1925 film, although Messala [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse disappears after the chariot race]], he is said to have survived and lost his fortune to Judah after betting on himself to win the race.

** In the 2016 film, Messala is shown escaping Jerusalem alongside Ben and Esther after he reconciles with the Judah household.

* ''Ben-Hur'' (1907), a thirteen minutes-long [[EarlyFilms silent film]]. It features William S. Hart, who would later become a major star of cowboy movies, as Messala.

[[folder:Tropes featured in the novel and most adaptations]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes specific to the 1907 film]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1907benhur.png]]

* TheMockbuster: It was actually an unauthorized adaptation that provoked a successful lawsuit by the book's copyright holders. Silent film blogger Fritzi Kramer [[http://moviessilently.com/2016/03/29/silent-movie-myth-the-first-ben-hur-film-was-made-in-1907-and-all-subsequent-versions-are-remakes/ makes the case]] that, as a low-budget production meant to ride on the coattails of a more famous property (in this case, the book and its authorized stage adaptations), that film should be regarded as an early example of mockbuster.
* PragmaticAdaptation: The film runs for only thirteen minutes. How do you cram ''Ben-Hur'' into only thirteen minutes? Well, you omit the backstory with Ben-Hur and Messala entirely, you cover with a single title card the whole section with Ben-Hur as a galley slave who is eventually adopted by Arrius, you omit Ben-Hur's romance with Esther, and you end the movie with the chariot race.
[[/folder]]

* ''Ben-Hur'' (2016), starring Creator/JackHuston as Ben-Hur, Creator/TobyKebbell as Messala, Creator/MorganFreeman as Sheik Ilderim, Creator/AyeletZurer as Naomi, Creator/PilouAsbaek as Pontius Pilate and Creator/RodrigoSantoro as Jesus. It ended up a [[invoked]]BoxOfficeBomb among a number of others that summer that nearly sank Creator/{{Paramount}}.

[[folder:Tropes specific to the 2016 film]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2016benhur.jpg]]

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: Messala is truly remorseful for his betrayal and he suffers elements of PTSD from the wars he fought in for Rome.
* AdaptationalBadass: Messala's wartime experiences are shown via flashbacks and he is shown as a skilled swordsman and also a competent commander. He is so good that in one battle the panicking Roman general in charge even gives him direct command of the Roman army.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Quintus Arrius is a total and complete bastard in this version. [[spoiler: He abuses the galley slaves so badly Judah doesn't lift a finger to save him]].
* BadassPacifist: Jesus. Two Romans comment to each other that his peaceful preaching and messages are far more dangerous than the zealots themselves.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Pilate after the climatic ChariotRace. Pointing out how the crowd enjoyed the (arguably horrific) spectacle, he notes that they have clearly started to accept and adhere to those Roman values they had despised and rejected as barbaric until very shortly before. Of course, this is before a [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} certain Nazarene]] dies on the cross, blessing his murderers...
-->'''Pilate:''' Look at them. They all want blood. They're Romans now.
* CompositeCharacter:
** Quintus Arrius does not appear again after his death in the galley scene, so Ilderim takes some of his role as Judah's mentor and benefactor.
** Pontius Pilate becomes Governor much earlier in this adaptation, becoming the catalyst for the Hur's downfall instead of Gratus.
* CompressedAdaptation: The film omits Judah's time in Rome entirely (what with Quintus Arrius being an irredeemable bastard who dies early on) and goes straight from his galley ordeal to him meeting Sheik Ilderim.
* DayOfTheJackboot: There are hints at this trope when Legio X Fretensis marches into Jerusalem, chanting "Legio Aeterna Victrix" [[note]]More or less: "The legion will be forever victorious"[[/note]]. There is even a short scene with [[ANaziByAnyOtherName a soldier inciting a black dog to attack the stunned citizens]].
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Messala survives his crippling in the arena and makes peace with Judah, becoming his brother once more. It's implied that he even gets together with Tirzah]].
* HonorBeforeReason: Judah causes his mother and sister to be crucified and himself to be enslaved because he takes responsibility for an assassination attempt on Pontius Pilate by a Jewish assassin, rather than turn in a fellow Jew.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The Romans behave like this.
** Marcus Decimus dresses Messala down for having subjugated a village without razing it to the ground and killing all the inhabitants.
** The Romans desecrate an old Jewish cemetery by stealing the tombstones and using them to build their circus. [[LaserGuidedKarma The zealots are not happy...]]
** When the X Legion enters Jerusalem, it is preceded by soldiers who incite black dogs against the citizens.
** After Judah attacks Massala in the old Ben-Hur's house, Pilate orders a brutal reprisal. Twenty Jews are taken in the road and crucified.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Judah is openly skeptical about the zealots' actions, even if he does not hand Dismas over to the Romans and hide him in his house (possibly, [[ThickerThanWater out of loyalty for his sister who has apparently joined them]]). He repeatedly points out that it is unlikely that they will ever be able to drive the all powerful Roman legions out of Judea and that, as a matter of fact, they are only making the Roman rule more oppressive and ruthless. He is [[TheCassandra dramatically proven right]] when the Roman High Command orders an entire legion into the sacred city of Jerusalem as a show of force.
[[/folder]]

* ''Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ '' (1925), the classic [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]] silent film starring Ramón Novarro as Ben-Hur and Francis X. Bushman as Messala.

[[folder:Tropes specific to the 1925 film]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/benhur1925.jpg]]

* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: A look at Mary's face is able to win over wary people, like an overprotective mother and the Bethlehem Innkeeper.
* CollapsingLair: The Roman Praetorium collapses from an earthquake during the Crucifixion.
* CoolHelmet: The leather helmet with small MercurysWings Messala wears during the ChariotRace.
* DeadHandShot: Jesus' last scene is a close-up of his nailed hand going limp during the Crucifixion. (This scene only exists in earlier videos of the film like the MGM/UA VHS and Laserdisc. The recent Warner DVD and Blu-Ray omits this scene.)
* EpicMovie: It was the most expensive movie ever made at the time, and one of the most expensive silent movies ever made.
* {{Fanservice}}: A lot of nudity for a 1925 silent film. The Galley has a manacled whipped slave exposing his full naked backside. Ben-Hur's triumphant procession in Rome shows our hero and Arrius escorted by a group of bare-breasted women.
* FilchingFoodForFun: Roman soldiers steal apples from a peddler. The peddler is righteously angered when he thinks an old man stole the fruit, but once he learns the identity of the true thieves, he backs off and plays nice to the armed oppressors.
* FriendshipDenial: Doubly Subverted. Messala shuns Judah in the public company of his Roman friends...but once they are alone he emotionally embraces Judah as a long-missed friend. This does not last.
* GirlsBehindBars: The underground prison where the Hur women are kept appears to be female-only.
* InCameraEffects: Jesus healing the Hur Women was done by color filters removing the color-contrasting make-up.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Doubly Subverted. Although he admits no offense to Judah, Messala insultingly gloats that Judah's "stiff-necked" race (that "crawls in the dust") must understand and submit to their better Roman masters. His words hurt Judah, making him realize how different his best friend has become since last they met.
* IronicEcho: Messala gloats about Roman superiority, dismissing the Jews. He tells Judah to forget he is a Jew. Years later, Messala is hesitant about betting against the wager for the race which Judah's fortune can afford to lose but his own fortune cannot. Judah smugly repeats their previous conversation: has Messala forgotten he is a Roman and he is a Jew? Goaded by this, Messala signs on.
* KillItWithFire: When the prison guard realizes he has touched a cell inhabited by lepers, he puts his hand over a burning torch to remove any possible contagion.
* LastSupperSteal: The film recreates the painting -- but since Jesus must remain TheFaceless, the shot has Judas Iscariot, separated from the rest, sitting directly in front of him.
** Several medieval depictions of the event would put Judas Iscariot to the other side of the table, isolating him away from the other disciples because of his future betrayal. DaVinci's painting was actually a subversion to this tradition.
* OhCrap:
** The shipwrecked Judah climbs aboard the Roman Trireme, happy to be rescued...until he spots a porthole showing the soul-dead face of a Galley Slave. Judah realizes rescue will mean a return to Galley slavery. Fortunately, Arrius saves him.
** Messala does this several times. When he meets Judah for the first time before the company of his cool Roman friends. When he hesitates about signing on the expensive wager for the race, knowing losing will bankrupt him. During the race, when he sees Judah's chariot gaining on him.
* PummelingTheCorpse: A Galley slave freaks out, but two guards whip him into submission and death. A fellow slave notes that the man is already dead but the guards continue their lashing regardless.
* PropertyOfLove: Esther is deemed to be Judah's slave, since her father was. She even makes a pose of submission before him. They declare their love for each other, but he never actually frees her, unlike what he does in the 1959 film.
* SecretLegacy: Simonidies keeps secret the fact that he and his daughter Esther are bond slaves of the Hur Family. He denies Judah's legitimacy as the long-lost Prince of Hur because it will lead to revealing his daughter's slave status (with its ramifications). Learning the truth, Esther convinces her father to recognize Judah and assist him.
* SplashOfColor: Most of the film is shot in black and white, but most of the scenes that deal with Christ are colorized, as is Ben-Hur's triumph and the final scene.
* UnnamedParent: Judah's mother is not named at all. Her only title is ''Princess of Hur''.
* TheVamp: Iras the Egyptian is portrayed as such in this adaptation. She is Messala's mistress, sent to seduce and learn the identity of the rival charioteer 'The Unknown Jew' (Judah's Alias). She fails in the seduction but learns his identity, the info to which Messala denies.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Messala is shown being taken away from the chariot race injured but alive, and is described as "broken" after losing his fortune to Judah. He is never mentioned again.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The Pirates use snakes as part of their artillery in the Sea Battle. There is a scene of a wounded Roman Soldier writhing helplessly as snakes slither upon him.
[[/folder]]

* ''Ben-Hur'' (1959), the classic Panavision extravaganza directed by Creator/WilliamWyler and produced by MGM once again, by far the best known, starring Creator/CharltonHeston as Ben-Hur and Creator/StephenBoyd as Messala and boasting a score by Music/MiklosRozsa. It was a massive box office success and cleaned house at the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward ceremony in 1960, being nominated for 12 Academy Awards and winning 11, missing only Adapted Screenplay. The film won Best Picture, Wyler won Best Director, Heston won Best Actor and Hugh Griffith took home Best Supporting Actor for playing Sheikh Ilderim. The 11 Oscars set a record, since matched by ''[[Film/Titanic1997 Titanic]]'' and ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'' but still not beaten (and the latter two films got most of their awards on technical merits such as costuming and special effects). See [[Recap/BenHur here]] for a plot summary.

[[folder:Tropes specific to the 1959 film]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/benhur1959_9.jpg]]

* ActorAllusion: Creator/CharltonHeston's [[Film/TheTenCommandments other best-known role]] also has him playing a Jewish character, who returns after being years away to set things right.
* AdaptationalSexuality: Director Creator/WilliamWyler and co-screenwriter Creator/GoreVidal told Stephen Boyd, the actor portraying Messala, to play him as if he and Judah had been lovers during their youth and that his vindictiveness is therefore motivated by a romantic rejection as much as a political one (while not telling Charlton Heston). There is nothing in the book to imply that that Judah and Messala were ever lovers. It's good to remember that ancient Roman notions of sexuality and identity were different from ours.
* ArrangedMarriage: Esther. She doesn't go through with it.
* {{Brownface}}: Welsh actor Hugh Griffith playing the Arab Sheik Ilderim.
* CallBack: Throughout the film, Judah has several moments involving the mezuzah beside his door whenever he approaches it. He kisses it by rote when he meets Simonidies. Four years later, when he returns to the palace, he face-hugs the mezuzah (thanking God for his return). When he is informed of his mother & sister's "deaths", he smashes the mezuzah in anger (Later, there is no scene about it when he comes home from Pilate, suggesting he ignored it). Coming home from the Crucifixion, the enlightened Judah repairs the mezuzah.
* ChekhovsSkill: Ben-Hur's [[JavelinThrower spear throwing]] skills.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: During the chariot race, Ben-Hur gets white horses, while Messala gets black horses.
* CoolHorse: Ilderim's "children" are supposed to be Arabians, but are played by Lipizzaners, which are descended from North African Barbs. The sorrel horse Ilderim rides ''is'' an Arab; she shows the characteristic "flagging" of her tail as she runs.
* DemotedToExtra: Simon of Cyrene is little more than a background character in this film, shown being ordered by a Roman soldier to carry the cross while Judah tries to give Jesus water.
* DepravedHomosexual: The film had Messala be played as if he and Judah had been lovers as youths. As the antagonist, Messala ends up as this as well as other villain tropes. Of course, it should be noted that Messala is only this trope by a modern dichotomies as neither "heterosexual" nor "homosexual" formed the primary dichotomy of Roman thinking and no Latin word for either exists.
* {{Determinator}}: Messala after being trampled by horses in the chariot race. He is determined to stay alive so he could speak to Judah one last time.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Judah refusing to be an informant for Messala and betray the confidence of those unhappy with the Roman rule of Judea, since he also desires freedom for his people. Messala responds to this slight by invoking that he's either WithUsOrAgainstUs and then declares Judah to be his sworn enemy when he still refuses. It becomes truly disproportionate when Messala arrests Judah and his entire family for a crime he ''knows'' was an accident, consigning him to life as a slave and his family to [[HellholePrison the Citadel]].
** Judah feels this happened to Messala during the chariot race when the latter got trampled to death when all Judah really wanted was to humiliate his former friend by defeating him in front of the Roman government and population of Judea.
* DutchAngle: An extremely powerful one that shows Jesus on the cross.
* DroneOfDread: The rowing scene uses gradually-accelerating cellos.
* EmergingFromTheShadows: Ben-Hur makes use of this when showing up at Messala's door after his return from Rome.
* EmpathicEnvironment: The literal house that Judah's family lives in mirrors the fall and eventual return of its owners; the crucifixion takes place in the middle of a huge storm.
* EpicMovie: Spars with ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'', ''Film/TheTenCommandments'', ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' and ''Film/DoctorZhivago'' as the quintessential example of the type for UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood.
* TheFaceless: Jesus' face is never shown and he's generally only ever seen from behind apart from a very brief shot just before he falls carrying the cross in which part of his face is just about visible.
* FascinatingEyebrow: Quintus Arrius, as he looks at the galley slaves dropping.
* FunnyForeigner: Sheikh Ilderim is the movie's resident PluckyComicRelief.
* HarshWordImpact: Ben-Hur visibly reacts when Esther accuses him of becoming like Messala.
* HellHolePrison: What it says on the tin when we see scenes of "the citadel".
* HomoeroticSubtext: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxecELnxMYU A deliberate example.]] Director Creator/WilliamWyler and co-screenwriter Creator/GoreVidal told Stephen Boyd, the actor portraying Messala, to play him as if he and Judah had been lovers as youths and that his vindictiveness is therefore motivated by a sexual and romantic rejection as much as a political one. They did not, however, tell Charlton Heston, who found out years later and was ''not'' pleased. This did add an interesting dynamic to the scenes between Judah and Messala, since Heston's uncomfortable reactions to some of Boyd's behavior came off as reluctance towards his former lover.
* InsistentTerminology: Pontius Pilate ''insists'' on referring to Judah by his adopted Roman name of Arrius the Younger, as part of his attempt to civilise him into the Roman way of life. Judah eventually snaps and [[BewareTheQuietOnes quietly but intensely]] says "I am Judah Ben-Hur."
* IronicEcho: "We keep you alive to serve this ship. Row well, and live."
** As Judah is dragged off to the slave ship, Jesus gives him much-needed water despite the Roman guards threatening to stop him. Later, when Ben-Hur sees that the "miracle healer" is Jesus, he tries to return the favor of offering Jesus some water during his tribulation only for the Romans to successfully stop him.
* {{Irony}}: Judah being a slave on a galley ship, surrounded by endless water that he cannot drink.
** Additionally, the ocean symbolizes death for the Jewish people (being desert peoples, they never learned to swim), so it's also symbolic of how he "died" and was later "reborn".
* KillItWithFire: After realizing the cell has been housing lepers, the jailer orders it burned clean.
* LampshadedDoubleEntendre: Sheik Ilderim does this. "One God, that I can understand; but one wife? That is not civilized. ''[nudges Judah]'' It is not generous!"
* KnightsAndKnaves: Ben-Hur deduces that whatever Messala says about his mother and sister, he will mean the exact opposite.
* LargeHam:
** You can tell Hugh Griffith is enjoying himself as Ilderim. Heston as Judah has a few moments as well.
** The hortator, as part of his job. "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXh1tW16V-8 RAMMING! SPEED!]]"
* {{Letterbox}}: The chariot sequence is ALWAYS presented in letterbox, even if the rest of the movie is a PanAndScan format.
%%* ManlyGay: Messala %% Zero Context Example
%%* ManlyTears: Creator/CharltonHeston cries his eyes out nearly every fifteen minutes. %% Zero Context Example
* MrFanservice: Creator/CharltonHeston and Stephen Boyd both get shirtless scenes.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [[UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy HUAC Hearings]] moment as Messala demands to know who the Jews are who didn't like his "no grumbling about the Romans" request, and Judah won't tell him.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Judah sums it up beautifully in this exchange.
-->'''Messala:''' By what magic do you bear the name of a Consul of Rome?
-->'''Judah:''' You were the magician, Messala. You had me condemned to the galley. When my ship was sunk, I saved the Consul's life.
* NotSoDifferent: At one point, Esther lampshades that Judah's hatred of Rome has made him just as bitter as Messala.
* OhCrap:
** When Judah looks for Miriam and Tirzah in the leper colony, he runs into Esther bringing them food and water. She has a quietly horrified "Oh Crap!" look as she has previously told him (by their request) that they were dead.
** The Roman soldier when he realized he almost cussed out ''Jesus'' for giving Ben-Hur water. He doesn't know ''who'' this guy is, but it's clear he's sheepishly reacting to the way Jesus must be looking at him (since we only see Jesus from behind) as if he went against something he can't comprehend or go against.
** Messala's stunned reaction when a very much alive Judah shows up to challenge him.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality:
** Quintus Arrius is a slave-keeping imperialist just like Messala. But because he adopts Ben-Hur, he's considered a good guy. Even Pontius Pilate gets off relatively lightly.
** After being accused of attempting to assassinate the governor and trying to escape from custody, Judah claims that he is no murderer... despite having been just shown strangling one of the guards with his chains and the film [[AmbiguousSituation never]] [[TheUnreveal revealing]] whether or not he actually ''did'' kill him or just choked him unconscious. Or perhaps he doesn't consider fighting to escape in the heat of the moment to be "murder", as opposed to what modern people would consider "cold-blooded murder".
* ReactionShot: In the scene where Jesus offers the enslaved Judah water to drink, the Roman centurion rushes forward to confront him... and halts in his tracks when Jesus turns to face him, as we see a whirl of emotions (anger, confusion, fear, shame) flicker across his face as if he saw something he shouldn't go against.
* RedemptionInTheRain: A huge thunderstorm whips up during the crucifixion and the healing of Judah's mother and sister takes place at the same time Judah himself gives up on vengeance. Jesus is still up on the cross; the rain washes his blood down along the ground and into the cave where the women are sheltering, and so they are healed and "reborn".
* RemakeCameo: Various sources indicate that May [=McEvoy=], who played Esther in the 1925 film, appears as an extra in a crowd scene somewhere in the 1959 film.
* SlaveGalley: TropeCodifier. Chained rowers, brutal overseers with whips, and a drummer.
* SistineSteal: The movie popularized the use of ''The Creation of Adam'' in mainstream media (although not a parody here).
* TheEmpath: Jesus seems to be a version of one when he stands up to the Roman soldier for Judah. The soldier looks like he is experiencing a flood of emotions, as if he is suddenly acutely aware of the suffering he is cruelly inflicting on others, and feels guilty.
* TimePassageBeard: Judah grows one during his years in the galley.
* TraumaCongaLine: What's [[FateWorseThanDeath worse than death]]? Knowing your sister and mother are wasting away in the Valley of the Lepers.
* UndyingLoyalty: Simonides, Judah's father's life-long financial minister and willing slave. Even after being brutally tortured and "beaten out of human shape" by the Romans seeking to claim the family's wealth, he gives them nothing, and when Judah returns he is able to give him access to tremendous wealth necessary to finance his revenge.
* YouAreNumberSix: Ben-Hur being called "Forty-One" on the Galley.
[[/folder]]