Quotes

Judah Ben-Hur: If I cannot persuade them, that does not mean I will help you... *murder* them. Besides, you must understand this, Messala. I believe in the past of my people, *and* in their future.

Messala: Future? You are a conquered people!

Judah Ben-Hur: You may conquer the land; you may slaughter the people. But that is not the end. We will rise again.

Trivia

The spectator crowd in the chariot race scene was partially made up of small wood models. See more...

Mistake pictures

Movie Mistakes blog

Other great sites

Ben-Hur (1959) - 46 mistakes

Directed by William Wyler, starring Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance

Mistakes

⇑

⇓

Continuity: Ben-Hur places his crown on a table when he visits the fallen Messala, but upon returning the table and crown are gone.

Edit Time

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Revealing: During the chariot race, where the contestants are riding towards the screen, tyre tracks from the camera vehicle are clearly visible imprinted in the sand.

Edit Time

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Revealing: When one of the ships collides with the other, you can clearly see that the rowers being hit are dummies.

Edit Time

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Factual error: When Messala is passing through Nazareth, he says they will be in Jerusalem by tomorrow night. Nazareth is approximately 90 miles from Jerusalem. It would take three days to cover that distance, not one.

Edit

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Factual error: Al-Tair and al-Deberan are the names of the Arab Sheikh's horses, and he states they're named after the stars. Those stars were given their names by Arabian astronomers, and calculated astronomy by the Arabs emerged during medieval Islam in the 7th and 8th century CE, 674 years after the plot of the movie takes place.

Edit

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Continuity: When Judah comes back to his house and meets Esther, the curls over her forehead change several times throughout the scene.

Edit Submitted by Nancy<>Felix Time

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Continuity: In the parade of chariots before the race, the riders are shown circling the track once before making their way to the starting line. As they emerge from the stables, the horses and chariots leave very noticeable tracks on the ground so you can trace their progress around the track. The riders head down the right side of the track (from the perspective of the stables) then make the wide turn to head down the backstretch, and then make the wide turn back onto the right side of the track where they started. The film then cuts to a wide shot of the riders heading back down the right side of the track for the second time, but the track ahead of them and all the way down the backstretch is now clean of any tracks. It's clear this shot comes from when the riders first emerged from the stables. The riders then stop on the starting line on the backstretch, which means they were either transported to the other side of the track without making a third turn, or they did 1 lap around the track in the space of 1 and a half laps.

Edit Submitted by Vader47000

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Factual error: The galley during the battle scene is rowed by slaves. Romans during this time period didn't use slaves to row their galleys. Rowers had to be able fight. If not, the Romans would be outnumbered 200 to 30 when they boarded the pirate ship as the pirates rowers would be able to fight.

Edit

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Continuity: During Ben Hur and Messala's duel on the chariots, Messala's wheel-scythes tear away most of the right hand side of Ben Hur's chariot. When Messala has been thrown and Ben Hur crosses the finish line a few moments later, however, the camera has zoomed out far enough to reveal that his chariot is perfectly intact.

Edit

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Continuity: When Arrius makes the galley do a practice race and finally allows them to rest the oars are going up and down from the waves. However, when the camera is close on Judah the oars are perfectly still.

Edit Submitted by Nancy<>Felix Time

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Continuity: At one time during the chariot race Judah and Messala are going side by side. Then Judah steers his horses against the inner wall and almost comes to a complete halt. However, an instant later he is abreast with Messala again.

Edit Submitted by Nancy<>Felix Time

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Continuity: When the Sheik is taking down the bets, his man, who handed him the book, is standing behind him with his hands down. When the camera angle changes, his hands are folded.

Edit Submitted by Nancy<>Felix Time

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Continuity: During the scene when Ben-Hur meets his servant, Simonides, he removes his turban, and his hair is flat and sweaty. The shot pans to his mother, and when it cuts back, his hair is dry and combed.

Edit Submitted by wizard_of_gore

Correction Edit text Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Continuity: When the baskets are being loaded to be lowered into the Valley of the Lepers, someone loads two heads of lettuce onto a basket. Just as the basket is being lowered, someone else throws in three more heads. When the basket hits the bottom, there are only three heads of lettuce.

Edit Submitted by wizard_of_gore

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Factual error: Before the chariot race, Sheik Ilderim pins a Star of David on Ben Hur's belt. The Star of David did not become a Jewish symbol until the Middle Ages.

Edit Submitted by wizard_of_gore

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Factual error: In the movie, Pontius Pilate is appointed to be governor of Judea around AD 32 (Judah is enslaved in AD 28, spends 3 years as a slave and then at least one year with Arrius before he meets Pilate, who is still not appointed). In reality, Pilate was the governor of Judea from AD 26-36.

Edit Submitted by Twotall

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Continuity: Right before the chariot race, Sheik Ilderim is on Judah's left side, pointing out the spikes on Messala's wheels. There's a shot of the wheels and then back to Judah, where the Sheik is now on Judah's right side. Judah holds the Sheik's forearm as the fanfare starts. Then a long shot, showing the Sheik, now on Judah's left side again, and Judah removing his hand from the Sheik's forearm.

Edit Submitted by ChiChi

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Factual error: Quintus Arrius is fighting an enormous fleet of Macedonian pirates. However, Macedonia had been a Roman province since 148 BC and after the defeat of the Cilician pirates by Pompey in 67 BC the Mediterranean was free of pirates. The movie is set nearly 100 years later.

Edit

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Continuity: When Judah goes to the place where the leper lives, a man tells him it's a cursed place and puts a lettuce or a cabbage on a plate. It has disappeared the shot later.

Edit Submitted by Dr Wilson

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

⇑

⇓

Audio problem: When the rowers in the Roman galley were going normal speed, you could tell that the drum was sounding before the drummer hit it.

Edit

Correction Edit text Change type Duplicate Add time Add picture Minor X

1 2 3 • Next page • Show all

Easily printable version of this page