Still 11-Oscar great! “Ben-Hur” on 4K UHD
- Bill Kelley III
- 8 hours ago
- 6 min read
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince arrested by his childhood friend Messala, a Roman commander played by Irish actor Stephen Boyd. (2) Judah’s first encounter with Jesus of Nazareth.
(Click an image to scroll the larger versions)
“BEN-HUR”
4K Ultra HD; 1959; not rated, contains scenes of action violence; Digital copy via Amazon Video (4K), Apple TV (4K), DirecTV (4K), Fandango at Home (4K), Google Play (4K), Movies Anywhere (4K), Verizon (4K), Xfinity (4K)
Best extra: A ported-over 80-minute documentary on the life and career of Charlton “Chuck” Heston
EASTER is the perfect time to experience the new 4K Ultra HD release of one of Hollywood’s most celebrated motion pictures.
“Ben-Hur” received 11 Oscars at the 32nd Academy Awards, the most golden statues ever presented to one film. Today, “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2002) and “Titanic” (1997) match the 11-Oscar record. In 1995, the Vatican selected “Ben-Hur” as one of the most important films on religion/values/art.
Fifteen years ago, Warner Bros. spent over $1 million restoring “Ben-Hur” frame-by-frame for its 50th anniversary, using the original 5-perf 65mm camera negative (275-percent larger than normal 35mm film stock) and scanned each frame at 8K/10-bit resolution for its Blu-ray release. The studio admitted the process took longer than expected. “Our primary goal was to deliver the finest presentation possible, and we have succeeded,” said studio executive Jeff Baker, vice president and general manager of catalog films.
VIDEO
For the new 4K UHD physical disc and digital release, and 2025’s theatrical screening at the TMC film festival, Warner decided to pull the large-format camera negative from the studio vaults one more time to make a new 8K restoration. Using the latest and greatest scanning software with a higher processing bit
-rate, plus HDR10 and Dolby Vision grading, the results are astonishing.
The film is split over two 4K discs; the first disc is a 100 GB disc, including the six-minute Overture, and 135 minutes of the first and second acts until the intermission. The second disc is encoded on a 66 GB disc for the final 75 minutes.
The expanded HDR contrast and colors are brilliant and deeply saturated like no other film on 4K, with its reds, blues, greens, and purple. The onscreen clarity is unmatched, while keeping the tight film grain intact.
Director William Wyler (“The Best Years of Our Lives,” “Roman Holiday”) and cinematographer Robert L. Surtees (“The Sting,” “The Last Picture Show”) framed the epic in the ultra-widescreen 2.76:1 aspect ratio with MGM’s new Camera 65 and Panavision’s new 65 camera at a whopping $100,000 per camera. Only a handful of films have been captured in this 65mm extreme wide ratio: Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” (2015), “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1963), “Battle of the Bulge” (1965), “The Greatest Story Ever Told” (1965), “Khartoum” (1966) and 2025’s highly praised “Sinners” for its non-IMAX ratio screens.
AUDIO
The five-channel lossless DTS-HD soundtrack from the 2011 Blu-ray is ported over and still hits all of the high notes, with Miklós Rózsa’s Oscar-winning score. But Warner decided to upgrade the soundtrack to Dolby Atmos. Dialogue is still front and center, delivering a powerful punch with Rozsa’s driving score. Effects envelope the room, especially during the chariot race.
HISTORY/PLOT
After the success of Cecil B. DeMille’s Biblical sword-and-sandal epic “The Ten Commandments” (1956), MGM, once a powerhouse of Hollywood, took a gamble on a retelling of “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ,” based on a novel by former Civil War General Lew Wallace. It had been a silent blockbuster for MGM in 1925, running nearly two and a half hours. Its famed chariot race was staged inside an enormous stadium just outside of Los Angeles with tens of thousands of extras.
Wyler and Charlton Heston (“The Ten Commandments,” “Touch of Evil”) decided to reunite after their western “Big Country.” Heston stars as Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince sentenced to slavery by his childhood friend Messala, a Roman commander played by Irish actor Stephen Boyd. Years later, Ben-Hur seeks revenge until a fateful encounter with Jesus of Nazareth.
Wyler pressed on as his production budget spiraled out of control at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios, especially with the grueling five weeks of filming the chariot race. A new Panavision anamorphic lens was developed for the production, and more than 80 horses from around the globe were used in the race, with 7,000 extras in the stands. At the time, it was the most expensive movie ever made and one of the longest, running nearly three and a half hours.
“Ben-Hur” saved the nearly bankrupt studio. Today, the chariot race is still considered one of the greatest action sequences ever filmed. In his commentary featured on the 4K disc, Heston calls the three-week chariot training a “formidable task.” At the time, he received the largest sum ever paid to an actor, which amounted to eight percent of the gross and an up-front payment of $350,000.
When “Ben-Hur” hit theaters in the fall of 1959, it became a movie event to experience. The marketing campaign was over-the-top, with swords for the kids, costume gowns for the ladies, paperback books, and even candy bars. It became the fastest and biggest-grossing film at the time, finishing as the No. 1 box office film of the year.
EXTRAS
The 4K discs include the archival commentary with film historian T. Gene Hatcher and Heston.
NEW “Ben-Hur: Anatomy of an Epic” (7 mins.) – provides a number of factoids: confirming 15,000 extras, over 1 million feet of film, one hundred wardrobe specialists, 200 camels, and 2,500 horses. Find comments from film critic/columnist Pete Hammond for Deadline.com, Academy Museum director of Film Programs K.J. Reith-Miller, film historian Tony Maietta, and recent Oscar-winning cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw (“Sinners”).
NEW “The Cinematography of Scale” (8 mins.) –Tommy Rose of Panavision pinpoints how MGM approached Robert Gottschalk, founder of Panavision, to develop the ultra-wide lens. So, “Ben-Hur” became the first major film to use the new 1.25 squeeze anamorphic lens, mounted onto the large-format 2.20:1 negative camera. “It gave you this canvas that is incredible, where they could line up eight horses across an entire frame,” says Rose.
“Charlton Heston & Ben-Hur: A Personal Journey” (78 mins., 2011) – is still the best, hosted by his son Fraser, who remembers riding the chariot as a four-year-old with his father. “How could that not stick in the memory of a young man?” Fraser recalls. The family provides rare home movies from the Rome production, filmed by Heston’s wife, Lydia, an accomplished photographer. But the best part is when his son reads excerpts from his father’s personal journal, detailing the ups and downs of a working Hollywood actor. “It’s a tool he used to help him ‘get it right.’”
“Ben-Hur: A Journey Through Pictures” (5 mins.) – standard-def archival production photos and score sheets, with short clips from the film.
“Screen Tests” (29 mins) – in standard-def with George Baker and William Russell, Leslie Nielsen and Cesare Danova, and Yale Wexler, and Haya Harareet Hair and make-up test.
“Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic” (58 mins., 1993) – the standard-def documentary is narrated by actor Christopher Plummer (“The Sound of Music”), featuring footage from the MGM silent version, the New York premiere, and an interview with the late film historian Rudy Behlmer. He says many people throughout the years thought the character Ben-Hur was from the Bible. “In reality, there’s no Ben-Hur in any of the gospels or any part of the New Testament.”
It provides historical details to the author, Gen. Wallace, a Civil War hero and a successful lawyer, who served as the governor of the New Mexico territory and an Indiana state senator. In 1876, he started the novel with the three wise men heading toward Bethlehem to seek the newborn Christ child, and then added the twist of a fictional prince of Judea. It took over five years to finish. When he began, Wallace wasn’t a believer, but by the time the book was published, he had become a follower of the Nazarene.
A fabulous presentation. BRAVO, Warner Bros!
— Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer
The Chariot Race
More than 1,000 workers built the chariot arena, which was 2,000 feet long by 65 feet wide and covered 18 acres. At the time, it was the largest single set in motion picture history. 40,000 tons of white sand were imported from Mexico for the track. And, stuntman Yakima Canutt coordinated all the stunt work and trained the drivers.
SPECS:
100 GB disc one, 66 GB disc two
TRUE 4K mastering
Captured on 65mm 5-perf film stock, with a new 1.25 anamorphic Panavision lens, framed in the ultra-widescreen 2.76:1 aspect.
Video bitrate: Varies from 70 Megabits per second to nearly 80 Mbps, with a running time of 212 minutes.
HDR10 maximum light level: 2431 nit
Max frame average light level: 117 nit
Box office: Worldwide $74 million, with a production budget of $15 million
Awards: 12 Academy Award nominations and won 11 for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Effects, and Best Music
National Film Registry – 2004 winner
American Film Institute – Top 10 Epics – “Ben-Hur” was selected No. 2, right behind “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) and “Schindler’s List” (1993).