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Since Ben-Hur was in preparation long before there was a finished script,
some inevitable confusion arose over the screenwriting credits. The film’s
only credited screenwriter is Karl Tunberg, but in fact the script was
revised several times during filming in Rome by brilliant British poetplaywright
Christopher Fry. American writer Gore Vidal also made a substantial
contribution to the first half of the screenplay, working especially
on deepening the powerful and complex emotional bonds between Judah
and Messala. Vidal has stated he suggested to Wyler the role of Messala
should be played as if the Roman wants to resurrect a love affair he had
with his Jewish friend when the two were boys, so that Judah’s refusal of
Messala’s proposition becomes an erotic rejection (Vidal, 1995, 303–6).
There is no doubt that the moist-eyed passion and unspoken intensity of
their reunion scene early in the film is matched only by the violence and
depth of Messala’s anger at Judah’s refusal to help him realize his political
ambitions. At one point, Messala observes mockingly: “Is there anything
so sad as unrequited love?” Although Boyd did not have a chance to confirm
or refute the story’s veracity, Heston vehemently denied any homoerotic
subtext in the relationship between the two characters, and Wyler never
confirmed having such a conversation with Vidal. Later on, Wyler was
furious that Tunberg was the sole screenwriting nominee for the Oscar,
and the controversy surrounding the issue probably led the Academy
members to withhold their vote from Ben-Hur in this one category.
The spare, graceful script is complemented by the elegance of the soundtrack,
perhaps the most beautiful film score ever written. Hungarian
composer Miklós Rózsa, who also scored Quo Vadis, contributed to Ben-
Hur 120 minutes of stunning and eloquent music, the longest musical
score ever composed for a film, and certainly the most influential symphonic
score of the epic film genre (Solomon, 2001b, 329–30). Music is
the vital soul of this film, enhancing the drama at every turn, and used
with particular emphasis to express characters’ emotions in scenes without
dialogue. The individual musical themes, each one easily standing
alone as an extraordinary orchestral composition, are immediately recognizable
as the plot progresses, whether the music conveys Judah’s angry
struggle for freedom (the stirring drums of the galley theme), his romantic
bond with Esther, or his redemption through Jesus. The absence of music,
as in the ten minutes of the chariot race or the scene where Judah and
Esther are reunited, becomes “as potent as its presence” (Elley, 135).
After six years of preparation, Ben-Hur also took several months of
on-location pre-production before filming began in Italy. The scale of
production for Ben-Hur was monumental: the casting office opened in
72 BEN-HUR (1959)