Page "Ben-Hur (1959 film)" Paragraph 47

The sea battle was filmed using miniatures in a huge tank on the back lot at the MGM studios in Culver City, California.

More than 40 miniature ships were built for the sequence.

Shot in November and December 1957, it was one of the first sequences created for the film.

The script contained no description of or dialogue for the sea battle, and none had been written by the time the production schedule got around to filming the live-action sequences.

According to editor John Dunning, screenwriter Christopher Fry looked at the miniature footage which Dunning had edited into a rough cut, and then wrote the interior and above-deck scenes.

Two long Roman galleys, each of them seaworthy, were built for the live-action segment.

The ships were constructed based on plans found in Italian museums for actual ancient Roman galleys.

An artificial lake with equipment capable of generating sea-sized waves was built at the Cinecittà studios to accommodate the galleys.

A massive backdrop, wide by high, was painted and erected to hide the city and hills in the background.

Third unit director Richard Thorpe was hired on July 17, 1958, at the request of William Wyler to film the above-decks sequences, but a directing commitment back in the United States required him to leave the production with filming still incomplete.

Dunning says he then directed most of the below-decks scenes, including the sequence in which Quintus Arrius ' flagship is rammed.

To make the scene bloodier, Dunning says he sought out Italian extras who had missing limbs, then had the makeup crews rig them with fake bone and blood to make it appear as if they had lost a hand or leg during the battle.

When Dunning edited his own footage later, he made sure that these men were not on screen for long so that audiences would not be upset.

( There was so much footage of the sea battle left over that Charlton Heston used it in his 1972 film Antony and Cleopatra.

) The above-decks footage was integrated with the miniature work using process shots and traveling mattes.