Ben-Hur Every so often in cinema history there is a movie which supersedes all those before it. Only a select few films actually advance the quality of the overall cinematic world. Ben-Hur is a movie which dared to do so. Near the end of 1959 this film crashed on to the entire world. The budget and subsequent special effects of Ben-Hur made it a movie which can, and continues to, stand the test of time. "MGM films dumped an unprecedented $15,000,000 into the production of this epic tale." (Benet's 87) What separated this movie critically from others was its' ability to combine a powerful story line with almost unprecedented historical accuracy. By combining these two ele