Myths
Several urban legends exist regarding the chariot sequence. One claims that a stuntman died during filming. Stuntman Nosher Powell claims in his autobiography, "We had a stunt man killed in the third week, and it happened right in front of me. You saw it, too, because the cameras kept turning and it's in the movie." But movie historian Monica Silveira Cyrino discounted this claim in 2005, and said there were no published accounts of any serious injuries or deaths during filming of the chariot race. Indeed, the only recorded death to occur during the filming was that of producer Sam Zimbalist, who died of a heart attack at the age of 57 on November 4, 1958, while on the set. MGM executives asked Wyler to take over the executive producer's job, with an extra salary of $100,000. Wyler agreed, although he had assistance from experienced MGM executives as well. Production supervisor Henry Henigson was so overcome by stress-related heart problems during the shoot that doctors feared for his life and ordered him off the set. But Henigson returned to the production shortly thereafter, and did not die. Nor were any horses injured during the shoot; in fact, the number of hours the horses could be used each day was actually shortened to keep them out of the summer heat.
Another urban legend states that a red Ferrari can be seen during the chariot race. The book Movie Mistakes claims this is a myth. Heston, in a DVD commentary track for the film, mentions that a third urban legend says he wore a wristwatch during the chariot race. Heston points out that he wore leather bracers up to the elbow.
Read more about this topic: Ben-Hur (1959 film), Chariot Race Sequence
Famous quotes containing the word myths:
“Myths, as compared with folk tales, are usually in a special category of seriousness: they are believed to have “really happened,” or to have some exceptional significance in explaining certain features of life, such as ritual. Again, whereas folk tales simply interchange motifs and develop variants, myths show an odd tendency to stick together and build up bigger structures. We have creation myths, fall and flood myths, metamorphose and dying-god myths.”
—Northrop Frye (1912–1991)
“... suffering does not ennoble. It destroys. To resist destruction, self-hatred, or lifelong hopelessness, we have to throw off the conditioning of being despised, the fear of becoming the they that is talked about so dismissively, to refuse lying myths and easy moralities, to see ourselves as human, flawed, and extraordinary. All of us—extraordinary.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)
“The poets were not alone in sanctioning myths, for long before the poets the states and the lawmakers had sanctioned them as a useful expedient.... They needed to control the people by superstitious fears, and these cannot be aroused without myths and marvels.”
—Strabo (c. 58 B.C.–c. 24 A.D., Greek geographer. Geographia, bk. 1, sct. 2, subsct. 8.