Ben-Hur (1959 film) aspect ratio. For this release, the film was completely restored frame by frame from an 8K scan of the original 65mm negative. The restoration cost $1 million, and was one of the highest resolution restorations ever made by Warner Bros. A new musical soundtrack-only option and six new featurettes (one of which was an hour long) were also included. Ben-Hur (1959 film) Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic religious drama film, directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Charlton Heston as the title character. A remake of , "Ben-Hur" was adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880
Shadows (1959 film) change his ways in the first version. In his December 1959 manifesto "A Call for a New Generation of Film Makers", Mekas said that "Shadows" was the start of a new movement which would inspire independent filmmakers, energize the flagging avant-garde film scene, and triumph over the commercial Hollywood film industry. Even so, he was upset that the film had been reworked. In January 1960 he wrote in his movie review column in "The Village Voice" that the 1959 version was commercialized, "just another Hollywood film", and that everything he had praised in the first version had been "completely destroyed."