Production of Ben-Hur (1959 film) 10 to 12 pages of it. Shooting lasted for 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week. On Sundays, Wyler would meet with Fry and Zimbalist for story conferences. The pace of the film was so grueling that a doctor was brought onto the set to give a vitamin B complex injection to anyone who requested it (shots which Wyler and his family later suspected may have contained amphetamines). Wyler was unhappy with Heston's performances, feeling they did not make Judah Ben-Hur a plausible character. Wyler shot 16 takes of Heston saying, "I'm a Jew!" By November 1958,
Ben-Hur (2016 film) each other. While being led to the prison galley, Ben-Hur encounters Jesus, who fetches him some water. Ben-Hur endures five years of slavery as a rower aboard a Roman prison galley under the command of Quintus Arius. During a naval battle against Greek rebels in the Ionian Sea, Ben-Hur's galley is boarded but collides with another ship and is destroyed as Ben-Hur manages to cling to a floating mast. He is washed ashore and is found by Sheik Ilderim, who recognizes him as an escaped slave. Ben-Hur manages to convince Ilderim not to hand him over to the Romans by