Back in 1959, this epic was the most costly movie ever made. Charlton Heston won his only best actor Oscar as the chariot-driving, galley-rowing Jewish nobleman who takes all that the Roman Empire can throw at him, thanks to his traitorous boyhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd). Some critics believe that William Wyler's box-office smash is no match for the 1925 silent version, but there's no denying that the race that forms the famous climax is one of the most iconic sequences in Hollywood history - a thousand-strong force toiled for a year to construct the 18-acre chariot arena, which was eventually filled with 8,000 extras. The film, in all, used over 300 sets, 40,000 tons of sand (for the chariot track) and swept up a record 11 Oscars, a total that was equalled in 1998 by James Cameron's Titanic and in 2004 by Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

In 25 AD, Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accused by a Roman childhood friend-turned-overlord of trying to kill the Roman governor, he is put into slavery and his mother and sister are taken away as prisoners.