World Classics  

 

 

   
 

The Bridge on River Kwai:
         

     

            A film by David Lean, Produced by Spiegel, Horizon & Columbia in 1957. It was about the building  of the Burma Railway by British during the World War – II. It was a screen adoption of the novel by Pierre Boulle. The film starred Alec Gunness (as Commander of the British Prisoners), Sessue HayaKawa (as Japanes Commandant of the camp) and William Holden (as an American prisoner). 

            The film won the Oscar for the best picture of the year. Director David Lean & actor Alec Guinness also won Oscars for their respective jobs. Sessue HayaKawa was nominated for the Oscar for best supporting actor. The film was shot in Ceylon (now SRI LANKA).            

   

Ben-Hur:        
     

            Directed by William Wyler the film was made in 1958 for M.G.M. It was the remake of the film made in 1926 (more…) in which William Wyler was an assistant. The film fetched him the Oscar for the best director.                   

           
   

 

          

The film marked a history by winning 11 OSCARS for the first time in the history of these prestigious awards. The film was nominated for 12 OSCARS:

 

1)     (1) Best Picture

2)     (2) Best Director (William Wyler)

3)     (3) Best Actor (Charlton Heston)

4)     (4) Best Color Cinematography (Robert Surtees)

5)     (5) Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith)

6)     (6) Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration

7)     (7) Best Sound

8)     (8) Best Music (Miklos Rozsa)

9)     (9) Best Film Editing

10) (10) Best Color Costume Design

11) (11) Best Special Effects

12) (12) Best Screenplay

 

The film created a history by winning 11 OSCARS out of 12 Nominations. It lost in the Screenplay Category. 

            Both 1926 & 1958 versions of BEN-HUR (both MGM Productions) were adopted from the novel by General Lew Wallace, first published in 1880. Karl Tunberg, Christpher Fry, Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman and Gore Vidal wrote the script. 

            BEN-HUR was the most expensive film ever made up to its time, costing $15 million. It took six years to prepare for the film shoot and more than six months of on location work in Italy. It featured more crew and extras than any other film before. In the famous Chariot rate sequence filmed in an outstanding replica of the Roman Circus a huge number of extras (about 8,000) was used.
     

 
        

                             

        

 

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