June 1958. The director William Wyler settled into the Rome-based Cinecittà studios for ten months to film his version of Ben-Hur. With a colossal budget, six hundred sets, fifty thousand extras, twenty-five hundred horses, the charisma of Charlton Heston, and an incredible chariot race as a focal point, this super-production became a reference for the sword-and-sandal genre, and is still one of the most Oscarised films in history, with no fewer than eleven awards.
