The Birth of the Sword and Sandals Epic
The period epics of Hollywood’s golden age were born of the popularity of swords and sandals on the Victorian stage.
The chariot scene from Ben Hur (1959) remains one of the most spectacular moments ever committed to celluloid. Costing around a quarter of the film’s total budget and shot using a team of 70 specially trained horses on the largest film set then in existence, the scene brought to life the decadence and spectacle of the ancient Roman world in a way that seemed only possible on the silver screen.
This scene, though, did not originate in Hollywood. Sixty years earlier, in 1899, a production of Ben Hur had opened on Broadway based on the original novel by General Lew Wallace. In 1902 Arthur Collins brought the play to London’s Drury Lane. The epic chariot contest between Judah Ben Hur and Messala had 16 live horses race across the stage on a specially built treadmill.
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