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Ben-Hur Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray Details (Updated)
Posted June 7, 2011 04:21 PM by
Warner Home Video has sent retailers and select members of the press a photo booklet and sneak peek DVD that reveals further details about the forthcoming release of the Ben-Hur: Ultimate Collector's Edition box set, its pack-in collectibles and its bountiful supplemental package. The 3-disc Blu-ray edition is set to arrive this fall in limited quantities and numbered for exclusivity, although an exact release date has yet to be announced.
Update: Amazon is now accepting pre-orders. The cost of the Ultimate Collector's Edition set is currently $44.99. It has also been revealed that the film and special features are spread across three Blu-ray discs; two for the feature film and one for the supplemental content.
As first reported in March, the 50th Anniversary Blu-ray release of Ben-Hur will feature a newly minted frame-by-frame restoration created from the original 65mm camera negative at a resolution of 6K; effectively achieving six times the resolution of the previous DVD release. The results, at least as teased in the following before/after comparison photographs, are promising:
Note: The faint texture that appears overtop the before and after shots is inherent to the press booklet photographs, not the film's restoration or the Blu-ray's subsequent video presentation.
A variety of special features will be spread across the Blu-ray edition's three BD-50 discs, chief among them Charlton Heston & Ben-Hur: A Personal Journey, an all-new, feature length, high-definition documentary that chronicling Heston's life while filming Ben-Hur. It not only includes a wealth of behind-the-scenes content, it also includes rare home movie footage from the Heston family.
Left: Charlton Heston walking with son, Fraser. Top Right: Charlton Heston's first day in the chariot, with Chariot Race stunt co-ordinator Yakima Canutt. Bottom Right: Charlton Heston and his son, Fraser.
In an interview with Christianity Today, Fraser Heston, Charlton Heston's now 56-year-old son, says: "My earliest memory was of my dad coming home in his chariot driver's outfit. I think I assumed he was a professional charioteer. I remember him bringing sand from the Roman arena for my sandbox, and being told this was not just any sand. It was MGM sand!" He continues, "We recently produced a film about my dad called Charlton Heston & Ben-Hur: A Personal Journey. In it, we used a lot of 16mm footage that my mom took. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff of Dad driving the chariot around and me in it. It's pretty cool."
Other special features, most of which have been made available in previous releases of the film, include:
Ben-Hur, A Journey Through Pictures: An audiovisual re-creation assembled using stills, storyboards, sketches, music, dialogue and other archive materials
Ben Hur: The 1925 Silent Film
2005 Documentary, Ben-Hur: The Epic That Changed Cinema
1994 Documentary, Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic
Original Screen Tests
Vintage Newsreel Gallery
Highlights from the 4/4/60 Academy Awards Ceremony
Theatrical Trailer Gallery
The Ultimate Collector's Edition also offers filmfans two collectible books in a three-tier collector's case. The first book, "Charlton Heston: The Ben-Hur Diaries" is the most intriguing. An exclusive look into the Oscar-winning actor's experience while making the award-winning film, this high-quality reproduction of Charlton Heston's personal and insightful diary documents events that occurred from January 1958 through April 1960; from a time before production of the film begain all the way through Heston's Oscar win. The book includes personal photos from the Heston family and some of Heston's own sketches.
"I suppose this could be called a pivotal year. In it I made the picture that will probably be not only the most important I'll ever make, but will either finally press me into the thin airless regions where the supernovae drift, or demonstrate conclusively that my orbit is a different one."
- Charlton Heston, journal entry on Wednesday, December 31, 1958
The second exclusive book is a more traditional pack-in that features rare photographs, production art and reproductions from the original theatrical press book.
Ben-Hur won a record-setting eleven Academy Awards, among them Best Picture (producer Sam Zimbalist), Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (Charlton Heston), Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith), Best Color Cinematography (Robert L. Surtees), Best Film Editing (Ralph E. Winters and John D. Dunning), Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Miklos Rozsa), Best Color Art Direction and Set Decoration (William A. Horning, Edward Carfagno and Hugh Hunt), Best Sound (Franklin E. Milton, MGM Studio Sound Department) and Best Special Effects (A. Arnold Gillespie, Robert MacDonald and Milo Lory).
Close on the heels of the Citizen Kane UCE-Magnificent Ambersons announcement comes more details of another Warner UCE I and many others have been eagerly anticipating. I've already preordered the Citizen Kane package so I can upgrade that film in my collection. Once Ben-Hur becomes available for preorder I'll definitely do the same. The a.v. quality shown in this article looks promising, the on-disc extras seem as if they'll be of a high quality, especially those documentaries and the earlier, silent film version of the story, and the collectibles and package design, to judge from these teaser photos, look inspired.
Way to go, Warner. Truly the studio that other studios should learn from when it comes to releasing their own landmark films on blu and creating a unique package and experience to house and accompany such presentations. Terrific.
Nice set with all the extras, but I think I'll wait for the two-disc release. A great movie, but I don't really need the extras; even though they look better the the WoO extras(who needed a watch?). Day one purchase (for the two-disc set )
Extras are better than those proposed for "Citizen Kane".
It's still mostly paper products, which I think is a bummer, but at least the diary is bound in leatherette.
"Ten Commandments" still wins for collectability, however, with its part-the-seas-to-open cleverness, lenticular cover and ten commandment tablet case.
<" Are they still going to include the shot of the actor getting trampled to death? "> No one was trampled to death. That's an Urban Legend (or maybe a "Roman" one). It was a dummy.
But Heston's stunt double for the race (Joe Canutt) was almost thrown out of the chariot. This was retained and a closeup of Heston getting back in was inserted. Great effect!
I'd just love to see it on the big, BIG screen again!!! What an experience in 1959!!
My big question is simply: Will the 1925 film be a Blu-Ray or not? It's a purchase point for me as the previous set has many of the extras and the 1925 film. I asked this about the "Ten Commandments" set and was pleased to find out it was. I suspect the same will be true of "Hur," but inquiring minds want to know!
At any rate, I agree entirely that this is going to be a stupendous set!! Can't wait.
The movie came out in 1959, so how do they figure this is the "50th Anniversary"? The release was delayed two years, and they couldn't be bothered to change the artwork?
@ilovenola2 Okay, turns out you were right. But a stuntman was killed during the making of the 1920s Ben-Hur in a scene that did not make the final cut. Extensive reading is available at Snope's site here:
snopes.com/movies/films/benhur.asp
MGM was already on its knees when Ben-Hur was made. The studio which made some of the most significant advances in filming methods and theater exhibition was suffering a great amount of financial pressure from Loew's moguls.
But the studio resisted bravely. Camera 65 was developed in the 1950's in order to accommodate both 35 and 70 mm releases. At first, 35 mm Cinemascope prints of Ben-Hur were released world-wide. The 70 mm print was still in existence back in the 1970's, and it was exhibited in that format in one of our local theaters at that time.
This is also one of the extreme widescreen processes used for film ever. The process was later abandoned for Super Panavision 2.20:1, used by MGM in Cinerama 70 (2001, for example). However, Ultra Panavision still envisions the ultra large 2.75:1 screen, and surely Mutiny on the Bount is also another eagerly waited BD-V release from Warner's MGM vault.
The cover would look better without Charlton Heston on the front. But, whatever, a cover won't stop me from buying my favourite movie of all time on Blu-ray!
I understand the release is on 9/27/11. I'll preorder it. There are sites that are taking orders for 57 bucks, free shipping. This is a must for the collector.
When it comes to Ben Hur I reckon its a pity there aren't "anamorphic enhanced" blu rays and screens to take advantage of them. The aspect ratio on the film is so exceptionally wide that the vertical resolution of the actual movie image is going to be severely compromised compared to the majority of hi def releases.
And is it just me, or do Warner's packages and technical specs for these recently announced classics just make the Star Wars blu ray set look even more astonishingly lame?
Apparently most new films (and the majority of catalog releases) are mastered at 2K res even at the Digital Intermediate phase and simply get downscaled to 1080 lines for a blu ray release. I thought that 4k was the de-facto resolution for all 35mm film productions but apparently I was incorrect. But it is becoming more common. 4k scans are more common for restoration work as the larger the image is, the more accurately various software used to clean and enhance films can function. A 6k scan of the original negative is pretty impressive though - most of the time these 65mm films get scanned from a 35mm interpositive struck from the original negative (like 2001: A Space Odyssey) at no more than 4k res. 6k is more than enough for Ben Hur for blu ray purposes as the extremely wide aspect ratio means that the film is going to have a lower vertical resolution than most blu ray releases. Hopefully they intend to do a limited theatrical re-release of the film as this would definitely show off the 6k restoration process to its fullest potential.
I believe this to be one of the very best movies ever made. The chariot race is the best action sequence ever filmed. Thank you WB. I will certainly add this to my collection!!!
I just want the movie. Not that interested in all the extras. Just need a commentary track, so when I watch it again I can listen to the people involved and their ideas.
My parents were always on about this.
Should probably watch it now it's being released properly instead of pan&scanned for TV,
commercials thrown in and then recorded to VHS. :P
This is a long film isn't it?... They kept mentioning that too...
Anyway, seems like a cool set..
But even though I love these special sets, it's not super necessary for me personally as I don't know it yet.
Great for the fans of course!
pumped for this, a must own. But I have to say the contrast looks boosted a wee bit too much in those before and after. Clipping whites on the horsey. A little premature to say if it's that way in the actual release.
I can do without all the extra collectibles, that's featured in the boxset! All I want is the blu-ray movie only. I was never fond of collecting numerous movie memorabilia, because it'll occupied too much storage space.
I'm sure there will be a single disc version out soon enough. It's nice to see something for film collectors though. I'm sure this film is in a lot of movie buff's top 10 or 20 films of all time.
@Post Prod - don't judge the PQ from that comparison - that's a before/after comparison from the press release booklet, NOT a capture from the blu ray itself.
The few of us in here who were Laserphiles (heavy into the Laserdisc format) can attest to Warner Bros (along with the MGM discs) as being the heroes of the format.
Not only were they nearly 'all' letterboxed (sometimes not even mentioning it on the cover sleeve) but the transfers were stunning AND they were all reasonably priced. (Particularly the WB discs: usually $24.99, while others like Fox were priced at $59-79).
Kudos to ALL at WB for keeping the 'we care' tradition alive. This set looks simply amazing.
Great news! A movie like this couldn't be produced today with the available pool of production talent and without a lot of distracting CG. The chariot race is a classic but the moment I'll never forget is the look on Charleton Heston's face when he gazes upon the face of Christ after receiving water from him. Did someone actually say the cover would have looked better without Charleton Heston on it??
This looks amazing! I really hope Universal or Criterion see this and get inspired to completely restore and remaster Spartacus on Blu. That movie deserves bettter than that turd Universal released.
Sim_Mat : I guess you missed the last line of my post that said it's premature to tell if the release will look like this. Yes of course we can't judge it until it comes out. I will say it's odd they are showing off a before and after comparison that shows slight problems with their restoration, if in fact it does look like that. It's not a great omen.
I'm salivating at the thought of seeing this for the first time on blu-ray. Now that I have an Oppo 93, an LCOS projector and some upgrades to my sound. It iwill be an awesome experience!
I normally pass on these deluxe editions, but this time I don't think there will be a 5 (!!!) disc only edition (w/out books), so I may have to take the plunge on this one. "newly minted frame-by-frame restoration created from the original 65mm camera negative"????? Verrrry nice!!!
@proghog: A friend of mine who works for Sony tells me that there is something fishy going on with LOA. It seems Criterion is talking about doing the BD instead of Sony and that that's the reason why it has been delayed for so long. The two parties are working on a deal. Perswonally, I can't see Sony giving away such a prestigious property but given the state of the company in Japan they might not have all the resources necessary.
On the other hand, I've also heard that the reason for the delay is a technical one having to do with extreme damage to the original materials that makes it impossible to produce a BD at this time. The technicians at Sony are busy fixing whatever the problem is with a tentative plan of a late 2012 release date.
So take your pick. This is a film that is just made for Bluray. Hopefully it will be released before BD becomes obsolete.
Regarding Ben Hur, one thing that those who are unfamiliar with this film need to be aware of is that it has one of the widest aspect ratios that you'll ever encounter; namely 2.76:1 (65 mm). If this ratio is maintained or even if the 35 mm compromise ratio of 2.50:1 is used, a good part of the screen is going to filled with black bars. Viewers with smaller screen sizes (perhaps under 50 inches?) may not find this film to be much of a visual treat. Viewers with larger screens on the other hand should be stunned by the image. Although I normally frown on any BD or even DVD that doesn't use the original AR, this is one film where it would be nice if something like a variable AR could be built into the disc to accommodate a range of screen sizes. However, I'm not sure if this is possible.
@reidw - I think all HDTVs allow one to change the screen's aspect ration , both with preset ratios plus a customizable ratio. So without truly significant loss of detail I think with a smaller screen one could "zoom in" as it were to make the image bigger
I use it myself when watching TV shows on DVD/Blu, older ones shot in 4:3 like "Combat" or "Perry Mason" or "Star Trek" and if you do customize it yourself you can get a good "widescreen" style picture with just a scosh of top/bottom crop
@vanscottie: The problem with Ben Hur is that it's going to take more than a minor tweak to produce a an acceptable picture on smaller screens. Have you seen the DVD? More than 50% of the screen seems to be taken up with black bars.
The size of screen and the percentage of the screen taken up by black is irrelevant - the fact is the extreme wide ratio is going to limit the vertical resolution of the transfer quite substantially. So even if you use a projector and have it set up for "constant image height" you're essentially going to be zooming the image and thus, softening it. Like I pointed out earlier, its a pity there's no "anamorphic enhanced" blu ray standard where the image would always be 1080 lines high but differ in horizontal resolution. This would have enabled there to be a market for specialist projectors and TV's more than 1920 lines wide. (There are a few but as there are no discs authored to take advantage of them they're kind of pointless) So you'd assume say, a 2.39:1 screen ratio (the most common ratio for "scope" style films) with 1080 lines vertical resolution. 1.78:1 content would be pillarboxed on such a screen. A 2.7:1 film like Ben Hur would end up with very thin black bars top and bottom. But I guess they figured that since the majority of films are never wider than 2.4:1 that a 16:9 format standard for blu ray would be the most efficient.
To get a good idea of how Ben Hur is going to fill (or rather, not fill) your screen have a look at Disney's Sleeping Beauty which has a similarly extreme ratio.
I just worked out the vertical resolution of the actual picture area of Ben-Hur on a blu ray disc. Works out to around 710 lines assuming an OAR of 2.7:1 - so its still a substantial improvement over the approx 380 lines you'd get on the 16:9 enhanced DVD edition if it used the 2.7:1 OAR. However 710 lines is only 65% of the vertical resolution available on blu ray. A 2.39:1 OAR movie on Blu ray has approx 805 lines vertical resolution so the percentage of the blu ray format's vertical resolution being used goes up to 75%.
So the Ben-Hur blu ray would still have almost double the vertical resolution of the DVD.
@sim_mat: I don't dispute your figures but I wasn't talking about resolution/detail in my earlier comment. All I was saying was the on smaller screens the picture is going to look very small and be in a strip across the middle of the screen with huge black bars at the top and bottom. That's what the DVD looked like on my old 32 inch Sony CRT Wega. I could only really appreciate this DVD when I upgraded to my current 60 inch SXRD. I was just trying to point out that anyone who doesn't like black bars (and there are many who don't) might really want to avoid Ben Hur.
I certainly understand the current economic situation in regards to buying new A/V equipment, and I understand also that many people have space issues, but I gotta say. We're pretty much all on Blu-ray.com because we love movies and love that this format is the best ever (so far) for watching these. And we're all here on this "Ben Hur" post because we love that all these great claasic films are getting true restorations. So here's the thing. If you have a monitor under 50" Go Get One! Stop buying Blu's and save until you can get a great set up. Talking about appreciating "Ben Hur" on a monitor under 50" is akin to talking about listening to a 7.1 lossless full surround movie using just two old speakers from Radio Shack
@vanscottie: Your advice is good but you forgot one factor: the spouse. I know two guys who want big TVs and surround sound but can't get them because their spouses don't want them (they would break up the decor). These two ladies actually reinforce their prejudices every time they meet. What should their husbands do? Divorce?
I'd buy buy a projector and a screen that can be rolled up and stored when not in use. So you have to set it up when you want to watch something, but you get a big screen image *and* domestic bliss. And well, you get surround sound systems with very small unobtrusive speakers that don't compromise on audio quality.
This movie has been delayed for close to 2 years on Blu-Ray, but Warner is the best mainstream studio when it comes to classic movie transfers, so I've got high hopes.
However, I'm disappointed to see this is only being offered a "collectors edition" to start, I myself am just interested in the discs.
"Ben-Hur: Ultimate Collector's Edition" has now been posted for pre-order September 5 on Amazon.co.uk for 12.59 pounds - presumably not the big box set we're expecting here, but it should hopefully be available to pre-order here soon!
WB always does this makes people wait for the 2 disc bluray. They are a greedy company like Disney. Lets release Goodfellas, then release an anniversary edition in a bookl like case, and when sales come to a halt release the anniversary edition in a plastic case. Just like how many releases of Pirates of the Caribbean have been released by Disney? I think its a fantastic set. Making fans who don't want all of the extras and who like plastic cases wait is wrong. Could you imagine 3D customers waiting months to get a movie? WB stands for Wanting Buck$.
So the news article lists this as a "two-disc set," though Amazon's product page lists it as 3 (the movie spanning two discs, and one bonus feature disc). Amazon's DVD page also says that it's 5 discs, which is accurate. Is the article above wrong, or is Amazon wrong?
Personally I'd prefer the film spanned on two discs, considering the length.
@thedeanmachine I could have included exactly what you said but didn't because everyone knows that fact. Thats why people talk from time to time about double dipping and i could have included that but didn't. I wanted to add something different on here and not the obvious nor repeat over and over great film, or first day buy. I made a comment like that on here before and feel if you have nothing new to add why bother? ( like your two cents you added, really? no, we never knew that, duh! ) If anyone wants to see an intelligent article and interesting facts go look at Grand Prix here on Blu-ray.com. at the bottom where it says news/updates Click on Grand Prix complete history there's a great example.
I cannot wait this is one the all time greats and one of my favorites. The restoration looks amazing. I hope Jaws and West Side Story get this kind of treatment as well.
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Warner Home Video has sent retailers and select members of the press a photo booklet and sneak peek DVD that reveals further details about the forthcoming release of the 
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