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annadynamite:

lillianbehrendt:

girlscanlikerobots:browsethestacks:

Charlton Heston And Stephen Boyd On A Vespa

Interesting story about the making of Ben-Hur - during filming, William Wyler (the director) and Gore Vidal (uncredited screenwriter) were talking about how Messala (Boyd) and Judah Ben-Hur (Heston) simply being childhood friends with different politcal views was not enough motivation for all the hate and betrayal Messala rains down on Ben-Hur. So Vidal suggested backstory that the two had been lovers when they were teenagers, before Messala went off campaigning and being Awesome Roman Soldier and that when he came back he wanted to pick up where they left off; Judah didn’t. 

Wyler says “We can’t do that, did you not notice that the second title of this film is Tale of the Christ?” to which Vidal responds “It’s called subtext! Tell Stephen this idea, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON’T TELL HESTON.”

So Stephen Boyd goes along with it and spends some scenes giving Charlton Heston looks that scream “BABY LET ME LOVE YOU DOWN” while Chuck went on in blissful ignorance that he was starring in any kind of homosexual love story.

Now I have to give this movie another watch.

oh this is so true. you can totally see the homosexual subtext in ben-hur, especially the scene after the big chariot race when judah and the fatally injured messala are essentially saying goodbye.