It's Pride Month, so I wanted to do some Throwbacks to classic films that had gay subtext - or straight-up TEXT - and were right under our noses all along. Today let's take a look at 1959's historical epic Ben-Hur. Some of you are probably thinking, "isn't Ben-Hur kind of about Jesus? Was Jesus gay?" Yes and probably yes, but there was one special little relationship that the director intended to be gay and star-of-the-show Charlton Heston allegedly had no idea. #TBT to Ben-Hur and its gay subtext!
William Wyler directed the 1959 classic Ben-Hur that broke records at the box office and won 11 Oscars. In the 1995 documentary, The Celluloid Closet, writer Gore Vidal admitted that he was brought on to doctor up the script in order to hint at a previous romantic relationship between Charlton Heston's character and his childhood bestie Messala (played by Stephen Boyd) who would wind up betraying him. The kicker? He only told Stephen Boyd. He didn't want Charlton Heston to know about this unless he did pick it up already.
I don't know exactly how Charlton Heston didn't pick up on any of the gay subtexts in this movie. He must have really been that naive/straight. This movie is filled with tanned and toned oiled-up Romans and Stephen Boyd delivers some seriously sultry looks to him when the pair are reunited. I mean when they embrace each other after being reunited Boyd says "After all these years! Still close." and Heston's character replies, "in every way" and then the boys hold a glance with such tenderness that I have to wonder what Heston thought any of this actually meant. It was all right there, dude! In the documentary, Vidal himself said about Boyd's performance, “there are looks that he gives him that are just so clear.” I'm inclined to agree! It's a rather long scene without any nudity, but you can watch the vibes here:
This backstory does add a lot to the film. It hints that the longtime spurned lover and Roman officer is driven mostly by his own hurt feelings to betray Ben-Hur, the Jewish prince, to Roman authorities. Sure, they have obvious political and cultural differences, but Vidal didn't think that was enough of a reason for these two longtime friends who have been through so much to have a falling out. He added the love affair backstory because it really did provide so much more fire to the betrayal. Rejection is now at play! Spurned lovers!
Sadly, the recent remake of Ben-Hur in 2016 did not include this amazing backstory. Actors who worked on the film claimed that they didn't need it this time around. Oh, come on, boys! At least the guys were still hot and shirtless.
Check out some more of Stephen Boyd's shirtless sexiness here and see if you can pick up any more subtext:
