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Ben-Hur
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Parents Guide for
Ben-Hur (1959) More at IMDbPro »

The content of this page was created directly by users and has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff.
Since the beliefs that parents want to instill in their children can vary greatly, we ask that instead of adding your personal opinions about what is right or wrong in a film, that you instead use this feature to help parents make informed viewing decisions by describing the facts of relevant scenes in the title for each one of the different categories: Sex and Nudity, Violence and Gore, Profanity, Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking, and Frightening/Intense Scenes.
Visit our Parents Guide Help to learn more

Sex & Nudity

Kissing is the closest this movie gets to sex, and the nudity goes no further than men in loincloths.

Violence & Gore

There is a long forced march in which we see the men's bloody feet. One dies and rolls down a hill.

Two men are whipped during a chariot race drawing blood. Two men are trampled by chariots, one after being dragged a considerable distance. He is shown with some skin ripped off with blood covering most of his body. The latter is seen in conversation on a bed during a lengthy, important scene. Several chariots crash.

The crucifixtion of Jesus is shown. We see the hammer descend as the soldiers drive the nail into his feet. We see his wrists with nails driven through them and blood flowing onto the wood. We also see blood from the cross flowing on the ground.

During a naval battle, a ship is rammed and several men are killed. The water inside part of the ship turns red, presumably with blood. Galley slaves are chained to their seats inside the ship and whipped. The shackles cause bleeding at the ankles of some of the men. There is so much bloodletting on the ship that we can see the sea around the ship turning red.

One of the slaves emerges from the hold of the ship, missing a hand. We see the bloody stump and exposed bone.

A man threatens to commit suicide by knife, but he is hindered by being knocked out by a blow to the head with a chain.

Lepers are shown with body parts rotting away.

Profanity

None

None.

The naval battle is pretty intense. The chariot race is very intense. A man going into a cave filled with lepers is worrisome.

Two women are left in a dungeon so long that, when they are checked on, they have become lepers. That scene is pretty shocking.

Parents may want to consider the above content on par with a PG rating, rather than G due to the intensity of the violence.

Page last updated by jondaman816, 6 months ago
Top Contributors: construct, klgandre, jondaman816, James_Yang-1
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Certification:
Canada:G (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Quebec) / Canada:PG (Ontario) / Portugal:M/12 / China:(Banned) / South Korea:All / Brazil:12 / USA:Approved (certificate #19158) (original rating) / Canada:G (video rating) / New Zealand:PG / Argentina:Atp / Australia:G / Australia:PG (alternate rating) / Chile:TE / Finland:K-12 / France:U / Netherlands:AL / Norway:11 / Norway:12 (1959) / Peru:PT / Spain:T / Sweden:15 / UK:A (original rating) / UK:PG (video rating) (1988) / USA:G (re-rating) (1969) / West Germany:16 / Iceland:12

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