10 Amazing Movies You Probably Haven't Seen (And Why)

Why You Probably Haven't Seen It: It's the Charlton Heston movie that doesn't involve the ten commandments, government-endorsed cannibalism, or earth being overrun by talking apes. Plus, even though it's been established as a classic piece of cinema, it's three and a half hours long and, once again, doesn't involve damn dirty apes.

If you're passionate about animal rights, there's a good chance you'll stay far away from Ben-Hur for an entirely different reason. That reason being almost a hundred horses were killed while filming the infamous chariot race. So if you're not in love with the idea of animal fatalities as entertainment, you're unlikely to enjoy the real crash in the scene which resulted in five onscreen horse deaths.

Why You Should: Ben-Hur achieves a level of epic storytelling that would be impossible to recreate today, even with an abundance of CGI at filmmakers' fingertips.

Even if you were to remove the fascinating stunt work (and animal cruelty) captured in the aforementioned chariot race, Ben-Hur would still take its rightful place of Braveheart and Gladiator as one of the greatest epics of all time.

And this is also a prime example of Heston's somewhat overwrought acting techniques paying huge dividends, as his overblown style perfectly suits the character of Judah Ben-Hur.