10 Tiny Annoying Details In Movies You Can't Unsee

Oh ancient Rome, how Hollywood has done you wrong.

Following one historical epic with another, here we look at the 1959 rendition of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel, Ben-Hur. Based on a former Jewish Prince of Jerusalem turned champion charioteer in Rome, title character Judah Ben-Hur encounters many highs and lows throughout the story. He is imprisoned and loses his wealth, meets Jesus Christ, is freed by the Roman emperor, regains his wealth, becomes a chariot racer, kills his former best friend and witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus. What a roller coaster.

Hollywood, however, has a tendency to leave obvious errors in its depictions of ancient Rome, whether that be failures in the editing process or an inaccurate historical depiction of events. Just see Ridley Scott's Gladiator (a gas canister is visible on the underside of a flipped chariot) or in Anthony Mann's The Fall of the Roman Empire (Commodus was strangled in his apartment, not killed in a duel in the arena).

The issue in Ben-Hur can be found in the final chariot race seen. While many rumours swirled about mistakes in this scene, many of which have been debunked as myth, a small detail that is undoubtedly visible is the tyre tracks left behind by the camera dolly as it moves ahead of the chariots.