Julie and Scott spend three years watching Ben Hur and they don't regret a moment of it. Episode 115, Ben Hur (1959) directed by William Wyler, who directed lots of things that were nothing like this. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #115| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Rose's answers to Scott's editing questions: Question 1: Editing was looked on more as a craft back in the Ben-Hur days than as an artistic field as it is today. She wasn't positive but thought that directors then would see the cuts (and sometimes reshoot parts as a result to get what they wanted) but they weren't "over-the-shoulder" the way directors are today. Perhaps the studio wanted to ensure that Wyler did an "over-the-shoulder" supervision. Especially with that much cash at stake. Question 2: The problem with asking about "best edited" film is that there are a lot of different editing styles, so first you'd have to settle what style. There is "seamless" which means you never notice the editing at all. There is the sort that uses lots of jump cuts. And so forth. So she had no definitive answer.