What makes a good Jesus movie?
In between those two sequences, Christ is a figure felt throughout the film but never quite seen.
Through luck (or providence), he is then spared from a shipwreck and watery grave.
Meanwhile, constantly in the margins of his life, there is a strange carpenter with an ethereal draw.
Only after tasting life again does Ben-Hur look up and recognize something in this man.
This is a full-blown Jesus movie that makes mountains out of a mount.
It took some distance from the Jesus story to make a worthwhile film out of it.
To be clear, there have been other good, and arguably better, films about Christ.
In other words, it was a movie that caused zealots toburn down a movie theater in Paris.
Then there is the thinking mind behindBen-Hur.
Were talking about one of the best scenes in movie history.
Hallelujah, saints be praised.
