The Pure Essence of Christ is what makes this one Great!

Rating: 8/10 (7 February 2012)

The Chariot scene in this movie is enough to see it alone, but what makes this movie great and worthy of being on the AFI Best Films List is it's precise depiction of conveying the exact ambiance/mood of when Jesus Christ was around and how he was perceived. We all hear in church about Jesus Christ, read in the bible about him, pretty much everywhere, a person will hear about Jesus Christ, and Ben-Hur captures the very feeling, essence and imagination about how Jesus Christ was perceived and what kind of energy he translated to others during his time. And at the same time what's brilliant about this movie is it's smart in how it conveys all of this by making Jesus Christ a complete mystery.
He's a mystery to us in the present day and he is a mystery to all of the characters in Ben-Hur, including Ben-Hur himself. And this enigmatic quality is what conveys the ambiance of Jesus Christ in this movie. Stanley Kubrick never gave away too much in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, if he would have given up that 'enigmatic' quality in 2001, it would not have been even close to as great as a film as it is. The same goes for Ben-Hur, if you lose that 'enigmatic' quality about Christ in Ben-Hur, the film loses all of it's luster. Absolute brilliance to make Ben-Hur the way it was made.
Ben-Hur is about a regular man who lives during the times of Jesus Christ, and it's about the struggles Ben-Hur goes through which we can all relate to. For example, being innocent and kind then going through the poisons of life and getting resentful and angry at later points in our lives to finally and hopefully forgiving, accepting and being at peace with the what is even later in our journey as human beings.
But it's about the forgiveness and that's what Christ was about and that's the main theme of the movie Ben-Hur, the Trials and Tribulations of life and forgiveness. 'Jesus Christ died for all of our sins' and if it's tough for you to understand exactly what this statement means, this film, Ben-Hur, will be the closest film you'll ever find to understanding exactly what that statement means.