The story of Ben Hur

Rating: 5/10 (9 May 2012)

Obviously most viewers do not know the book. Judah Ben Hur was 15 when the tile slipped from under HIS hand (not his sister's). The first chapter is about the birth of Christ and the three Magi coming to worship the infant Jesus. The Quintus Arrius part is as written - the person who made the comment about a homosexual relationship is obviously not a well read person. Messala did not die after the chariot race but was crippled - a fitting punishment for his awful deeds. Balthazar's daughter Iras becomes involved with Messala and inveigles Judah Ben Hur into a rendezvous where he was to be set upon and killed by Messala's thugs but it did not work. Miriam and Tirzah are trying to get to Jesus and His shadow passes over them and they are cured. Ben Hur finds himself in the Garden of Gethsemene on the night Jesus was arrested and in the Bible it says there was a "young man" there and when the Romans caught hold of his robe he fled naked. The book says this young man was Ben Hur.
Although I did enjoy the film I found it disappointing that the main thread of the story was altered so that Judah Ben Hur is a man when he is sent to the galleys and other little things which detract from the message of the book which is subtitled "A Tale of The Christ"