What an uplifting movie!

Rating: 9/10 (14 February 2006)

I consider "Ben Hur" an inspirational picture. Many of us are like Judah, in that we are so burned up with hate because of the injustice of the world. We feel lost and cry out to God during personal unfortunate events, and feel Him with us. The best scene in the film is when marched to the galleys, Judah cries out, "God, help me!", and our Lord gives him water. That does it for me! I have this movie on DVD, along with "King Of Kings", "The Robe" and "Jesus Christ Superstar", all of which I consider among the best Biblical movies ever made! The movie itself is basically historically and Biblically correct (even though it is a piece of fiction). However, there are a few inaccuracies here and there, which by no means take away from the grandeur of the film. First of all, the Romans had no concept of "emperor" as the word is understood today. The Roman "emperors" were imperial dictators with a variety of powers (based upon Latin words), which were bestowed upon them by the Senate. They have been labeled "emperors" because one of the titles the Senate gave was "imperator", which in Latin means, "commander-in-chief". The other inaccuracy is the very nature of Tiberius. He was far from the benevolent figure portrayed in this movie, or in "The Robe". Tiberius was a paranoid tyrant, who had members of his family murdered on suspicion of treason. As this film wrongly portrays, he was also never in Rome, but had a private villa on the island of Capri, and left most of the affairs of state to his Praetorian Prefect, Sejanus. Always suspicious, Tiberius opened what he called "treason trials" where rumored enemies of the state were tried, convicted and murdered in cruel and unusual manners.
That aside, this film deserves 4 out of 5 stars in my book!