A favorite plot of storytellers - the change of fortunes of a young man of noble lineage who, by the hand of God, regains and even surpasses his former status.

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2005)

Although the chariot race was probably intended by the screenwriters to be the action climax of the film, the scene that has turned out to be the most remembered is the sea battle scene. Caricatured and lampooned in comic strips, TV skits and popular word-of-mouth jokes, it has achieved an immortality that somehow surpasses the film itself.
Here's one.
The "hortator" who beats a drum setting the rowing pace on a Roman galley ship:
"Good news boys, the captain has ordered extra rations of bread and wine and a day's shore leave for everybody."
"The bad news - the captain wants to go water skiing tomorrow."
SPOILER: When I got hold of a video version of the film several years ago, I kept replaying that battle scene. As a kid, I marveled at the naval tactics of the Roman general played by Jack Hawkins who exuded an ambivalent mixture of genteel urbanity and a cavalier disregard for human life and suffering. The commands "Battle speed!" "Attack speed!" "Ramming speed!" always sent my pulse racing.
The sound effects and background music are also great considering that this was well before the time of Dolby and THX. The rousing music "The March of the Charioteers." It's the same music played during the Roman General's triumphal entry into Rome. It can be ranked as one of the most stirring marches of all time and was included in a Reader's Digest vinyl record collection.
Antiquarians and history buffs surely appreciated the detailed costumes and armor of the Roman officers, the architecture of the famed Fortress Antonia of the Roman garrison in Palestine, the signet rings used to certify legal documents, the brazen fish at the stadium used to mark the end of each lap in the chariot race. Trivia: Most people wrongly assume that the race was held at the Circus Maximus in Rome with the Emperor Augustus presiding. Not so, that city must be Caesarea Philippi, a city near Jerusalem built by Herod the Great for the Romans to accommodate their temples and baths which were not allowed in Jerusalem as Jewish law and moral sensibilities forbade them. The Romans did bend over backwards to accommodate the Jews' insistence on religious autonomy because the latter were such implacable rebels. The person who was supposed to be presiding at the chariot race is Pontius Pilate played by Frank Thring. It was not right to costume him in royal looking robes. Pilate was a military governor. He would have been in soldier's uniform or armor or, as this was a non-military event, he would have donned the white robe with red borders of the senatorial class of which he must have been a member. Many classical paintings of Christ's passion do show him in such costume.