needs to be seen on the biggest screen in town

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2010)

The best of the wide screen biblical epics may have more brains than all the others combined, but that doesn't save it from being any less of a guilty pleasure. Of course any Hollywood 'Tale of the Christ', however tastefully presented, is going to have a certain camp appeal, and the real attraction of the film remains the sheer scale and spectacle of its many set pieces, in particular the sea battle and thrilling chariot race. In between those two highlights is the usual middlebrow Christian soap opera, full of noble Jews and arrogant Romans, with (representing the former) the young Prince of Hur seeking bitter revenge after being unjustly condemned to slavery by his childhood friend Messala, now a Roman tribune. Ben Hur's vendetta eventually leads him to a Messiah who preaches love and forgiveness, two simple virtues all but lost behind the mammoth production costs and rousing Miklos Rosza music score. But the drama is salvaged by a semi-literate script (the screen writing tag team included a skeptical Gore Vidal), several worthwhile performances (all the more noteworthy from a cast dressed in togas), and a homeopathic dose of that old-time religion.