Don't overlook the gospel message in this great movie

Rating: 10/10 (18 May 1999)

It wasn't until I saw this movie for perhaps the fourth or fifth time that it finally dawned on me what the point of it all was. The sub title of the novel gives us a clue "A tale of the Christ". And until I became a Christian myself, the sheer magnitude and grandiosity of the production overshadowed this most important aspect: healing and forgiveness (which only Christ can give) in a time of paganism and worldliness embodied by the Roman overlords.
Judah Ben-Hur goes on a tortuous, harrowing, life draining, gut wrenching journey of Roman barbarism thirsting for revenge. Put on a Roman galley to die by his boyhood friend, only his hate keeps him alive.
When they meet for the last time at the end of the chariot race, Judah, having been touched twice by the healing hand of the carpenter, Jesus (whose face you never see), can already sense no feeling of accomplishment by the victory over a dying Messalah (he should have won an Oscar for the death scene alone).
The culmination of the physical healing of his once leprous mother and sister (emblematic in the flow of blood from the cross into a stream of water) is one of the most moving in cinematic history. Their faith has made them whole and Judah's new-found faith has liberated him from the hate that had kept him captive.