Thursday, January 14, 2016

By the Gods!

A thirsty Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is given water by an unseen Jesus (Claude Heater) in BEN-HUR

Jesus often remained hidden in several biblical films made in the past, like he did in this film. It's almost as if it was blasphemous to show his face. Things would change considerably with the release of a couple films made after this, such as KING OF KINGS and THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. Things would change even further with the TV mini-series JESUS OF NAZARETH directed by Zefferelli.

I actually like this approach. It gave Jesus a mysterious and mystical aspect few films or TV productions mentioned above were able to achieve. I don't know if an entire film on his story would work this way but making Jesus too human often robbed him of this special aura. 

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