Based on the novel by Lew Wallace, first published in 1880.
(spoilers) Judah lives in Judea around the first century of the Common Era. As a child he used to be friends with Messala, a Roman. The latter becomes a Roman officer. An accident during a parade causes Judah, his mother and his sister to be wrongly accused of a crime, and they are arrested by orders from Messala. Judah gets a life sentence and is sent to the galleys. When his ship is attacked by pirates, he saves the Roman admiral's life, and the latter adopts him as a son. Judah becomes a renowned athlete. A chariot race is his chance to avenge himself on Messala. His mother and sister have contracted leprosy in prison. Jesus cures them. Judah converts to Christianity.
The plot is mostly garbage, but the visuals are sumptuous, and the overall experience of watching the film is less painful than it perhaps should be on a purely intellectual level.
A side note: the Wikipedia page for the source novel contains an error. I detected it because it is in contradiction with another passage from the same page, and, upon reading chapter 14 in Book 5, I confirmed that it is indeed wrong, whereas the other passage is correct. The error is in the following sentence:
"Messala deliberately scrapes his chariot wheel against Judah's and Messala's chariot breaks apart, causing him to be trampled by other racers' horses."
It should instead be:
"Judah deliberately scrapes his chariot wheel against Messala's and Messala's chariot breaks apart, causing him to be trampled by other racers' horses."
This movie is faithful to the novel in this respect, except that in the novel Messala's provocation consisted in whipping Judah's horses once (if I remember correctly) and in the film Messala whips Judah, repeatedly.
Rating: 44
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