Chateau Lloyd

As is my wont, I've been watching classic Bible-themed movies over Holy Week.  I will likely conclude with Risen, one of my favorite new films, but for the first time ever, I decided to watch Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments back-to-back.

I should point out that this wasn't part of any plan on my part.  I thought it would be fun to watch Ben Hur (and maybe to a write up on it for Bleedingfool.com), and I enjoyed it so much, I thought I'd take in the other great Charleton Heston classic as well.

I'm going to come right out and say it: Ben Hur is the better movie.  The pacing is better, the story flows better and it feels like entertainment rather than a Sunday School lesson.

Don't get me wrong - The Ten Commandments has excellent drama and I love the rivalry between Heston and Yul Brynner, but between the narration and full-stop quotations of scripture, I can see the beginning of Christian film making at its worst - wooden, preachy, and painfully earnest.

I also think that in today's climate, Ben Hur is more accessible.  It's a revenge story that turns into a conversion narrative.  That was unusual at the time, and why the book it was based on was such a phenomenal best-seller.

I'll throw a link to my column once it runs, so that you can read more about Ben Hur and why I like it, but that's my quick and dirty comparison between the two.