News culture This Oscar-winning film never shows the face of Jesus. This is one of the great qualities of the film and there is a legal reason for it
The film, which won 11 Oscars and shaped cinema history with its excess, has a little design secret that gives the production a certain strength.
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The biblical epic “Ben-Hur” by William Wyler from 1959 shaped the history of cinema. At 212 minutes long, Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd star in a spectacular epic, certain scenes of which are still quoted in film schools, such as the famous chariot race sequence. The most Oscar-winning feature film of all time (with 11 awards, tied with Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) has definitely left its mark on its generation.
The focus is on the figure of Judah, a rich prince of Judea who was sent to the galleys. Ben-Hur also tells the story of Jesus. Throughout the work, the path of the protagonists is closely linked to the path of Christ, so that the feature film begins with his birth and ends shortly after his crucifixion. As already mentioned Sensacins et Allocin, The portrait of Jesus in Ben-Hur is radically different from what we are used to, since we never see his face. However, this strong specificity of the production does not come from William Wyler.
Hide this face that I can’t see
It is a fact that in Ben-Hur we neither see the face of Christ nor hear his voice. We might be tempted to interpret this choice of staging as the director’s desire not to represent what he believes cannot be shown, for example, because of the biblical sublimity. We could also see this cinematic trick as a way to allow viewers to form their own image of Christ without imposing one. Reality, as explained Allocinis this The production was not required to show anything unless he was the film’s main protagonist due to a British law at the time that banned physical or vocal depictions of Jesus in cinemas.
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What could have been a detriment to the work quickly becomes a strength, this time thanks to the talent of the director, who uses his frames and the play of the actors to give real power to the portrayal of Jesus, without making it appear from the front on the Screen. The American actor Claude Heater, who played the role of Christ in the film, was not even credited in the credits. If you want to (re)discover Ben-Hur, know that it is available on Amazon Prime Video.
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