By Gavin Boyle
BEN-HUR co-producer Mark Burnett explained how the team approached the making of the movie to create a high-quality movie that also happened to promote faith.
“I feel that for a movie to have a message of faith in it, the movie needs to stand alone as any other movie. There’s no free pass because you happen to have a faith message…” Burnett told Movieguide®. “You have to make high quality television, plays, books or movies, in this case, and it happens to have a faith message through it. That’s the way to approach it, not to think that you got a free pass.”
“Often times you can have the story of Jesus, or even actually Jesus within a movie, and it doesn’t in any way denigrate the quality of the experience,” Burnett continued. “So, holding faith films to the same standard as any other successful Hollywood film and having an audience get used to that.”
BEN-HUR hit the mark on this aspect, creating a very entertaining movie that intersects with the story of Jesus. Judah, the main character, has an encounter with Jesus early in the movie that impacts his worldview and later watches the crucifixion and seeks to provide comfort to Jesus as He dies. A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
The energy of BEN-HUR explodes when Judah finds himself on a Roman slave ship. The raging sea battle and pulse-pounding chariot race that ensue are spectacular. Also, Jack Huston’s performance as Judah gets stronger and stronger. That said, this version lacks the majesty of the 1959 classic. Although it has more and stronger Christian elements, BEN-HUR still omits references to Christ’s resurrection and the good news that Jesus saved us from our sins. Though this is the case, the movie is entertaining, exciting, and enjoyable.
Since BEN-HUR released in 2016, Hollywood has seen a major resurgence of Christian media which has proven to be extremely popular as these moviemakers have stepped up their focus on quality. THE CHOSEN was one of the first projects to really do this and found an immediate response, and similar high-quality, faith-based projects have followed suit.
Related: Dallas Jenkins Among Hollywood’s Top 50 Most Influential Showrunners
SOUND OF FREEDOM, for example, shared the gospel and ended 2023 as the No. 10 movie of the year. Meanwhile, Jon Erwin is finding great success through his newly launched Wonder Project studio which recently released HOUSE OF DAVID on Prime Video, connecting with a massive audience.
As we enter into the Easter weekend, it is incredible that Christians have a variety of movies and TV shows they can turn to as a way to better understand the death and resurrection of Jesus as we reflect on that history-defining event.
Read Next: Faith-Based Hit HOUSE OF DAVID Is No. 1 in US: ‘All Glory to God’
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