Ben-Hur

The experiences of Judah Ben-Hur in Roman occupied Jerusalem constructing an allegory that describes the greater experience of the Jewish people at the hands of the Romans and other non-Jewish factions throughout history. In witnessing Jesus' compassion on his persecutors even while being crucified, Ben-Hur learns that although, like Jesus, he was greatly wronged without just cause, it is possible to forgive, and in forgiveness achieve unity.
In his youth, Ben-Hur was a man grounded in faith and a firm believer in peace. In spite of the Roman occupation, he bears them no overt ill-will. As such, when his childhood friend Messala returns to Jerusalem newly allied with the invaders, Ben-Hur has no qualms in reuniting with his companion. When he is pressured by Messala to turn on his countrymen and report those who have spoken against the Romans, his trust is betrayed. In refusing to do this, whether out of loyalty to his people, disgust with the idea of limiting a person's freedom to express his or her political opinions, or a tacit agreement with the dissenters, he makes himself the target of Roman brutality, and is sentenced to slavery.
It is in this lowly place that he first personally experiences the compassion of Jesus and is able to impress Arrius, a Roman, with determination and discipline which are implicit to the Jewish faith. Having experienced Jesus' empathy, however, he is able to go a step further than his traditions, and not only use his own freedom to release the bonds of his fellow slaves, but save the life of his captor by showing him the flaws in his understanding of the outcome of his mission and that he was not a failure, but a success.
When Arrius, pleased with the adulation he is able to experience thanks ...

... middle of paper ...

... and sister, Ben-Hur is able to realize that his own hatred is not justified, and, in spite that the Romans still occupy Jerusalem, a greater good will come from forgiveness than from insidious hate.
When viewed through the lens of history, the events in this epic film can be seen as mirroring the oppression, pressure to assimilate, governmental betrayal, and ultimate struggle to find closure experienced by many Jewish people during and after the reign of the Nazis in Germany, which ended in 1945, and the investigations of the House of Un-American Activities in the United States, the last of which was held in 1951. This movie, and its call for forgiveness in a move toward unity with enemy factions was possibly a plea for those who had experienced so much pain at the hands of those they had once called friends to forgo seething passions and move forward in peace.