Shane and Ben-Hur

I didn't write about my RST 135 class last week because we started two films, but we didn't actually get to finish them until tonight. I usually have a meeting with some good friends right before my 6:00 PM viewing session, so usually I have to shove food in my face and jump on my bike and rush into class. Today, however, wasn't quite as full, so I had the chance to actually cook a nice meal and sit down in class without being short of breath or having a cheeseburger in my hand. This was nice because I could really focus my thoughts on what I was there to do: watch movies. What a class. Anyway, we watched the tail end of Shane and Ben-Hur, both very excellent and disctinctly striking in their own ways.

Shane is a movie that is full of cliches and well-worn western themes, but that's because it was made back when the cliches weren't cliches and the themes weren't well-worn. It's one of those movies that you would probably find in the dictionary if you looked up western. I liked it because it was simple: There are some homesteaders trying to make a home in the middle of a valley, which the evil guy, Riker, wants to take as pasture for his cattle. Shane comes in with his white hat and six-shooter, helps the homesteaders, takes care of the bad guys, and rides off into the mountains. Good stuff. It's full of biblical allusion and symbolism, with Shane playing the Christ figure. The movie is a lot more interesting and compelling when viewed through the lens of the Gospel story, which is why we watched it. Clint Eastwood made a pseudo-remake of this movie in his flick, Pale Rider, which is significantly darker, with the main character being portrayed as the pale rider from Revelations 6:8, quite a contrast to the Christ-figure in Shane.

Ben-Hur definitely fits the label of biblical epic. The reason that we didn't finish it in one session is that it is 3 hours and 40 minutes long. It's based on a novel by General Lew Wallace, a soldier from the Civil War who became a Christian. I saw a lot of similarities in plot to Alexander Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, particularly in the main character's quest for vengance. The main character, Judah Ben-Hur, is thrown into prison by a childhood friend-turned-Cold-Roman, Masala, and spends the rest of the movie being swallowed up by his thoughts of anger, hatred, and vengance. In the end, Judah is pretty jacked up: he's killed Masala, his mother and sister have become lepers, and his heart has been so hardened by hate that he can't love anymore. But one of the most powerful aspects of the film is that the tale of Christ is woven into the storyline, which climaxes in Jesus' blood flowing down from Golgotha and washing away the leprosy of Judah's family and softening his hard heart. In the end, Judah was so cold and alone that nothing but the blood of Jesus couldv'e made him whole again.

And this is how it is in the cold, dark hours of life: it is by the blood of Christ alone that we are made new, the blood that rains down and softens even the hardest of hearts. Even mine. Thank God for that.

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon, this I see,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my hope and peace,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Now by this I’ll overcome—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
Now by this I’ll reach my home—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Glory! Glory! This I sing—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
All my praise for this I bring—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
(Robert Lowry, Nothing But The Blood)