Cinema Savior

Mom never could understand why I'd rush home from Hebrew school to catch the last half hour of William Wyler's Ben-Hur on the tube, and I'll bet my rabbi would have understood even less (had he found me out). But I never wanted to miss the multiple Oscar-winner's exhilirating climax, beginning with Jesus' long, sad march to Calvary and winding through the heart-breaking Crucifixion, to Judah Ben Hur's mother and sister being cleansed of creeping leprosy by the Savior's blood, all set to the increasingly emotional strains of Milos Rozsa's mighty musical score. And as "The End" appeared after the final shot of a shepherd leading his flock across a biblical landscape with three crosses in the background, I would wipe the lat tears away and sigh, "Wow, what a movie."