In 1907, Sidney Olcott directed the first screen version of Ben Hur, a best-selling 1880 novel by Lew Wallace — Civil War general, New Mexico territorial governor and statesman. The story is classic Biblical melodrama: Judah Ben Hur is the scion of a wealthy Jewish family whose old friend Messala, an ambitious Roman soldier, has returned home to Jerusalem to command the garrison. The two old friends ultimately become bitter foes, though they are in agreement on the terms: power versus power. Yet this seemingly straightforward conflict comes to be greatly complicated by the impact of Christ and his revolutionary message of the power of love.

Despite the novel's subtitle — "A Tale of the Christ" — Christ is kept mostly at a distance. The Gospel story is a subplot here which makes its way to the center of the main narrative only at key moments: at the beginning, when a smalltown carpenter's son gives water to a suffering Judah, then a Roman prisoner, and years later, when Judah returns the favor after circumstances are dramatically reversed. Two action sequences have always been the showstoppers of this story, whether peformed onstage as a play (and it was!), flashed in still images via that pre-cinema marvel the Magic Lantern, or at last given the Hollywood treatment as here: the sea battle and chariot race. Fred Niblo may not have had the fluid whimsy of a DeMille, but he knew how to stage battle scenes. The fleet of Roman galleys, triple-decked with rowing slaves, is set against barbarian pirates with flaming projectiles, climaxing in hand-to-hand combat among a cast of hundreds scrambling over the vessels (and over the side: they inadvertantly burned and sank one and kept the footage in the film). The story then catches its breath before the next big set-piece. When Ben Hur saves the life of his commander, he's taken to Rome and adopted as a Roman son. There he becomes a celebrated charioteer, just like — he finds on his return home — his old rival Messala. The plot builds to a showdown, the film's other famous set-piece, a chariot race, featuring a spectacular racetrack, thousands of spectators, and a harrowing race to the death.

The resolution of Ben Hur — after such spectacular climaxes — inevitably plays as an afterthought. This version is at least better structured than the more well-known 1959 remake: here the momentum from the chariot race carries into Judah's renewed campaign against Rome, as he raises Jewish armies against the hated oppressor. The Christ subplot moves to climax simultaneously with Ben Hur's near-ascension to the sort of Messiahdom actually looked for by Israel, but the armies become prematurely moot when the story climaxes a little too early in Judah's meeting with Christ on the Via Dolorosa. Still, this version is a genuine spectacle, complete with several scenes shot in two-color Technicolor — despite the lame ending, where, instead of following through to the Resurrection, Ben Hur sanctimoniously intones of the crucified Christ whose tale this supposedly is, "He will live forever in the hearts of men."