Agora (2009)

Agora is about Hypatia of Alexandria.  Historically, she was a learned woman who gave advice to Orestes, the Roman governor of Alexandria.  She was either beaten to death or flayed alive by a mob of angry Christians.  Unfortunately, none of her works have survived.  The movie itself is beautiful to look at.  The costumes and scenery are gorgeous.  The plot is something I would describe as historical-ish.  We don't really know a lot about Hypatia, so a lot of embellishing had to be done to create a complete character.  I really enjoyed this movie, and it gives me a break from the tired Christian Martyr narrative.

Ben Hur (1907)

This movie is more interesting as a piece of history than it is a film about history.  It's only ten minutes and worth having a look.

Constantine and the Cross (1962)

This movie was OK.  It's difficult to find a hard copy, but is readily available on YouTube.  It focuses mostly on the events leading up to Constantine having his famous vision and winning the battle that, in the film, is kind of anti-climactic.  A lot of the plot points, like Christians stubbornly refusing to renounce Jesus in the face of terrible death, are starting to feel pretty stale to me.  But, if you really love sword and sandal stuff, this one might be worth a look.

Sebastiane (1976)

This movie is soft core gay porn.  This makes it my new favorite.  Sebastiane is a Roman Soldier who converts to Christianity and gets sent off to the boondocks with six other soldiers as punishment.  They wrestle, bath, run around naked and play Frisbee.  Sebastiane won't follow any orders and get punished all the time.  When his friend asks him why he acts this way, he tells him he likes getting beat up and wants to die.  For Jesus.  One thing I admire about this movie is it flat out states what a lot of these early Christian films dance around, that the main characters are extreme masochists with death wishes.  If you are intrigued by any of this, it is streaming on Netflix.

Ben-Hur (1959)

Ben-Hur could actually be considered a remake of a 1929 movie.  It is the story of a Jewish guy who rejects his Roman childhood friend in some scenes full of homoerotic subtext.  It's a pretty decent movie and the chariot race scene is awesome.  Also, it's in technicolor, so that's fun.  It makes me wonder if chariot races were as fatal as depicted.  Somehow I doubt it.  If, like me, you have a modern attention span you will probably have to break it up into a couple of viewings.  I wasn't sure to file this under life of Jesus or early Christian, but I'm going to go with early Christian, since it's a sort of idealized "beginning of Christianity" story.

Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)

Demetrius and the Gladiators is the only slightly better sequel to The Robe.  It has a similar plot to Spartacus.  It's almost impossible to talk about historical accuracy in this movie, because nothing in it is accurate.  It's better to just accept this takes place in an alternate universe.  That being said, it was kind of fun to watch as the fight scenes were pretty good.

The Robe (1953)

This was the first movie to be released in Cinemascope.  And that is the best thing it has going for it.  A Roman General pisses of a not-yet-emperor Caligula by buying the slave he wants.  He gets sent to Jerusalem as punishment and takes part in the crucifixion.  He wins Jesus' robe, but when he puts it on he goes crazy.  A surprisingly accommodating Emperor Tiberius sends him on a mission to recover the robe (his slave ran off with it in Jerusalem) and destroy it to break the curse.  Eventually he becomes Christian and gets martyred with his wife, although it looks in the movie like Caligula declared them martyred, and then they ascended bodily to heaven.

The Sign of the Cross (1932)

The Sign of the Cross is a pre-code Cecil B. DeMille movie, and I loved it.  The first half is relatively dry, but things get crazy in the second act.  The movie takes place during the reign of Nero.  A Roman soldier falls in love with a Christian woman, and rescues her when a meeting of Christians gets broken up and everyone is arrested.  He then has an orgy where a woman does a sexy dance for her.  The movie also feature a Colosseum scene that gets progressively more ridiculous, culminating in battle between Amazons and black dwarfs.  I got the feeling that we were supposed to feel sorry for the Christians, but they all seemed pretty eager to die to me.  They knew that their meeting wasn't a secret anymore, but held it anyway.  As far as costuming goes, the Christian woman is dressed like someone from the 10th century, while Claudette Colbert as the empress is pure 1930s glamour girl.