True Lies

To add to my list of things that aren't really historic, True Lies has some great reproductions of Assyrian art.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any good clips.  Also, I'm thinking about cross posting here and tumblr.

Ozymandias vs Rorschach and Nite Owl II

Posting this for the scenery.

I know it's not historic, but it has some nice shots of ruins.

I think I might start posting clips and things in between reviews.....

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.