{"id":26713,"date":"2015-01-21T14:11:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T22:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=26713"},"modified":"2016-06-24T20:14:58","modified_gmt":"2016-06-25T03:14:58","slug":"will-the-new-ben-hur-flesh-out-the-back-story-of-the-thieves-who-were-crucified-next-to-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2015\/01\/will-the-new-ben-hur-flesh-out-the-back-story-of-the-thieves-who-were-crucified-next-to-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Will the new Ben-Hur<\/i> flesh out the back-story of the thieves who were crucified with Jesus?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"moisesarias\"<\/a>Most of the casting announcements for the upcoming remake of Ben-Hur<\/a><\/i> have dealt so far with some fairly familiar characters: Judah Ben-Hur<\/a>, his sister<\/a>, his mother<\/a>, his nemesis Messala<\/a> and a<\/a> few<\/a> others<\/a> like Jesus<\/a> and Pontius Pilate<\/a>. Nothing so far has indicated how this new film might be different from previous adaptations. Nothing, that is, until now.<\/p>\n

Deadline<\/a> reports that the filmmakers have cast 20-year-old Kings of Summer<\/i> co-star Mois\u00e9s Arias as Gestas, \u201ca teenage Jewish zealot\u201d who is \u201cdesperate to fight for his people\u2019s freedom\u201d because his family \u201chas been murdered by the Romans\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is interesting, as there is no one named Gestas in the original novel<\/a>, but Gestas is<\/i> the traditional name for one of the thieves who were crucified with Jesus. (Gestas is the one who mocked Jesus<\/a>. The one who repented is called Dismas.)<\/p>\n

And of course, many translators would argue that the Greek word that has commonly been translated \u201cthieves\u201d should really be translated \u201crebels\u201d \u2014 like the Zealots.<\/p>\n

So it looks like the new film will follow the line of interpretation which says that the men crucified next to Jesus were violent revolutionaries, and not just roadside robbers. And it looks like the film will give at least one of these men a back story<\/i> \u2014 which suggests that he might become a significant character in the plot.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t read the novel in decades, so I don\u2019t know how easy it would be to slip these characters into the story. But I do know that both of the feature films produced to date \u2014 the silent 1925 version<\/a>, in particular \u2014 showed Judah Ben-Hur flirting with revolution and even raising an army, after he got his revenge against Messala in the chariot race. Perhaps Gestas and Dismas will be two of his recruits.<\/p>\n

And given how Timur Bekmambetov was reportedly hired to direct this film because the studio felt he had \u201ca strong grasp on the story\u2019s themes of revenge and redemption<\/a>,\u201d I wonder if it will use the relationship between Judah and Gestas to explore the differences between these paths and where they lead, with Gestas\u2019 pursuit of revenge leading to his execution, while Judah lets go and finds peace.<\/p>\n

Off the top of my head, I can\u2019t think of any other films that have really fleshed out Gestas or Dismas. Franco Zeffirelli\u2019s Jesus of Nazareth<\/a><\/i> includes a brief scene of the two men in prison \u2014 one of them shouts at the guard, \u201cIt was him who did the murder, not me!\u201d \u2014 and other films may have done something similar. But the Jewish rebel who usually gets extra screen time is Barabbas, and not these other guys.<\/p>\n

So, Ben-Hur<\/i> may be breaking new ground here. As ever, we shall see.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a picture of Judah Ben-Hur in his revolutionary outfit from the 1925 film:<\/p>\n

\"vlcsnap-2015-01-20-20h21m08s77\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The producers have hired Mois\u00e9s Arias to play Gestas — a name that doesn’t appear anywhere in the original novel but does<\/i> appear in apocryphal Christian tradition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[411,409,2202,2752,2751,355,2750],"class_list":["post-26713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-ben-hur","tag-ben-hur-1925","tag-ben-hur-2016","tag-dismas","tag-gestas","tag-jesus-of-nazareth-1977","tag-moises-arias"],"yoast_head":"\nWill the new Ben-Hur flesh out the back-story of the thieves who were crucified with Jesus?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The producers have hired Mois\u00e9s Arias to play Gestas -- a name that doesn't appear anywhere in the original novel but does appear in apocryphal Christian tradition.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2015\/01\/will-the-new-ben-hur-flesh-out-the-back-story-of-the-thieves-who-were-crucified-next-to-jesus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will the new Ben-Hur flesh out the back-story of the thieves who were crucified with Jesus?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The producers have hired Mois\u00e9s Arias to play Gestas -- a name that doesn't appear anywhere in the original novel but does appear in apocryphal Christian tradition.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2015\/01\/will-the-new-ben-hur-flesh-out-the-back-story-of-the-thieves-who-were-crucified-next-to-jesus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-21T22:11:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-25T03:14:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2015\/01\/moisesarias.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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