Going into the movie, Risen, I knew nothing about it other than having seen the trailer on the Internet. The trailer was unimpressive to me so the movie was a very pleasant surprise.
Without giving away too much, let me say that it is not your typical remake of the Jesus story. It is a creative thought project. The story is told from the perspective of a fictional Roman Tribune named Clavius, played well by Joseph Fiennes. Clavius is charged with assuring that Jesus is dead, securing the tomb, and then attempting to find the body of Jesus after the tomb is discovered to be empty.
Most of the movie is pure, imaginative fiction. Certainly there must have been some interest by the Roman authorities when Jesus’ body went missing. We have no idea how much they were concerned. The only information we are given is that the Jewish authorities paid the soldiers a bribe and said that they would protect them if the story ever got back to the governor, Pontius Pilate (Matthew 28:11-15). For the movie’s sake, Pilate does find out and launches a thorough search for the body. Clavius becomes the p