The next encounters I see as the center of the movie. Clavius brings Pilate a corpse though obviously it is not the corpse of Yeshua. Pilate knows it is a fraud, and is not pleased. In fact he is ordering Clavius to Hebron, clearly not Rome and apparently a dangerous and fatal place for Roman warriors. Pilate's parting comment, as he leaves Clavius and turns back for a moment toward the corpse: "In a few years that's us."
Since Clavius has in effect been taken off the case, he nevertheless decides to pursue it on his own; he seeks out the second guard, a man he knows well, and finds him singing and somewhat drunk in a tavern. I find this scene one of the most compelling in the entire movie, the face to face encounter with the guard who actually witnessed the resurrection and then followed by the face to face encounter with Yeshua for the first time. Both scenes are incredibly powerful and at the center of the movie.
In the first encounter, Clavius, on his own, seeks out the guard and after having been given the story the Jews paid him to tell, Clavius essentially forces him to tell the truth by defining how the real details conflict with the details in the false version. One of the reasons the movie delights me is that the director, Kevin Reynolds, does not attempt to film the guard's story; instead he has the guard tell it and let's Clavius and us see the action reflected in the guard's face and his words. The guard said, "it was the second day, what could happen?"; and then he found out. The camera keeps his face in the center of the screen, closeup. "It was the sun," he manages to get out, obviously incredibly shaken. "And then a figure appeared that I could not gaze upon because of the terrible light." He is emphatic that the figure wasn't a man. "And there was this voice all around that I could not fathom." The beauty of the guard's face is that he sheds tears over what he saw. He and the other guard ran, and he beats at his head, as he tells Clavius that they ran until they could think again. The tough Roman sheds tears; the actor's performance is outstanding.
In a soft yearning voice, the guard asks Clavius to explain it to him. Ha! Clavius tries. Perhaps the wine was tainted; you were drunk. The guard, I think, suggests that maybe the disciples used magic. The guard drinks some more and is obviously a broken man, having just experienced an encounter with a supernatural reality that he has no basis to understand, no doubt. The guard lists a number of incredible experiences he has had, a man devoured by a sea serpent, for example, but nothing like this. "I don't know. I drink." The consequence for him is to drink to forget something that he can never forget.
Clavius has finally heard the truth, however, and the truth sends him back to the tomb. There are, I think, three images from the dark tomb: first, there is the single flame from a first century oil lamp; second, the camera shows us, briefly, the thorns from the crown; third, we see Clavius examining the face on the cloth we all know as the Shroud of Turin. We saw it once before when Clavius entered the tomb the first time; we see it again with Clavius, knowing now that the face is very likely the authentic image of the Risen Yeshua.
The next thing we see is a street in Jerusalem, somewhat chaotic as Lucius and the Legion have apparently discovered the location of the disciples. The Tribune races into action, becoming once again the Roman warrior ready to deal justice to the rebel followers of Yeshua, "I want at least two alive, so spare some," he tells his men; of course what happens is that Clavius comes face to face with the loving and welcoming Risen Yeshua, who knows Clavius' name and addresses him as brother.
First, Clavius has glimpsed Mary Magdalene again and though he is by himself, he follows her, up a flight of stairs, to an upper room, the upper room, of course. The images and the encounter are excruciating for Clavius. He has heard the evidence, he bursts into the room, sort of; then, having seen the face he knew in another context, he backs out of the room. Lucius is below now, concerned for Clavius and ready to slaughter rebels. Clavius tells him to "stand down!" And here is another difficult moment for Clavius, for he sends Lucius back to their quarters, saying, "I don't need you for this." Lucius, who greatly admires Clavius, is stricken as he is rejected by the man he looks up to. But he goes with a backward glance, knowing that something is obviously wrong.
The camera shows us only Clavius' feet moving slowly toward the room again, then his hand holding the drawn sword; finally we see the head of Clavius almost blinded by the sun, as is the audience, as was the guard. Clavius moves back into the doorway where Thomas, the disciple who was absent from the first appearance of Yeshua, pushes past him. We get a series of images then where the two faces of Yeshua are seen almost together: dead on the cross, living before him, a rapid montage (I remembered a technical term). Yeshua says, "Welcome Clavius." Referring to the sword, "There are no enemies here." At this point, I think, Clavius lets the sword drop, and in effect leans against a wall and slides down it to a sitting position. Very nicely, Bartholomew comes over to sit beside him while Thomas (and Clavius and the audience) are shown the wounds, healed now, and especially the wound in the side for which Clavius is particularly responsible, and which he had described so vividly to Bartholomew earlier. Thomas weeps and says he is sorry; for what, replies Yeshua. For running, and thus are all the details from previous encounters brought into the room.
The camera very nicely and seamlessly moves then to Mary who is reaching out to touch Yeshua herself; the camera reveals that he is gone. Confusion reigns for a bit. The disciples learn, however, through Mary and Peter that they are to go to Galilee where Yeshua "will see his brothers once more." Yeshua had vanished; so does Clavius, leaving a "proclamation" of sorts behind in the room that Lucius and Pilate find. "Do not seek me. Do not follow me." Clavius has begun the process of shedding his Roman identity to, himself, become, with the disciples, a follower of Yeshua. Two scenes, marvelous and exciting: the Guard in the tavern, on the floor, describing in somewhat terrifying detail, the scene at the tomb, and Yeshua with his disciples in the upper room, Clavius on the floor, meeting face to face "the body" he has been seeking.
I enjoy the movie greatly and think that it tells the resurrection story exceedingly well, especially with its attention to character and detail. The scenes with Yeshua and Peter and Yeshua and Clavius in the latter part of the movie bring the story to a fairly satisfying conclusion. The final image in the inn at the end I owe to the writers' commentary. At the beginning as Clavius arrives at the inn, he looks out the window, perhaps reminding us of Mary at a window earlier. The wooden panes form a cross so that Clavius is in a sense looking through and past the cross, an image near the heart of the story. In the end the window panes form the image of the cross on the wooden table and Clavius takes off his Tribune's ring, the last image of his former life, and places it beside the shadow of the cross on the table. Clavius' transformation is in effect complete. I invite you to experience the story for yourselves. The movie has been good to think and write about, and there only remains to go back soon and correct the errors produced by my own addled brain and those produced by the ornery spell check mechanism.