I am watching one of my all-time favorite movies, “Ben Hur,” right now on TCM. If you look up the word “epic” in the dictionary, there should be a little picture next to it of Charlton Heston driving a chariot.

Yes, the movie is overwrought in a couple of places, and yes, you can find Heston’s tooth-prints on the scenery in a few places, but still, this is what movies are meant to be.

As I thought about the story just now, I thought about what a powerful message it has about forgiveness. The character who wrongs Judah Ben-Hur deserves no forgiveness, never asks for forgiveness, never shows remorse. And yet, one of the central messages of the movie is that Judah must forgive him in order to move on with his own life.

Fortunately, there’s another character — a carpenter’s son whose face is never shown — who’s pretty good at teaching that sort of thing.