Joseph Fiennes does it all with his face. In the opening scene, we meet Clavius in a pitched battle with the Jewish sicarii, aka the zealots. The expression on his face is -- boredom. It's as though he's thinking, "These Jews think they're competition? They're exercise!"
When he meets his new subaltern, a young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed officer fresh out of OCS, the look on his face is, "Oh, f*** me!"
When the subaltern questions how they are going to find Mary Magdalene, Clavius doesn't even say, "Watch and learn," he simply motions the boy to the barracks and asks the question as to who "knew" her. Everybody raises his hand.
The dialog is clever. When Clavius apprehends Mary Magdalene because he's been waiting for her to attempt to escape by the back door of the inn, he grabs her and says, "Shalom, Mary."
The scene with Bartholomew is a taste of British humor. Clavius' response to Bartholomew's claim that he doesn't fear death because he will meet his master in the afterlife is a classic. "See those nails? That's the reality of crucifixion. You try to breathe -- oh wait, you can't breathe. We took your master down after a few hours because of your religious holiday, but we'll leave you up there for a couple of days."
Pontius Pilate comes across as a British bureaucrat, s Roman version of Sir Humphrey Appleby of "Yes, Minister." I'm not a religious believer, but I thoroughly enjoyed the film.
I have to admit that “Risen” has become one of my favorite movies of all time.
The research detail in putting the sand on the spear before throwing it, and where the spear hit, were marks of incredible detail and authenticity.