the film features scenes of jesus' miracles and his sermon on the mount (shot with many thousands of extras), as well as a scene where jesus visits john the baptist in his dungeon during his imprisonment by herod antipas. ray staged the scene in such a way that john the baptist must crawl up an incline inside the dungeon, holding out his hand to reach for jesus' hand, a vivid example of ray's architectural sense of composition and visual drama: ray had been the theatre apprentice in the original taliesin fellowship set up in wisconsin by the architect frank lloyd wright (1970: conversation with james leahy; see also article and interview in "movie" no. 9, may 1963.).