That was an excellent one.

Instant Favorite.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Where's Lazarus? No Lazarus! These guys Bronston, Yordan and Ray certainly bear watching. Anyone capable of producing a life of Christ without Lazarus is just as likely to come up with a Nixon minus Watergate or Roosevelt without the New Deal or a Truman bereft of the atom bomb. And where's Peter, the big fisherman, the rock on whom the Christ was to build His church? Is that him milling around in the background somewhere? What are these guys doing with their 165 minutes? Pasolini managed to film a whole gospel in 142. Yet here we have 165 with no Lazarus, no woman at the well, no prodigal son, no good Samaritan, no wedding feast at Cana, no bed-ridden man lowered from the roof, no pigs running berserk, no storm at sea, no feeding of any multitudes, no expulsion of the money-changers out of the temple, no Pharisee and publican praying in the temple, no healings on the Sabbath day, no gnashing of teeth in the synagogue, no lepers made clean, no woman with internal bleeding touching his cloak, no rejection by the Nazarenes, no entrapping questions from the religious bigots. Other noes are too numerous to list. Above all though, no insistence on belief in Jesus as necessary for automatic entry into Paradise. Instead we get fantasy stuff like Jesus running about an artful mountainside spouting strings of collected sayings or visiting the Baptist in his prison cell; and a whole lot of absolute tosh about Barabbas, a minor if notorious robber who is imaginatively transformed from thief to patriot and often thrust center-stage and involved in a great deal of wholly fictitious xenophobic words and bloody if zealous deeds. There is so little here of the real Christ and so enormously much of the scriptwriter's misplaced imagination that only the merest shell of the messiah's life is presented: his birth, John the Baptist, the 40 days in the desert, the twelve apostles (particularly including Judas), his entry into Jerusalem, the last supper, his trial before Pilate, his crucifixion between two thieves, his burial and resurrection. Yordan's cut-to-the-bone, threadbare outline is bad enough. What is worse though is that he makes no apology for or distinction between what is gospel and what is purely Yordan. Anyone unfamiliar with or even just vague about the details in the gospel accounts could be pardoned for coming away from "The King of Kings" with a whole raft of deliberate distortions and out-and-out falsifications firmly embedded in their mind. P.S. Regarding the three cinematographers, Planer suffered a heat stroke halfway through and was replaced by Krasner, whilst Berenguer worked with the second unit.

This is a biblical movie, one of many that was made in the mid-fifties and sixties. It accounts, in a somewhat light way, the life of Jesus from birth to the ascent to heaven and, thus, runs counter to the general tendency of focus only on the birth or passion of Christ. On the other hand, the film makes a very interesting use of peripheral biblical characters (Herod, Salome, Pilate, Barabbas etc.) to make a movie with more movement than one would expect, which prevents it from appearing slow and drawn. The problem of doing this is the indispensable resource for creating scenes that aren't in biblical accounts, but cinema does a lot of that, it's normal and I deal well with it, as long as creative freedom doesn't contradict the biblical story. Nicholas Ray assures the direction in a competent way and Orson Welles makes a great narration of the events. The cast is mostly composed of illustrious strangers (at least for me) which reinforces realism, probably in a conscious move by the director. The cast usually does a convincing and enjoyable work, especially Jeffrey Hunter, who gave birth to Jesus, and Robert Ryan, who played John the Baptist. The environment, costumes and scenery are convincing, beautiful and look good on the screen, but they have no comparison to other biblical films such as "Ben Hur" or "Quo Vadis", where everything is bigger and done in greater detail.

Nicholas Ray directed this reverent telling of the life of Jesus Christ(played by Jeffrey Hunter) from his birth in Bethlehem, the visit of the three wise men, to his adult years, where he preached loyalty to the one God and doing good works as the path to Heaven. This gets him in trouble with the Roman authorities, who disagree with his teachings and consider them contrary to Roman belief and law. As Jesus's followers(such as John The Baptist, who gets into his own trouble) and legend grows, Roman leader Pontius Pilate feels compelled to intervene and put an end to this divine messenger by ordering his Crucifiction, though this barbaric practice does not end the matter at all... Fine biblical drama doesn't quite have the same dramatic impact as "Ben-Hur",(more like "The Ten Commandments") but is still nicely done.

This highly regarded epic deals with a dramatic recreation of the life of Christ from the Annunciation , Crucifixion , Resurrection , through the Ascention . Interesting retelling at the life and teachings of Christ (Jeffrey Hunter) from a political , historical and religious view point . The film includes all of the major events referred to in the New Testament with descriptive Biblical passages ; his birth in Bethlehem and visit by three Magician Kings , his existence in desert tempted by Satan , there he knows he has a destiny to fulfill ; his subsequent baptism by John the Baptist (Robert Ryan) ; the miracles as cripples walking , blind men seeing ; the fishes and the loaves ; his relationship to 12 apostles and so on . Jesus Christ's journey from Galilee to Golgotha is portrayed here in thought-provoking as well as enjoyable treatment . The film actually begins with the Roman invasion by Pompey (Conrado San Martin) in 65 B.C., the appointment of King Herod the Great (Gregoire Aslan) by the Romans and finally the crowning of Herod Antipas (Frank Thring) after he murders his father . The revolt led by Barrabbas is also included and John the Baptist's beheading as Salome's price for dancing for Herod . However , not completely reverential at some Biblical characters such as Judas Iscariote (Rip Torn) , Pontius Pilate (Hurd Hatfield) and Barrabbas (Harry Guardino) , portraying the man less a thief than as a political revolutionary . As Barrabbas and followers struggle to deal with seek the best course of resistance to Roman oppression embodied by the political savvy Pontius Pilate . In addition , the scenes between John the Baptist , Herod (Frank Thring) , Herodias (Rita Gam) , and Salome (Brigid Bazlen) are supposedly based more on Oscar Wilde's play "Salome", than on the Bible, though Salome's grisly behavior as depicted by Wilde is not shown . This is an impressive story of the life of Jesus Christ from his birth in Bethlehem to his Crucifixion and subsequent Resurrection . Filmed on a relatively grand scale , being efficiently produced by the great Samuel Bronston along with Jaime Prades . Life of Christ is intelligently told by prestigious screenwriter Philip Yordan , including glowing cinematography by Manuel Berenguer and Milton Krasner , an attractive visual style , memorable soundtrack by the classical Miklos Rozsa and excellent cast giving larger-than-life interpretation . Good-looking Jeffrey Hunter in exactly the right role , he gives a dedicated effort at the character , his acting has power , nobility and subtlety . However , the crucifixion scene had to be re-shot because a preview audience was offended at Jesus/Jeffrey Hunter having a hairy chest . Due to Jeffrey Hunter's youthful, teen-idol appeal, the film was jokingly referred to within the industry as "I Was a Teenage Jesus" , in imitation of the low-budget teen-audience successes of the 50s and 60s . Fine support cast such as Rip Torn as a furtive as well as shifty Judas , Robert Ryan plays a splendid John the Baptiste , Frank Thring as Herod Antipas , Siobhan McKenna as Mary , Hurd Hatfield as Pontius Pilate , Ron Randell as Lucius , Guy Rolfe as Caiaphas , Royal Dano as Peter , among others . Being a US/Spanish co-production shot in Spain there appears several Spanish actors in brief performances such as Antonio Mayans as Young John , Luis Prendes as Good Thief , José Nieto as Caspar , Rubén Rojo as Matthew , Fernando Sancho as Madman , Félix de Pomés as Joseph of Arimathea , Rafael Luis Calvo as Simon of Cyrene , Paco Morán as Blind Man , Conrado San Martin as Pompey , and Carmen Sevilla as Mary Magdalene ; furthermore , Aldo Sambrell's film debut as Roman soldier and Paul Naschy as a Jewish . Breathtaking and majestic production design by Enrique Alarcon , filmed on location in Chinchon , Manzanares , Navacerrada , Madrid , and Chamartin studios , Spain . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Nicholas Ray . ¨King of Kings¨ is the yardstick by which all Jesus movies are to be measure . Other pictures dealing with his divine presence are the following : ¨King of Kings¨ (released in 1927) , first silent version by Cecil B. DeMille with H.B. Wagner ; ¨The greatest story ever told¨ (1965) by George Stevens with Max Von Sidow , Charlton Heston , Jose Ferrer , Sidney Poitier , Claude Rains ; ¨Gospel according to Matthew¨ by Pier Paolo Pasolini with Enrique Irazoqui as Jesus ; ¨Jesus Christ Superstar¨(1977) by Norman Jewison with Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson ; ¨Jesus de Nazareth¨(1977) by Franco Zeffirelli with Robert Powell , Olivia Hussey , James Mason , Laurence Olivier , Anne Brancfort , Fernando Rey ; ¨Last temptation of Christ¨ by Martin Scorsese with Willem Dafoe , David Bowie , Harvey Keitel , Ian Holm , Harry Dean Staton ; and ¨The Passion of the Christ¨ (2004) by Mel Gibson with James Cazievel , Maia Morgenstern and Monica Belucci .