For those looking for a movie reflecting an Easter theme, and do not necessarily want an animated or newly released version, than here is a century old flic - Barabbas (1961)!
The film stars and features many big name actors, all of which are deceased by now, all but the great Ernest Borgnine!
Barabbas expands on the career of Barabbas, from the Christian Passion narrative in the Gospel of Mark and other gospels. The movie stars Anthony Quinn as Barabbas and features Silvana Mangano, Katy Jurado, Arthur Kennedy, Harry Andrews, Borgnine, Vittorio Gassman, and Jack Palance, and was distributed by Columbia Pictures.
The film, conceived as a grand Roman epic, was based on the Nobel-Prize winning novel Barabbas (1950) by Pär Lagerkvist. A previous film version of the novel, in Swedish, had been made in 1953.
The film of Lagerkvist's novel was directed by Richard Fleischer and shot in Rome under the supervision of producer Dino De Laurentiis. It included many spectacular scenes, including a battle of gladiators in a Cinecittà mock-up of the arena, and a crucifixion shot during a real eclipse of the sun.
The film's synopsis:
Shortly before the crucifixion of Christ, Pontius Pilate (Arthur Kennedy) offers to release either Jesus Christ or Barabbas in keeping with the local custom. As the Bible story goes, Barabbas is the one the crowd chooses.
Barabbas leaves and returns to his friends. His friends are glad to see him, but Barabbas wants to know where his lover Rachel is (Silvana Mangano). They inform him that Rachel had changed while he was away, and was following the teachings of Christ. Rachel soon returns, but she is not overjoyed to see Barabbas again.
During their reunion Christ is crucified. As Christ dies the sky turns dark. Shaken by this, Barabbas goes to witness the crucifixion. Afterwards he goes to witness Christ being sealed in the tomb. On the third morning Barabbas goes to the tomb to find it open, and Christ gone.
Rachel tells him that Christ has risen, but Barabbas dismisses this as illusion, or that his followers had taken his body. He goes to see the apostle Peter and Christ's other followers demanding to know what happened to the body - they do not know where he is but do believe he is risen.
Rachel begins to teach others in Jerusalem about Christ and an impending, fiery end of the world. Soon, Rachel's teachings lead to her being stoned to death by the same priests who had Jesus crucified.
When Barabbas comes across them later while robbing a caravan, he assaults one of them with stones, and while doing this is arrested by Roman troops. Pilate decides not to execute Barabbas, but instead sentences him to a life sentence in the sulfur mines of Sicily...
To [re]discover what happened, refer to the Bible, check TV listings or just rent Barabbas!
Comments