JLRVancouver "Barabbas", based on the novel by the Nobel Prize winning author Pär Lagerkvist, follows the life of the thief who was spared by Pontius Pilate, rather than Jesus, at the bidding of the mob. The story begins with the events as told in the gospels, then follows Barabbas as he becomes a slave in the mines, then wins his freedom as a gladiator only to find death and redemption in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed Rome in 64 AD. The cinematography, including the famous eclipse scene during the crucifixion, is excellent. A common theme in the film is darkness (and its antithesis, light) and many scenes have very high contrast, with colours standing out against a black background, reminiscent of chiaroscuro paintings. Even scenes that are more evenly lighted, such as Barabbas' meeting with Lazarus, look like Renaissance paintings. All the spectacle expected in a Biblical epic is there and the stunt scenes during the fights in the arena are excellent. Anthony Quinn does not emote much in the film, but like the character he plays, seems to constantly searching both within and without. An excellent rendition of a great story.

Desertman84 Barabbas is a religious epic film that tells the story of Barabbas based primarily on the gospels particularly that of the Gospel of Mark.It stars Anthony Quinn in the title role together with Silvana Mangano, Katy Jurado, Arthur Kennedy, Harry Andrews, Ernest Borgnine, Vittorio Gassman, and Jack Palance. It was adapted from the Nobel Prize-winning 1950 novel of the same title written by Pär Lagerkvist.Barabbas is the thief who was pardoned in place of Jesus. For the rest of his life, the guilt-ridden criminal tries to go through life by trying to find his way in the world as he encounters the self- righteous pomposity of Pontius Pilate and experiences the gladiatorial sadism of Torvald and the burning of Rome.The movie is a movie spectacle that will definitely be comparable to those biblical epics released in the 50's and the 60'.It includes great and spectacular scenes such as battle of gladiators and the crucifixion shot that was shot during a real eclipse of the sun.Added to that,the portrayal of Anthony Quinn was nothing short but excellent.That alone makes it watchable and entertaining despite its somewhat slow pacing.

chaos-rampant In one of the first scenes Barabbas steps out of his dark prison cell to find the peculiar glinting figure of the man who's going to take his place on the cross and rubbing his eyes says he's not used to the light. So here we have both facets that make this interesting. It is, more so than Ben Hur and perhaps even Spartacus, less grand in the cinematic brushstroke but more troubled and honestly so about the spiritual picture it paints, more human.It starts with what we know as a spiritual narrative, Pilates' trial of Jesus, but approaches it in the historic light. It follows only the last legs of that narrative from the crucifixion on but does so through Barabbas' questioning eyes. We assume divinity because it's that story but the body could have been stolen, the eclipse natural; it all might just be a story about god.The spiritual question that looms is why doesn't god make himself plain? If this is a spiritual narrative as the newly devout insist throughout, why is it so hard to discern its truth?Barabbas finds it hard to believe so returns to his banditry which opens up a cycle of sinking deeper into a life of meaningless toil and punishment, seen most clearly in the sulphur mines where each subsequent year the slaves are lowered to a deeper level as their eyes become accustomed to the dark, again eyes tied to light. It isn't so just for him of course, Christians suffer next to him so what difference does it make, faith or god?There's a scene where a Christian lectures gladiators that their pagan gods are fictions that will be sure to amuse modern viewers. But this was the powerful reality of early Christianity, the only time it truly mattered. Christians could point to a specific time and place where god appeared as part of history, I can only imagine the invigorating urgency. It had all become clear, linear. They did joyfully expect to see his return within their lifetime.There is something powerful to be gleaned here; life isn't any better for the believers than Barabbas, the whole difference has nothing to do with the material facts, it's all about the light in which you choose to see. The tragic irony is that when Barabbas chooses to believe it is only out of guilt, a madness that is the fire he sets to things (this is during Nero's fire) that is his belief that the anticipated return would be fiery like this.So forget that it's a religious spectacle we watch during Lent and carries that form, this is more erudite than usual and deserves to be seen next to Stromboli about the difficulties of faith.

Maciste_Brother As a fan of Sword & Sandal films, with over 250 films in my collection, I have to say how disappointing BARABBAS is. It's overproduced baroque nonsense that takes a real character from history and then creates a wildly speculative story, which is an overlong and cluttered symbolic one at that, and for what? The film's first big mistake was casting Quinn who was all wrong as the titular character. At 46, he was too old for the character. How many 46 year old gladiators would survive in the arena? As incredulous as that was, the combination of the busy cast of known and unknown actors populating the landscape, most of them overacting as if their lives depended on it, the episodic story, of Barabbas stumbling from one forgettable clichéd roman storyline after another, within its numerous big, elaborate sets, with almost all of them not even remotely believable, looking like massive papier mache monstrosities (the uninspired lighting and camera-work don't help them look more than sets), gave the film a needless baroque atmosphere. The film was less biblical, more spaghetti western. In many instances this would actually be a plus but in this case, the baroque quality simply overwhelmed everything to a point of being gag inducing. The overwrought sulfur mine moment is a perfect example of it being too much.Director Richard Fleischer was obviously not interested in any of it, probably thinking that if one could keep the fake story busy no one would notice that not much of it makes any sense. Of all the biblical/Sword & Sandal/Peplum epics, this one is as bad as SODOM & GOMORRAH.As a side note, for fans of S&S flicks, you'll enjoy spotting many familiar faces, including Joe Robinson (from the Thor/Taur movies), Vittorio Gassman and Salvatore Borghese (the mute from the Ten Gladiators films) and many others.