King of Kings was released in 1961. It was directed by Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) and stars Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus. The film tells the story of Jesus life, from his birth to his death and resurrection.
Unlike other films about Christ, King of Kings focuses more on supporting characters than on Jesus himself. It especially focuses on the political conflict involving Herod Antipas (Frank Thring), Pontius Pilate (Hurd Hatfield), John the Baptist (Robert Ryan), Barabbas (Harry Guardino), and also the Jewish Sanhedrin. Barabbas is a zealot and Pilate is concerned about his insurrection. Meanwhile Herod is troubled because John the Baptist accuses him of adultery for taking his brothers wife as his own. Barabbas on the other hand sees John's influence on the people and hopes to win him over to his side. Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin seek to cooperate with Pilate in order to prevent bloodshed. Judas Iscariot (Rip Torn) is in league with Barabbas and once Jesus enters the scene tries to persuade Barabbas to go to Jesus for support. Barabbas is not impressed by Jesus however, as He only talks of peace. Meanwhile John is arrested by Herod, further inciting Barabbas and his followers. John looks for Jesus' coming and in prison hopes to here from His own lips that Jesus is the Messiah. In addition to this there are also scenes focusing on Peter (Royal Dano) and Mary Magdalene (Carmen Sevilla). Peter's scenes are mainly there to serve as a counterpoint to Judas, as both men betray Jesus in a way but, while Judas ultimately despairs and kills himself, Peter repents. Mary Magdelene's scene's also serve as a kind of contrast with Salome (Brigid Bazlen), Herod's stepdaughter. One is guilty of adultery and the other with indulging a man's lust. Each one has an encounter with a religious figure (Jesus and John the Baptist respectively) that call them to repentance. Salome rejects this while Mary embraces it.
The film does not do a perfect job juggling all of these characters. Peter's character arc, for instance, never feels complete as his threefold confession of love to Jesus after the Resurrection, counterpointing his threefold denial, is omitted. I also felt confused about Barabbas' arc. How does Judas' and Jesus' death affect him? Does he decide to embrace Jesus' way of peace or does he continue in his violent ways? Fortunately, other characters fair better. Judas' motivations are very well established and his end feels appropriately tragic. Herod and Pilate both ultimately fall to their lust and arrogance. John is vindicated in his mission before his martyrdom. One character I haven't mentioned is the Roman Centuriun Luscious (Ron Randell), early in the film Herod's father Herodias orders him to see to the slaughter of the innocents, a task he is not entirely comfortable with. Later he encounters Jesus as a young boy in Nazereth and starts to suspect His greater destiny when he learns that he was born in Bethlehem, and therefore must have escaped Herodias' wrath. He continues to have encounter's with Christ throughout the film, finally being converted at the end despite telling Pilate in an earlier scene that the things he's seen serving for Rome have shown him "that there can be no God."
Jesus himself feels somewhat unapproachable in this film. He influences those around him and ultimately brings about the redemption of man but you never get to know him as a person (and Jesus is a Person). I don't necessarily disagree with this sort of second hand approach to telling the story but in this case I think that more focus needed to be placed on Jesus in order to hold the film together better. As it is, there are just too many characters and none of them ultimately feel like the main focus of the movie.
With that said King of Kings is not a bad film. There is still alot of interesting character study, even if it's not focused. Some of the performances are pretty good, particular Robert Ryan's. Of course being an old school epic there are alot of great visuals, the sermon on the mount being particularly impressive. Finally, Miklos Rosva's put's out another amazing score, serving as an interesting companion piece to his score for Ben Hur, from which he reuses certain themes.
Score: 8/10
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