Barabbas [DVD] [2002]

Epic account of the thief Barabbas, who was spared crucifixion when the Jews chose Christ in his place. Struggling with his spirituality, Barabbas goes through many ordeals leading him to the gladiator arena, where he tries to win his freedom and confront his inner demons.
Starring Anthony Quinn in the title role Barabbas was released in 1961 in the midst of a wave of widescreen epics based on Biblical characters. “It begins where the other big ones leave off”, declaims the trailer. The screenplay, by playwright Christopher Fry (who also contributed to Ben-Hur), is an unusually intelligent one: listen out for Barabbas’ final encounter with the Apostle Thomas, for example. Further assets are the imaginative, sparingly orchestrated score by Mario Nascimbene and a handsome production design by art director Mario Chiari that is so rewarding to the eye in Aldo Tonti’s often dazzling cinematography.
Like the other Biblical epics of the day, in its original theatrical incarnation Barabbas had an intermission and orchestral intermezzo which is sadly missing from this version. (It occurred at the point where Barabbas emerges from a 20 years exile in the sulphur mines in Sicily, allowing the audience to dwell on his recuperation before we next encounter him. He now appears muscled and bronzed ploughing the verdant fields outside Rome in all too quick a fashion!). Many scenes, such as Christ’s crucifixion, are shot and staged like tableaux in a style reminiscent of the great masters of art. And in Fleischer’s hands this film surpasses anything Ridley Scott achieved years later in Gladiator: he fills the huge arena–a vast Roman amphitheatre–with a gladiatorial school of hand-to-hand combat, a parade of elephants and a den of lions, and then caps his production with a riveting and thrillingly mounted duel between Jack Palance, careering round the circumference of the arena in his chariot, and Barabbas dodging him on foot. The supporting cast, who sport a variety of accents call for some tolerance, however.
On the DVD: Barabbas on disc comes devoid of any extra features other than trailers for it and another contemporaneous blockbuster, The Guns of Navarone. –Adrian Edwards