De Laurentiis. Director Richard Fleischer; Producer Dino De Laurentiis; Screenplay Christopher Fry, [Diego Fabbri, Nigel Balchin]; Camera Aldo Tonti; Editor Raymond Poulton; Music Mario Nascimbene; Art Director Mario Chiari
Anthony Quinn
Silvana Mangano
Arthur Kennedy
Jack Palance
Vittorio Gassman
Ernest Borgnine
Barabbas is technically a fine job of work, reflecting big thinking and infinite patience on the parts of producer Dino De Laurentiis and director Richard Fleischer. In Technirama 70 and shot in Technicolor it has one or two sequences which stand up to the chariot race highlight in Ben-Hur.
Set in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, the film [based on the novel by Par Lagerkvist, adapted by Giuseppe Berto and Ivo Perilli] tells the story of Barabbas, thief and murderer, who was released from prison by the will of the people and replaced, in jail and on the Cross, by Jesus Christ. Barabbas' conscience plagues him. In a struggling, almost bovine manner he tries to find the truth about the new wave of faith that is sweeping the country.
Where the film hits the bell is in Fleischer's bold, dramatic handling of certain scenes, allied to some slick lensing by Aldo Tonti. The scenes in the Rome gladiatorial pit, sharply etched by Jack Palance as the top boy, have an urgent excitement, with Palance's sadism matched only by Quinn's bewildered concentration.
Individually, the performances are uneven. Quinn is firstclass in a role which could have become monotonous after his beefy approach to his scenes with a vital Katy Jurado following his release from jail. Palance plays the sadistic gladiator with a liplicking panache that tends to pinpoint the fact that the whole pic is a shade too violent, but certainly the thesp makes Torvald a vivid and urgent figure in the setup.
Silvana Mangano does an adequate job of work as Rachel, but the part never comes to life, nor does that of Ernest Borgnine as a Christian doing undercover work among the Romans.
(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1962. Running time: 144 MIN.
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