For as long as people have been making feature length films, people have been making religious feature length films. The silent era has too many to name, but The King of Kings and The Passion of Joan of Arc are two notable films that come to my mind. The trend continued into the sound era, many of which Cecil B. DeMille had a hand in. Ben-Hur won 11 Oscars. The Ten Commandments is a monumental film in regards to production and special effects. Many of these were epics of biblical proportion (don’t hate me). And we haven’t even talked about the foreign markets. Anyways, this article could be written about the decline of popularity of these types of movies (the latest Ben-Hur adaptation was a box office bomb). And maybe it’s just me, but I feel like these films are few and between, or at least not as bountiful as they once were. It seems like most religious films are straight-to-DVD and/or too niche to reach wider audiences. It often takes a “Ridley Scott-type” director for real studios with real money to get behind them, which is a shame. Religion, particularly Christianity, is embedded in our culture and often lends itself to clever and thought-provoking filmmaking. This article isn’t a eulogy of powerful and competent religious films. I’d like to focus on one particular religious film.
Barabbas was produced by one of the biggest producers of all time, Dino De Laurentis. Seriously, check out his filmography. It’s astounding. He was able to persuade Anthony Quinn away from some stage work in order to get him for the titular role. Barabbas is the criminal Pontius Pilate offered to set in free in place of Jesus of Nazareth. The film follows his journey over the next two decades as he haunted by affiliation with the crucifixion of Jesus. This is a popular trend in fiction, to explore the lives of characters existing on the periphery in other works. And Quinn is just the man for the exploration.
Many things struck me about this film, notably the costume and set designs. If the film were made today, it would be shot almost entirely in front of green screens and would spend months in post-production. There’s a fight on a coliseum with hundreds upon hundreds of extras. Director Richard Fleischer shot an actual eclipse of the sun during the crucifixion scene in the film. It was shot in Rome, not on Hollywood backlots. It’s a sight to behold.
Anthony Quinn, one of my favorite actors, is more than capable as he portrays a young, boisterous insurrectionist who doesn’t care about anyone but himself. After serving as a slave in sulfur mines for 20 years, he finds himself training to be a gladiator. His whole life, he has come up against those who despise him because he was saved, and not “the Master.” He is tired of this association. It has worn him down as much as the slave labor. This shows in Quinn’s demeanor—his broken eyes, his posture showing no pride.
There is merit in exploring religious and spiritual questions regardless of one’s belief system. Barabbas poses such questions, like why did Christ die in place of a criminal like Barabbas? Barabbas himself wonders this aloud as he wanders around some empty catacombs towards the end of the film. His conscience has been carrying that burden for decades. I get that these questions are approached differently by believers and non-believers, especially with considering the ending of this film. But watching films with differing perspectives and glimpses into new worlds is part of the beauty of going to the movies.
The 2016 movie I thought about the most after seeing it was Martin Scorsese’s Silence. It is easily the most underrated and least talked about movie from last year, which is crazy considering who made it. Silence, like Barabbas, does not impose one static perspective. Both films allow viewers to mull over the themes and ideas presented long after the film is over and come to their own conclusion. I didn’t feel I was being preached to. And while Barabbas is far from a perfect film, it is a really good one that covers a lot of territory both in terms of form as well as content. We can only hope for more thought-provoking films dealing with faith, doubt, and everything in between.
