King of Kings

Large scale epic telling of Christ's life is ironically less impressive during the larger moments and scores more strongly when dealing with the political intrigues of Herod's court (Thring's hammy and wonderfully entertaining performance helps). "Co-star" Hunter's Christ makes surprisingly little impression, and once the arrest is made, events perfunctorily follow in lockstep leading to a finale lacking fire and drama. Still a worthwhile telling, just not in the ways you would expect.

Viewed December 19, 2020.

Boring, but at least not as reverentially boring as "The Greatest Story Ever Told." In fact, Jeffrey Hunter's Jesus occasionally seems like he might even be human.

Hammy acting, crappy dialogue, grating 'stringy' score - avoid.

The set-up with Judas and Barabbas as resistance fighters frustrated with Jesus's insistence on non-violence works pretty well. However, not much else does. Costume, hair & make-up are problems.

Snoooore. The scenery is nice, but it's dull. Jesus' blue eyes creep me out (and are genetically impossible, I believe). Ten Commandments is the far superior religious epic.

King of Kings has all the trappings of a Golden Age Hollywood epic with the larger than life production, hundreds of extras, and long-form storytelling with a lot of runtime dedicated to all characters, major and minor. However, what really hurts this film is the general tone of melodrama taken to the n-th degree. There were several critical scenes where I laughed out loud because of the almost intentional overacting and beat-you-over-the-head score.