Fascinated by John’s preaching and guiltily aware of his own sin, Herod’s semi-mocking repetition of “Repent” as he tries to mollify his angry wife Herodias (Valentina Cortese) with kisses is typical of the psychological complexity and persuasiveness of Zeffirelli’s morally challenged characters.Among these are Ustinov’s Herod; Rod Steiger’s harried, distracted Pilate, possibly the most persuasive interpretation of the character I’ve ever seen; Simon Peter (James Farentino), a passionate, almost tragic bear of a man deeply convinced of his unworthiness of God; Matthew the tax collector (Keith Washington), whose sophisticated indifference to his pariah status masks a longing for acceptance; and the revolutionary Barabbas (Stacy Keach), whose fictional dialogue with Jesus is one of the Savior’s more heartfelt moments.Alas, the most daring flourish in this direction is also perhaps the most troubling departure from the canonical story: the near-total exoneration of Ian McShane’s Judas Iscariot, here conceived not so much as a traitor as a dupe manipulated by Ian Holm’s fictional Zerah, a Sanhedrin member who masterminds Jesus’ arrest, trial and condemnation by Pilate, along with the guarding of the tomb after the Crucifixion.Here, as elsewhere, Judas is imagined as a Zealot and a subtle intellectual who hopes that Jesus will deliver God’s people from the Romans, but begins to lose faith in Jesus’ non-revolutionary messianic vision. Beginning before the Nativity and extending through the Crucifixion and Resurrection, this mini-series brings to life all of the sweeping drama in the life of Jesus, as told by the Gospels. Robert Powell has played the best Jesus to date. It also enhanced my faith since the first time I saw it at 13 years old.Looking for some great streaming picks? I watch it around Easter time every year. We also know that He could have chosen not to feel the pain of the Cross, but freely chose to, out of love for us. It was released later under the mainstream video label of CBS/FOX in 1986.The Region 1 DVD is the original 1977 broadcast. It was a wonderful pleasure to meet Robert Powell and to spend a couple of days with him filming around Jerusalem and exploring all my favorite places–two old guys in their 70s thinking back 50 years.
Similar to other Christian content the film's copyright has only been loosely enforced in more recent years resulting in it also freely appearing on YouTube in its entirety. Die Fernsehproduktion ist in vier Teile gegliedert: An all-star, large scale epic movie that chronicles the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. The miniseries was conceived when Lew Grade was received by Pope Paul VI, who congratulated him on the making of Moses the Lawgiver (1974), a television film starring Burt Lancaster and which was produced by Grade's ITC Entertainment and the Italian television network RAI. Alas, the most daring flourish in this direction is also perhaps the most troubling departure from the canonical story: the near-total exoneration of Ian McShane’s Judas Iscariot. The version they used was the extended four-part edition, totalling eight hours with advertising. Another For Easter 2016, and again in 2018, the UK's Sky Arts channel showed one part a day over the four days of Easter. This brief, lazy scene depicts Joseph sleeping in broad daylight, then tossing and turning until he falls off his bed — at which point we Zeffirelli’s dramatic instincts serve him well with Jesus’ miracles, which he dresses up with effective naturalistic touches: the small, stiff movements of the paralyzed man as his limbs slowly begin to unlock; the hazy imagery of light reflecting on water as the eyes of the blind man (Renato Rascel) start to open; and, most subtly, the back-and-forth eye movements under closed lids of the daughter of Jairus (Renato Montalbano), whom Jesus raises from the dead.The director seems less often sure how to effectively end these scenes; perhaps partly because of mandatory commercial breaks, too many miracle scenes end abruptly, with no sense of closure. One of the more telling moments comes in a dialogue between Mary and a male customer who lightheartedly tells her about the prophet who thinks nothing of eating and drinking with thieves and whores.