Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

"Barabbas" is an American/Italian English-language movie directed by Academy Award winner Richard Fleischer, member of the famous Fleischer clan. The screenplay is by Christopher Fry, who adapted Pär Lagerkvist's novel for this movie here. The film is listed on IMDb as a prequel to John Huston's Oscar-nominated "The Bible: In the Beginning...", maybe because Fry wrote that one as well? I am not sure. Story-wise, it is not really a prequel. Anyway, the version of "Barabbas" I watched runs for 2 hours and 12 minutes, so it is a pretty long film, even if not as long as its sequel. In my opinion, the only real reason to watch "Barabbas" is Anthony Quinn, He played his role convincingly, but the story simply could not keep me interested for long, especially not for over 2 hours. Pretty disappointing.I would recommend this one only to great fans of historic and religiously themed movies, maybe also to fans of Quinn. Then again, I like him too, but was rather underwhelmed watching his film here. The rest of the cast includes fairly known names too from its era, people who had won and been nominated for many awards during their long careers, but this film is another example of how even the greatest cast cannot make an uninteresting script work really. I certainly hoped this would be better judging from its IMDb rating. But it really is not. Watch something else instead. Not recommended, unless you are a Quinn completionist. You also do not need to see this one here if you play on watching the sequel I mentioned earlier in my review. That one does not even include Quinn, so connections are almost non-existent, story-wise as well.

The success of films like "The Robe" (based on a novel by Lloyd Douglas) and "Quo Vadis?" (based on a novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz) had Hollywood producers scouring the libraries and the bookshops for other novels about the life of Christ and the early Church that could be turned into quasi-Biblical epics. Lew Wallace's "Ben-Hur" must have seemed a natural for this treatment, and the resulting film is one of the greatest epics ever made, but there were some more obscure entries in the cycle such as the eccentric "The Silver Chalice". "Barabbas" was based on a novel by the Swedish writer Pär Lagerkvist, a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. The gospels do not tell us very much about Barabbas, the man released by Pontius Pilate in preference to Jesus, except that he was a criminal of some sort. The four evangelists cannot even agree on the nature of his crimes; Mark and Luke accuse him of rebellion and murder, John of robbery, while Matthew simply calls him a "notorious prisoner". In Lagerkvist's account he resumes his criminal career after his release, is recaptured and condemned to work as a slave in the sulphur mines of Sicily, and later becomes a gladiator. (And what Roman epic would be complete without gladiators?)When Monty Python's controversial "Life of Brian" was attacked for allegedly ridiculing Christianity, the Pythons claimed that their satire was not aimed at Christ's teaching but at grandiose, excessively reverential religious epics. Their critics may have dismissed this claim as disingenuous, but "Barabbas" strikes me as precisely the sort of film the Pythons were sending up. The script was written by the then-famous dramatist Christopher Fry and although it is not in verse, unlike most of Fry's stage plays, the dialogue often seems heavy and ponderous. As a practising Pythonist of long standing I kept hearing echoes of "Brian" throughout; during the release scene I was expecting the crowd to shout "Welease Bawabbas! He's a wobber and a wapist!" When Barabbas' ex- girlfriend Rachel, who has become a Christian, is stoned to death for blasphemy, I wondered if she had committed the sin of remarking "That piece of fish is good enough for Jehovah!"And yet, despite its tendency to slide into unintentional self-parody, this is not altogether a bad film. It was directed by Richard Fleischer, a director whose films varied in quality but who could generally come up with something original. He worked in virtually every movie genre known to Hollywood, and when he made two films in the same genre was careful not to repeat himself. Thus his two science-fiction films, the steampunk "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" and the psychedelic "Fantastic Voyage" are nothing like one another, and his "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing" and "10, Rillington Place" are about as dissimilar as it is possible for two based-on-fact historical crime dramas to be. Fleischer had made a previous epic, "The Vikings", but this mediaeval adventure story is very different to "Barabbas". Many epics were noted for their brilliant colour- by the fifties a black-and-white epic was virtually unthinkable- but "Barabbas" is sombre in tone with dull, muted colours. It does, however, include moments of spectacle, including a splendid duel in the arena and a crucifixion scene shot during a real eclipse of the sun. The film's other great strength is the performance of Anthony Quinn in the title role. As conceived by Lagerkvist, Barabbas is a man troubled by the implications of his unexpected reprieve from death. He recognises Christ as somebody special but does not, except at the very end of the film, fully accept the truth of Christianity, even though he is befriended by a Christian prisoner while in the mines. Quinn plays the role with a blazing sincerity which sets him apart from many leading men in films of this nature; Paul Newman, for example, gave one of his worst performances in "The Silver Chalice", and Richard Burton is hardly at his best in "The Robe". Jack Palance, who was about the only watchable thing about "The Silver Chalice", is also good here as the arrogant and sadistic gladiator Torvald who fights Barabbas in the arena. Torvald fights from a chariot, in a scene obviously influenced by the chariot race in "Ben-Hur".(Incidentally, I wonder why Lagerkvist gave the common Scandinavian Christian name "Torvald" to one of his characters; this struck me as the equivalent of a British novelist calling a Roman gladiator "Bill" or "Harry". Admittedly, the name, which incorporates that of the pagan god Thor, could have been used in pre-Christian times, but it is unlikely that someone from Scandinavia, to the Romans a little-known land far outside their empire, could have made his way to Rome)."Barabbas" is not the best-known of the quasi- Biblical epics, although it has been kept in the public eye by occasional showings over the Easter holidays. It cannot compare in quality with something like "Ben- Hur", but Quinn's acting and Fleischer's directorial touches give it a certain quality which lifts it above the likes of the ludicrous "Silver Chalice". 6/10

***SPOILERS*** The film "Barabbas" starts where the New Testament left off with petty thief bandit and womanizer Barabbas, Anthony Quinn, having his life speared by Roman Mayor of Jerusalem Pontius Pilate, Arthur Kennedy.This was done as a as a good will jester by Pilate to placate the angry crowd,mostly members of the Pharisees, that wanted the other person scheduled to be crucified the innocent Jesus of Nazareth, Roy Mangano,to be executed instead. It's from that point on without of the holy scriptures that were treated to what happened to Barabbas since his escape from death. And we soon see he was more or less the same nasty uncouth and unfeeling person as he was up until then.In fact Barabbas was infuriated when he found out that his girlfriend Rachael, Silvana Mangano, had become a Christian and follower of Jesus! The very man that was crucified in his place! This had Barabbas try to find out what exactly this new religion was all about by getting in touch with some of Jesus' disciples hiding out in Jerusalem ! Finding out that Christianity has to do with loving not only your neighbor but enemy as well had the very disappointed Barabbas go back to his old ways of womanizing robbing as well as murdering which he felt quite at home with. Captured and sentenced to work in the Sicilian sulfur pits for life had,since having his life speared by Pontius Pilate prevented him for any future execution, Barabbas finally finds God with the help of fellow prisoner newly converted Christian Sahak, Vittorio Gassman, just to be able to survive his ordeal. Later released from the pits, together with Sahak, for good behavior a what looked like in his 60's Barabbas was recruited by the Roman Emperor Nero to fight in the Colosseum as a gladiator against men young enough to his sons or even grandsons! It's when Sahak refused to denounce his Christian faith and was executed for doing it that a sudden change of heart came into Barabbas head and he himself accepted Jesus' teachings and became a Christian. Still Barabbas had some unfinished business to take care of by battling the head of the gladiator Torvald (Jack Palance), who killed his good friend Sahak, in a fight to the death at the Roman Colosseum. Being a lot more formidable then Trovald thought he was the haggard and out of shape looking Barabbas made short order of him by using his head and outmaneuvering and outsmarting Torvald at his own game! Trovald who was so sure of himself in him winning the "death match" against Barabbas that he got himself good and gloriously drunk before the festivities even began and kept on drinking in his early matches, that he won hands down, and even during during his battle with Barabbas when he could barley stand on his feet!***SPOILERS*** Now a free man and what he thought practicing Christian Barabbas later makes the fatal mistake of eagerly taking the blame for setting Rome on fire when he sees thousands of Romans fleeing the city. Thinking that was what his fellow Christians, who were totally non violent even to their abusive Roman masters, wanted he ended up where we first saw him nailed to a cross for what in this case turned out to be a crime that he didn't commit! It was the mad as a hatter Emperor Nero who set the city on fire not the luckless and confused,in him thinking he was doing the right thing, Barabbas! With all the breaks Barabbas got throughout the movie he never realized that his life was speared for a reason. That was to give him a second chance in life by becoming a decent God fearing law abiding and and honest human being. Instead Barabbas who has a cross to bare in his new life resorted back to his old and evil ways that put him right back to square one, nailed to the cross, where we last see him as the film finally ends.

Now if the makers of Gladiator would have watched this film, they would have known how to build an arena that was fascinating, with lions and fiery lakes for the losers. They even had their own version of rodeo clowns.But, this is not just a gladiator story, but a story about a man's redemption. Barabbas (Anthony Quinn) stands in for all men who are thrashing about with doubts and half-beliefs.Based upon a Nobel prize winning novel by Pär Lagerkvist, with screen play by Christopher Fry, considered the 20th Century Shakespeare, this is a story for the ages. Sure, there is no evidence for this, as there is no evidence that Barrabas even existed; it is just one man's imagination, but it makes for a good story.Barrabas does win his freedom in the arena against an over-the-top Jack Palance as Torvald, while Sahak (Vittorio Gassman)gives his life rather than deny his God. Lucius, (Ernest Borgnine) rejects Barrabas for killing to gain his freedom and then trying to find God.But, in the end, he makes a decision.