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IMDbPro

Barabbas

  • 19611961
  • ApprovedApproved
  • 2h 17m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
6.6K
YOUR RATING
Barabbas (1961)
Barabbas, the criminal that the Jewish leaders induced the populace to vote to set free, so that Christ could be crucified, is haunted by the image of Jesus for the rest of his life.
Play trailer4:26
1 Video
94 Photos
BiographyDramaHistory
Barabbas, the criminal that the Jewish leaders induced the populace to vote to set free, so that Christ could be crucified, is haunted by the image of Jesus for the rest of his life.Barabbas, the criminal that the Jewish leaders induced the populace to vote to set free, so that Christ could be crucified, is haunted by the image of Jesus for the rest of his life.Barabbas, the criminal that the Jewish leaders induced the populace to vote to set free, so that Christ could be crucified, is haunted by the image of Jesus for the rest of his life.
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
6.6K
YOUR RATING
    • Richard Fleischer
  • Writers
    • Christopher Fry(screenplay)
    • Pär Lagerkvist(novel "Barabbas")
    • Nigel Balchin(uncredited)
  • Stars
    • Anthony Quinn
    • Silvana Mangano
    • Arthur Kennedy
    • Richard Fleischer
  • Writers
    • Christopher Fry(screenplay)
    • Pär Lagerkvist(novel "Barabbas")
    • Nigel Balchin(uncredited)
  • Stars
    • Anthony Quinn
    • Silvana Mangano
    • Arthur Kennedy
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 61User reviews
    • 31Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 4:26
    Watch Trailer

    Photos94

    Anthony Quinn at an event for Barabbas (1961)
    Barabbas (1961)
    Richard Burton and Claire Bloom in Alexander the Great (1956)
    Anthony Quinn in Barabbas (1961)
    Anthony Quinn in Barabbas (1961)
    Barabbas (1961)
    Barabbas (1961)
    Barabbas (1961)
    Barabbas (1961)
    Barabbas (1961)
    Barabbas (1961)
    Barabbas (1961)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Anthony Quinn
    Anthony Quinn
    • Barabbas
    Silvana Mangano
    Silvana Mangano
    • Rachel
    Arthur Kennedy
    Arthur Kennedy
    • Pontius Pilate
    Katy Jurado
    Katy Jurado
    • Sara
    Harry Andrews
    Harry Andrews
    • Peter
    Vittorio Gassman
    Vittorio Gassman
    • Sahak
    Norman Wooland
    Norman Wooland
    • Rufio
    Valentina Cortese
    Valentina Cortese
    • Julia
    Jack Palance
    Jack Palance
    • Torvald
    Ernest Borgnine
    Ernest Borgnine
    • Lucius
    Arnoldo Foà
    Arnoldo Foà
    • Joseph of Arimathea
    • (as Arnoldo Foa')
    Michael Gwynn
    Michael Gwynn
    • Lazarus
    Laurence Payne
    Laurence Payne
    • Disciple
    Douglas Fowley
    Douglas Fowley
    • Vasasio
    Guido Celano
    Guido Celano
    • Scorpio
    Enrico Glori
    Enrico Glori
    • Man Pleading for Release of Prisoner
    Carlo Giustini
    Carlo Giustini
    • Officer
    • (as Carlo Giutini)
    Giovanni Di Benedetto
    • Officer
    • (as Gianni Di Benedetto)
      • Richard Fleischer
    • Writers
      • Christopher Fry(screenplay)
      • Pär Lagerkvist(novel "Barabbas")
      • Nigel Balchin(uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The solar eclipse that takes place during the crucifixion scene was the real thing, an event for which director Richard Fleischer delayed shooting in order to capture the ethereal nature of the phenomenon on 2/15/61.
    • Goofs
      When Barabbas is sent to the sulfur mines, a guard chains him to another prisoner by hammering closed an iron link shaped like a 'C' with both ends of the 'C' glowing red-hot. The same technique is shown at least one other time. However, it's not the ends of the 'C'-shape that should be glowing red-hot in order to hammer the link closed, it is the middle, where it needs to bend. Cold iron is brittle and needs to be heated to bend or it will fracture.
    • Quotes

      Peter: [Arrested for arson, Barabbas has been brought to the dungeons housing the Christians falsely accused of the act] This burning city is no work of ours. This isn't how the new kingdom is going to be made. You were wrong.

      Barabbas: Who are you to tell me I'm wrong?

      Peter: Many years ago, we spoke together. Do you remember?

      Barabbas: No.

      Peter: You asked me why I was making a net so far from the sea.

      Barabbas: Jerusalem. The street of the potters.

      Peter: You were as mistaken then as you are again now.

      Female Christian: We didn't set fire to the city.

      Male Christian: You've done the work of the wild beasts of the emperor.

      Female Christian: Are you a lunatic?

      Male Christian: It was his fire, you fool. Not God's.

      Barabbas: [the realization of his error sinks in] Why can't God make himself plain? What's become of all the fine hopes, the trumpets, the angels, all the promises? Every time I've seen it end up in the same way, with torments and dead bodies, with no good come of it. Huh? All for nothing.

      Peter: Do you think they persecute us to destroy nothing? Or, for that matter, do you think that what has battered on your soul for twenty years has been nothing? It wasn't for nothing that Christ died. Mankind isn't nothing. In His eyes, each individual man is the whole world. He loves each man as though there were no other.

      Barabbas: I was the opposite of everything he taught, wasn't I? Why did He let Himself be killed instead of me?

      Peter: Because being farthest from Him, you were the nearest.

      Barabbas: I'm no nearer than I was before.

      Peter: Nor any farther away. The truth of the matter is, He's never moved from your side. I can tell you this: there has been a wrestling in your spirit back and forth in your life which, in itself, is knowledge of God. By the conflict you have known Him. I can tell you as well that so it will be with the coming of the kingdom. A wrestling back and forth and a laboring of the world spirit, like a woman in childbirth. We are only the beginning. We won't see the time when the earth is full of the kingdom. And yet, even now, even here, the hour at the end of life, the kingdom is within us. There's nothing more to fear. Upon us, the years will be but many years, many martyrdoms. The ground of men is very stubborn to mature. But men will look back to us in our day, and will wonder, and remember our hope. It is the end of the day. We shall trust ourselves to a little pain, and sleep, saying to world, "Godspeed."

    • Connections
      Featured in The World According to Smith & Jones: The Romans (1987)

    User reviews61

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    Barabbas' eyes
    In one of the first scenes Barabbas steps out of his dark prison cell to find the peculiar glinting figure of the man who's going to take his place on the cross and rubbing his eyes says he's not used to the light.

    So here we have both facets that make this interesting. It is, more so than Ben Hur and perhaps even Spartacus, less grand in the cinematic brushstroke but more troubled and honestly so about the spiritual picture it paints, more human.

    It starts with what we know as a spiritual narrative, Pilates' trial of Jesus, but approaches it in the historic light. It follows only the last legs of that narrative from the crucifixion on but does so through Barabbas' questioning eyes. We assume divinity because it's that story but the body could have been stolen, the eclipse natural; it all might just be a story about god.

    The spiritual question that looms is why doesn't god make himself plain? If this is a spiritual narrative as the newly devout insist throughout, why is it so hard to discern its truth?

    Barabbas finds it hard to believe so returns to his banditry which opens up a cycle of sinking deeper into a life of meaningless toil and punishment, seen most clearly in the sulphur mines where each subsequent year the slaves are lowered to a deeper level as their eyes become accustomed to the dark, again eyes tied to light.

    It isn't so just for him of course, Christians suffer next to him so what difference does it make, faith or god?

    There's a scene where a Christian lectures gladiators that their pagan gods are fictions that will be sure to amuse modern viewers. But this was the powerful reality of early Christianity, the only time it truly mattered. Christians could point to a specific time and place where god appeared as part of history, I can only imagine the invigorating urgency. It had all become clear, linear. They did joyfully expect to see his return within their lifetime.

    There is something powerful to be gleaned here; life isn't any better for the believers than Barabbas, the whole difference has nothing to do with the material facts, it's all about the light in which you choose to see. The tragic irony is that when Barabbas chooses to believe it is only out of guilt, a madness that is the fire he sets to things (this is during Nero's fire) that is his belief that the anticipated return would be fiery like this.

    So forget that it's a religious spectacle we watch during Lent and carries that form, this is more erudite than usual and deserves to be seen next to Stromboli about the difficulties of faith.
    helpful•3
    0
    • chaos-rampant
    • Apr 19, 2014

    Details

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    • Release date
      • October 10, 1962 (United States)
      • Italy
      • United States
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Arena di Verona, Verona, Veneto, Italy
    • Production companies
      • Columbia Pictures
      • Dino De Laurentiis Company
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 2 hours 17 minutes

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