King of Kings (1961 film)

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King of Kings is a 1961 American motion picture epic retelling the story of Jesus from his birth to his crucifixion and Resurrection.

An earlier silent film about Jesus was titled The King of Kings, released in 1927 and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Director Nicholas Ray's 1961 version places Jesus's life in the political context of Roman conquest. As Jesus becomes an active preacher and healer, his activities are contrasted with the political stance of Barabbas and his insurgents who battle against the Roman occupiers.

The film features scenes of Jesus' miracles and his Sermon on the Mount (shot with many thousands of extras), as well as a scene where Jesus visits John the Baptist in his dungeon during his imprisonment by Herod Antipas. Ray staged the scene in such a way that John the Baptist must crawl up an incline inside the dungeon, holding out his hand to reach for Jesus' hand: a vivid example of Ray's architectural sense of composition and visual drama (Ray had studied under Frank Lloyd Wright to become an architect).

Nicholas Ray's direction balances spectacle with the human drama of Jesus's life. In the Sermon on the Mount sequence, Ray also conveys the central ethical-religious messages of Jesus' teachings. As such, the film can be seen as a model of the epic where grandeur serves to underscore the content. King of Kings is also memorable for the music score by Miklós Rózsa, a Hungarian emigre composer who composed the music for MGM's Ben-Hur (1959) and many other epic films.

However, others have criticized it for showing a Jesus who was too "white bread" and a very subdued John the Baptist. The film was panned by critics and was the only one of MGM's religious epics to fail at the box office, but it has come to be regarded since as one of the finest cinematic versions of the life of Christ.

Also, most films at the time did not show Jesus's face, preferring to do shots of his hands (as in Ben-Hur) or over-the-shoulder views. Jeffrey Hunter's youthful appearance (although he was 33 when cast) caused some to nick-name the film "I Was a Teenage Jesus," a parody from the Michael Landon film I Was a Teenage Werewolf.

When the movie was released on DVD in 2003, it received a PG-13 rating for some violent content.

Primary cast

Not credited at the time, Orson Welles did the voiceover of a narrative written by Ray Bradbury.

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