I'll leave the plot summary to the others who've done it well, so far. But a plot summary doesn't begin to show how this one differs from the other Biblical epics of it's time. The difference lies in a script that wonderfully reflects the double-edged attitudes of Par Lagerkvist's powerfully brilliant short philosophical novel. Unimaginitive believers can see what the plot summaries indicate. But underneath it all, the adapter-screenwriter Christopher Fry, and the director, Richard Fleischer, manage to successfully walk an ironic tightrope , in which the "too-good" Christians and the ordinary sinful Barabbas are constantly contrasted during conversations long and short. Barabbas thinks Christianity all bosh, the world is not what Christians believe it is, but then why can't he die or be killed? As the King of Siam would say, the fact does make a puzzlement.
I must apologize for the following spoiler, but how anybody who is thinking at all can blithely assume that Barabbas is beyond doubt "saved" into the fold of the blessed is way beyond me. Even as a kid in the days of BARABBAS's first release I knew that something unusual was going on as soon as I heard Barabbas" final words from the cross: "Darkness...I give myself up to your keeping... It is Barabbas." I haven't left anything out; the dots just indicate pauses in Quinn's delivery. Prior to this line Barabbas has complained that he can't tell whether it is night or day and asks what time it is and remembers that it was at the sixth hour that....
I love this film as wonderful dramatic exploration of the modern dilemma of faith. I expect I'm biased in loving it because it helped develop my abiding interest in philosophy; But I don't think that that bias has pushed me into a mistake when I call BARABBAS one of the most thoughtful and intelligent movies of its time, in spite of its being a sword and sandal epic.
I must apologize for the following spoiler, but how anybody who is thinking at all can blithely assume that Barabbas is beyond doubt "saved" into the fold of the blessed is way beyond me. Even as a kid in the days of BARABBAS's first release I knew that something unusual was going on as soon as I heard Barabbas" final words from the cross: "Darkness...I give myself up to your keeping... It is Barabbas." I haven't left anything out; the dots just indicate pauses in Quinn's delivery. Prior to this line Barabbas has complained that he can't tell whether it is night or day and asks what time it is and remembers that it was at the sixth hour that....
I love this film as wonderful dramatic exploration of the modern dilemma of faith. I expect I'm biased in loving it because it helped develop my abiding interest in philosophy; But I don't think that that bias has pushed me into a mistake when I call BARABBAS one of the most thoughtful and intelligent movies of its time, in spite of its being a sword and sandal epic.