The King of Kings

Supreme in Theme! Gigantic in Execution!

155 Mins
1927
en

star6.5/ 10

The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. In 1927, working with one of the biggest budgets in Hollywood history, DeMille spun the life and Passion of Christ into a silent-era blockbuster. Featuring text drawn directly from the Bible, a cast of thousands, and the great showman’s singular cinematic bag of tricks, The King of Kings is at once spectacular and deeply reverent—part Gospel, part Technicolor epic.

Cast & Crew

H.B. Warner

Jesus, The Christ

Dorothy Cumming

Mary, the Mother

Ernest Torrence

Peter

Joseph Schildkraut

Judas Iscariot

James Neill

James - Brother of John

Joseph Striker

John - the Beloved

Review

CinemaSerf

As biblical epics go, this is probably the best in my book. Cecil B. de Mille has crafted a masterpiece of silent cinema depicting the tale of the Christ from the beginnings of his journey until the resurrection. Using partly scripted and actual verses from the bible, the intertitles are expertly spaced to offer support to the dialogue when required, but largely we are left to follow the story with the grand scale imagery doing the talking for it. The detail is meticulous - costumes, sets etc, as you would expect - but the use of light and shade, particularly at the end, is magnificent. The characterisations from HB Warner as Jesus; Joseph Schildkraut (Judas) and Jacqueline Logan as the courtesan Mary Magdalene, replete with zebra-driven chariot all contribute to a rich, extensive, cast whose facial expressions carry far more weight than any words might do. Long? Well it's not, actually - the enterprise flies by (I saw it beautifully accompanied by the Sosin 2004 score) and if you've any interest in the history of cinema (or Christianity) then this is a must watch.

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