Review – King of Kings

This movie started bugging me before the overture even started. I’ve never been a big fan of calling Jesus “the king of kings.” To a citizen of a country that disposed of kings more than 200 years ago, this is a title no more exalted than referring to the Son of God as “the McDonald’s manager of McDonald’s managers.” Nor do things improve much after the opening credits roll. Jeffrey Hunter is uninspiring in the lead, not that he’s given a lot of good material to work with. As with The Greatest Story Ever Told, this picture sustains a lot of its epic running time by incorporating plot elements that don’t have anything directly to do with Christ or his teachings (such as the perpetually built-in-for-the-sex story of Herod and Salome). Indeed, this one strays even farther afield with speculation that could be called “extra-biblical” (and even then only if one is being charitable), such as the notion that Judas was motivated by a noble if misguided desire to force Jesus to use his magic powers to overthrow the Roman occupation. The re-enactment of the Sermon on the Mount is inspirational, but that’s ten minutes out of three hours. All the time and effort required to watch this movie can be more effectively spent reading the original text. Mildly amusing