Review of The Robe (1953) by Ben L — 18 Sep 2016

It's an odd experience as a Christian to watch one of these Biblical epic films. On the one hand I think "Hey, it's kind of cool that the big studios made major motion pictures where the death and resurrection of Jesus was a central focus.

" But on the other hand I start to struggle with all the historical inaccuracies, and downright blasphemous things that happen. The presentation of The Robe is definitely grand (it was actually the first Cinemascope production.

) The look of everything was marvelous, and the sets/costumes were great. Richard Burton is a superb actor, but I didn't feel like he did much that was unique with this character. In fact all the acting was fairly lackluster.

The dialogue wasn't all that strong, either. If it weren't for the obvious expense that went into the production, I might accuse this of being similar to the Easter play that a local church would put on.

The way that the events play out is unimaginative, and I didn't really love how it simply ran parallel to the story of Jesus. In essence Jesus becomes a plot device that can keep the film moving forward, and his robe is essentially the McGuffin.

I also feel like this might have been the exact film that was being parodied in the Coen brother's film Hail, Caesar. That was really distracting when I started picturing George Clooney in place of Richard Burton.

By the time I reached the end, I can't say I thought The Robe was a bad film, but I also can't say it was all that good. It's certainly not one that most film-goers need to seek out.