6/10
Pretty good Biblical film if you ignore some big historical inaccuracies.
17 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
A pretty good Biblical film if you ignore some big historical inaccuracies. This is actually a remake of a 1987 Italian co-production titled THE INQUIRY starring Keith Carradine and Harvey Kietel (as Pontius Pilate). I have not seen that film. It is a bit derivative of other films, such as RISEN and the film version Lloyd C. Douglas' THE ROBE. That being said it is one of the better Bible theme films I have seen recently. The acting, for the most part, is good. The sets, costumes, and cinematography are all good, too.

The basic plot is that Emperor Tiberius (Max von Sydow) sends a Roman genera, Tauro(Daniele Liotti) and his slave (Dolph Lundgren) undercover to Jerusalem to investigate the crucifixion of a "criminal" who rumor has it has risen from the dead. I wonder who that "criminal" could possibly be. I think we all know. He meets Saul/Paul of Tarsus before his conversion, making Saul a villain in this film. (I don't think Saul was persecuting Christians so close to the death of Jesus. It was probably a few years later.) He also questions Pontius Pilate (Histro Shopov, who also played Pilate in Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST). Of course the filmmakers have to throw in a love story. He falls in love with a Jewish Christian woman named Tabitha (Monica Cruz, Penelope Cruz' beautiful younger lookalike sister), whose anti-Christian Pharisee father (F. Murray Abraham) has arranged to marry a man she is not in love with.

My review makes this film sound cheesy and it is a little bit. But it is not nearly as bad as it could be. For some reason I found it compelling. Maybe I am just a sucker for these types of films. Even though the romance is derivative it was handled fairly well. It's worthwhile seeing once. I don't know that I would see it again. I am curious what the original 1987 film was like. That doesn't appear to be available on DVD or streaming.

This film was editing from a longer European tv version. That would also be interesting to see. It is not available in the United States.
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