THE ROBE

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: thematic elements

Rated:

They just don't make them like this anymore. A powerful package of courage, faith, and conviction wraps around an all-star cast as they bring to the silver screen one of the most poignant Biblical dramas of all time. Marcellus (Richard Burton) is a Roman bound to his pride, the beautiful Diana (Jean Simmons) is the woman who loves him, and the man they call Messiah may come between them forever. Condemned for crossing the future emperor, Caligula, in the purchasing of a defiant slave, Demetrius, Marcellus is sent from Rome to Judea, land of treachery and uprising against the empire.

Demetrius (Victor Mature) follows his master there, and encounters the compassionate eyes of a man riding on a donkey, hailed the messiah and king by the Jews. He is captivated by this Jesus, and vows to follow him, but Marcellus stands in his way. Diana has great power with the Emperor Tiberius and pleads that Marcellus return to Rome, but his final duty before he goes is to crucify a radical and two thieves, as bid by Pilate. Upon the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Marcellus wins his robe in a game of lot, and his life changes forever. Although the robe has left him, and his slave with it, Marcellus is tormented by demons that will not allow him peace. Upon his return to Rome, he is hailed mad, and the emperor's soothsayer convinces him that the robe holds a powerful spell over him that can only be broken by his destroying it. Leaving Diana on a mission to find and destroy this scarlet robe, and Demetrius with it, Marcellus also agrees to root out the Christians that arise against Rome, but his return to the Holy Land will be anything but uneventful, and will change his life forever as he grows to know this Jesus of whom he nailed to a cross... that came to rise again.

Gorgeous costuming and the regal halls of Rome are once again arisen in our minds with The Robe, and it is a journey you will never forget. If nothing else, it will force you to re-examine your own faith and courage, and come to understand as through the eyes of a child, what the Messiah, the King of all Kings, the everlasting Lord Jesus Christ, did for us on that terrible day. It is a romance, it is a struggle, but it is also a mission and a powerful lesson. A mild amount of violence only slightly taints this beautiful production that will leave you solemn and somber and although in the end, you know what is to come, you can only rejoice in the saving of two precious souls from eternal darkness.

I had seen this production once when I was a child, and vaguely remembered the slight impression that it made. Only now, as an adult, can I understand and appreciate the message that this film has to convey. There are so few like it left, none made within the last thirty years, don't let this powerful classic slip through your fingers. Apparently, the film not only had an impact on the audience, but the cast as well. Jay Robinson, who was to portray the evil and insane Emperor Caligula in not only The Robe but its sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators, went certifiably insane a short time later. Convinced that he was Caligula, many believe he tapped into the demonic forces that drove the true historical leader insane in his intensive research of the Emperor. His career took a downfall and it was many years later before he regained his sanity. Sometimes playing the bad guy just doesn't pay off.

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