The Big Fisherman (1959)

I have to go along with the other person who said this was one of the worst movies s/he ever saw and didn't understand why everyone else was raving about it.The color photography is horrible, the acting is stilted, the constant melody-less background music drowns out the dialogue (which might not be a bad thing) and it comes across like a church pageant produced, directed, and starring middle schoolers rather than a Hollywod film featuring all these prestigious names.It's so bad, as a matter of fact, that I was actually surprised everyone was speaking English and that it wasn't dubbed.This was nominated for Oscars? Amazing.

They (The Disney Productions) really should put this awesome movie on DVD!! It may never happen unless we, the audience, does something! The movie has an all star cast, including Howard Keel from "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and the famous character actor on movies and TV John Saxon. It is based on the book by Lloyd C. Douglass. Douglass is the same author who wrote the great inspiring book, "The Robe" which was the first movie done in Cinemascope. It starred Richard Burton, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature. Victor Mature starred in the sequel to "The Robe" which was entitled "Demetrius and the Gladiators" which was a screenplay based on the characters from "The Robe" and the movie, which was shown in theaters one year after its predecessor, did very well in its own right. So, hopefully all the spiritual works of Lloyd C. Douglass, especially "The Big Fisherman", that were made into theatrical performances will eventually go into DVD!!!

I saw this one during its initial release at a theater in Palm Springs, California (now used only for stage shows and live presentations...one has to go a few miles out of the downtown area to find a multiplex, at least during my last visit there a year or so ago.) The 70mm cinematography (using the same units, borrowed presumably from M-G-M, that had been shipped to Rome to lens "Ben-Hur" - in "M-G-M Camera 65" - a "Window of the World" as the studio had touted it for the first production in that process, 1957's "Raintree County" starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift) is stunning, making great use of the Salton Sea area, a few miles from Palm Springs itself. I don't remember this film all that well, but I do recall that Herbert Lom and Martha Hyer, as Herod Antipas and his evil consort, Herodias, achieved chillingly corrupt portrayals, under the steady hand of old Hollywood veteran, Frank Borzage.One wonders who now holds the rights to this film, for it would certainly be a title that might do well given a good transfer to DVD.

I saw The Big Fisherman at 9 years of age when it first came out. I was very impressed with this, the only other film in history to use the Camera 65 process used for Ben-Hur the year before. I remember the general feeling being that despite its grandeur this film was a minor achievement compared to other biblical blockbusters of the era (Spartacus, King of Kings, The Robe, Ben Hur, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The fall of the Roman Empire, etc.). Just the same, the majesty of the proceedings, the music, the colour cinematography, the dazzling sets of Old Jerusalem but, most of all, the wickedness and darkness of the subplot involving the evil Herod family and culminating in Salome's dance left an indelible impression which I can't wait to renew if and when this film (unavailable in any medium)comes out on DVD.