The image is generally good, considering its multiple versions and multi-nationality, and it includes two very good extra features.
#ZEFFIRELLI JESUS OF NAZARETH DVD FULL#
The Blu-ray is, correctly, full frame, and has been remixed for DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, with music and some sound effects channeled into the surrounds. Nevertheless, in this cut the life of Jesus takes episodic breaks at odd moments sometimes. This version uses the same opening credits for each episode, listing stars not necessarily in that particular show, but also with "previews" of the next part, and end titles that appear episode-specific.
Shout! Factory's Blu-ray offers what seems to be yet another variation: four episodes running about 90 minutes apiece. The nearly six-and-a-half-hour (384 minutes) miniseries premiered in Italy, broadcast over five nights, while in airings in both the UK and America soon after it was broken up into two halves. And its cast is a veritable Who's Who of great British and American talent (along with a smattering of Continental names): Anne Bancroft (as Mary Magdalene), Ian Bannen (Amos), Ernest Borgnine (John Wayne's old part), Claudia Cardinale (Adulteress), Cyril Cusack (Yehuda), Ian Holm (Zerah), Olivia Hussey (Mary), James Earl Jones (Balthazar), James Mason (Joseph of Arimathea), Ian McShane (Judas), Laurence Olivier (Nicodemus), Donald Pleasance (Melchior), Christopher Plummer (Herod Antipas), Anthony Quinn (Caiaphas), Ralph Richardson (Simeon), Rod Steiger (Pontius Pilate), Peter Ustinov (Herod the Great), Michael York (John the Baptist), and on and on. It's a classy-looking work all around: Franco Zeffirelli directed, Anthony Burgess wrote the script, Maurice Jarre wrote its score, etc. Instead of that film's matinee idol Jesus (Jeffrey Hunter), the miniseries casts Robert Powell, who in full makeup looks like he stepped out of a Renaissance painting.Īs usual with ITC's Sir Lew Grade, no expense was spared and the production resembles a latter-day theatrical roadshow more than a television film. Despite its all-star cast, for instance, Jesus of Nazareth steers clear of the sometimes goofy, distracting stunt casting found in George Stevens's The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), mostly famously John Wayne as the Roman centurion with the single line, "Truly, this man was the Son of Gawd." It's less artful in some respects than King of Kings (1961), but improves upon the casting of Jesus. A handsomely made, finely acted miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth (1977) plays a lot like a distillation of the best components from all of the biblical epics of the 1940s-‘60s that had preceded it while generally avoiding those movies' flaws.
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