Second only to Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), Nicholas Ray's King of Kings is my all-time favorite cinematic adaption of the life of Jesus Christ. Combining his meticulous eye for cinematic composition and his propensity for societal outsiders, Ray's take on Jesus' life never loses sight of the compassion, courage, and humanity that fueled one of mankind's greatest philosophers. Many adaptions of Jesus' life tend to portray him as aloof or detached from society. But Ray goes to pains to depict Jesus as a man who was both a product of his time and an outsider from it. His version of the Sermon on the Mount is particularly moving and emotional: Jesus moves amongst the peoples while preaching instead of merely standing at the mountain-top talking down to everyone else. Ray understood that Jesus was born into a chaotic, violent, and bloody time and that much of his appeal came from his ability to appeal for peace, love, and tolerance despite this. King of Kings is one of the best works from Ray's later career. While many films tried to give Jesus a timeless quality, Ray knew that, again, he was first and foremost a product of his time and it was therein that his brilliance and greatness truly lay.
9/10
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