Well, folks, with Resurrection Sunday–or Easter, as some call it–rapidly bearing down on us, it’s not at all surprising to see the studios get some religious-themed movies going for the various Easter baskets out there. And thus, the folks out at Warner Brothers sent over the Blu-ray translation of a bona fide classic, King of Kings.

King of Kings is the massive, sweeping epic retelling of the life of Jesus Christ. We’ll start out with a historical perspective, going back to the Roman conquest of the Jerusalem and surrounding area, and then going right on through Jesus’ life all the way up to the crucifixion and ultimate resurrection.

Of course, we’ll also get more than a little artistic license as, somehow, Barabbas gets elevated from his bit part as a murderer in the Bible to a full-on rebel and freedom fighter in the movie.

For those who think this might be slow, you’ve got a case, especially given that nearly the first four minutes of playback are just a big still picture reading “overture” and a whole lot of music. Granted, the music is really something else–crank your speakers up for a real faceful of classical scoring–but still, the option to skip this would have been welcome. It’s a wonder more people weren’t yelling “Start the movie!” up at the projection houses back when this first appeared way back in the early sixties.

And while Orson Welles’ narration is smooth and almost comforting, it will take some getting used to every time he pronounces the generally silent “t” in the word “Apostles”. Most pronounce it “ah-POSS-ulls”, while Welles for some bizarre reason seems convinced it’s “ah-POSS-tulls”.

Still though, this is indeed a grand and sweeping epic–maybe a bit too grand and sweeping, certainly a bit too epic with its three hour runtime–but still, it is a sight to see. This is filmmaking from way back in the day, back when you couldn’t get computers to simulate a crowd of thousands and instead had to actually assemble a crowd of thousands. For those looking for biblical accuracy, you’ll be sorely disappointed in many places, but there are plenty of reasonably close parts–this is a movie, after all, not a dramatized reading of the Bible proper.

Still though, if you want a good look at how movies were made fifty years ago–not to mention what Rip Torn (who played Judas Iscariot) looked like back before he was holding up banks and taking most any role that came along–you’ll be in good company here.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives this solid and well put together piece of cinematic history a seven out of ten–it’s well worth your time to check out, though it will demand quite a bit of that time. Take the time and appreciate what was done so long ago.