Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

John Hayes The Big Fisherman was certainly not the biggest - or the best - of the fifties/sixties cycle of 70mm epics. Arriving between Ben-Hur (1959) and Spartacus (1960), it is not surprising that this rather small-scale epic became lost in the shuffle. It has no battles, no huge crowd scenes - in fact the crowds can be numbered in dozens rather than thousands - and an archaic script that harks back to Bible epics that were made ten years earlier.That said, Lee Garmes' cinematography is splendid and Albert Hay Mallotte's score is superb; plus Howard Keel, Herbert Lom, John Saxon and Martha Hyer deliver exemplary performances, in spite of the leaden script.Contrary to previous comments, The Big Fisherman was NOT shot in MGM Camera 65 - only Raintree County and Ben-Hur were. After the process changed its name to Ultra Panavision, it was used on Mutiny on the Bounty, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Khartoum and The Fall of the Roman Empire. The Big Fisherman used Super Panavision - a non anamorphic 70mm widescreen process.Inferior the film may be to its contemporaries, it still deserves a DVD release - preferably a Special Edition version, as it is most certainly a worthy part of the canon of 70mm epics.For further information, go to www.widescreenmovies.org and click on 'Highlights of Previous Issues' then 'The Epic that Disappeared: The Big Fisherman'.

dom8256 This was by far one of the most powerful and entertaining movies I have ever seen. I saw it on the Disney Channel many years ago and I was lucky enough to tape it on my VCR because it has never been released on DVD or VHS tape. It's like it was forgotten. It is not a musical but a very well acted drama about the life of the Apostle Peter. Fara a princess who is the daughter of Herod Antipas and an Arabian princess who he discarded to marry Herodias learns what her father did just minutes before her mom dies. She vows to go back and kill her father to avenge her mother. She ends up in the house of Simon Peter just before he is called and converted by Christ. Peter protects and cares for Fara. When she is about to kill Antipas he intervenes and stops her. At the end of the movie she gives up the great love of her love "VOLDI" who is named prince of Arabia because she is not a true Arabian. I wish this movie had been released on DVD or Tape because I would recommended to anyone. It's truly a beautiful and Spiritual story.

bkoganbing Howard Keel says in his posthumously published memoirs that he grabbed the part of Simon Peter in The Big Fisherman to prove his versatility as an actor. Musicals were pretty much done by that time and he was free of his MGM contract. He got the role after John Wayne turned the part down. That one was an eye opener I have to say. My conception of St. Peter has always been that of a big hale and hearty man used to working in the outdoors. We see an older Peter in Quo Vadis with Finlay Currie and now we have a younger one in Keel.Still I can't believe that Frank Borzage wanted John Wayne. After coming off that disaster in The Barbarian and the Geisha, the Duke wisely turned this one down. Keel does give a good performance as Peter. Other than Keel the player best remembered for this film is Ray Stricklyn as the evil young Arab prince.It's good to remember that this is a fictional story about a biblical figure though some scenes of events described in the Bible are in the film. Nevertheless there are some plot flaws. Peter goes among the Arabs here and this was six centuries before Mohammed came on the scene. If you were to follow the logic of the film, the Arab people would have been converted to Christianity. Now maybe it would have saved us all a lot of bloodshed over the centuries had they, still even in a work of fiction that's a bit much to swallow.Keel liked making the film and had high hopes for it. Unfortunately it ran up against Ben-Hur another filmed biblically based novel this time with the protagonist being a fictional character. Additionally The Big Fisherman got lost somewhere in the corporate doings of Buena Vista Films and the Walt Disney studio. Back in the Fifties, Buena Vista did distribute films not necessarily with the Walt Disney brand on them. It's been seen on television a few times, I saw it again about 12 years ago. It should be seen in theaters though. Like Ben-Hur something is lost even with a letter box version.But can you imagine John Wayne as St. Peter? Turn that one over in your minds.

d-braine This was a great film, and it ought to be put on DVD. I remember seeing it and thinking that it was far better than 'Quo Vadis' and many other of the religiously connected biopics, and much better than things like 'Jesus of Nazareth' which I have seen more recently. It is terrible that things like this should become unavailable for people to see, and I for one would very much like to see it again. There is less sloppiness and sentimentality than in some of the early biopics, and lots of good actors acting well. I do really think that this one should be pushed hard and someone persuaded to put it on DVD. I think it was influenced by the novel by Sholem Asch, who was a great novelist about various Jewish and Christian religious figures.