Console best movie i've ever seen.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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

MartinHafer When the filmmakers were making "The Robe", they knew that they'd also be making the sequel "Demetrius and the Gladiators" and filmed them one after the other with no stoppage in between. Now you'd expect that as usual, the first film would be much better than the next, but this is an odd case where this is NOT so. While I really liked "Demetrius and the Gladiators" when I saw it recently, I was very disappointed by "The Robe". And, yes, I watched the films in reverse order! The film is set near the time of Jesus' death and is told from the point of view of a Roman official, Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton). He and his slave, Demetrius (Victor Mature) are sent to Judea and his is there at the crucifixion. In fact, as the Roman soldiers are casting dice for Jesus' clothes, Marcellus wins the robe. However, little does he know that this robe seems to have magical properties (huh?!) and through this robe, Marcellus comes to become a Christian--making it among the strangest conversion experiences in Hollywood history. However, the insane Emperor, Caligula (Jay Robinson) is not at all pleased, as he hates Christians and takes great sport in killing them. What's to become of Marcellus and his sweetie, Diana (Jean Simmons) once their conversions come to the attention of the nutty 'ol Emperor? Of all of Richard Burton's films, according to IMDb he was least proud of this one because of his wooden performance. While I would agree that it was generally wooden, when it wasn't so flat it was hilariously over-acted. I particularly laughed when Marcellus went mad--and Burton did it in a way highly reminiscent of William Shatner in "Impulse"--and this is NOT meant as a compliment for either of them.Overall, I'd say that the film is, at best, a time-passer. It has lovely sets and nice costumes but it also features some bad acting and a dubious message about Christianity. My advice is so see the sequel--it's something "The Robe" isn't--entertaining. A little bit more subtlety sure would have helped this film, as would an infusion of life and fun. As a result, the film just drags and drags to its conclusion.

PJ Thompson If you're a big fan of the "Ben Hur" era and enjoy Richard Burton and Victor Mature, two of Ameriweird's greatest drama actors, then you'll salivate at every minute of this movie!! The dual storyline of the slave Victor Mature, and the dramatic conversion of Richard Burton is beyond compare with any other great, family viewable movie of the '50's in Cinemascope and full color and truly a screenwriter's masterpiece!! Take it from a true movie buff, this is worth a Saturday evening or a Sunday afternoon relaxation with a movie break!! You'll never forgive yourself if you don't own and watch this classic!! In my humble opinion, the finest acting on the part of all parties in this joy of a movie from the days gone by!!

Naught Moses The =immense= popularity of "The Robe" (and "The Ten Commandments," which followed two years later) speak to the overwhelmingly prevailing values, beliefs, ideals, convictions, attitudes... and fears... of America in the A-bomb, drop drill, Cold War decade that followed the stand of the "greatest generation" against the forces of evil in fascist Europe. "American" values, beliefs, ideals, convictions and attitudes, as well as anxieties, were so much clearer in an age of certainty about what was right and wrong in a world increasingly threatened with nuclear oblivion. Seen through the framework of that mindset, it's much easier to understand why a tale that seems so orthographically simplistic today struck so many then at a profoundly emotional level. I was five years old when I began to get up before dawn to watch the A- bomb tests in Nevada on live TV. I was only eight years old when "The Robe" premiered, but I recall many of the adults in my world (which was in Hollywood, by the way) speaking of it in reverential terms, even though many of them went to temple on Saturday. I also recall hearing that it was being shown in this church or that for some years to follow. 1953 was a mere seven years from Jean Simmons' portrayal of Sister Sharon in "Elmer Gantry," but that was part of another epoch. This was an era just on the heels of millions of boys fighting the Good Fight for God & Country. Hundreds of thousands more stood guard in distant Asia and Western Europe against godless communism's cheap labor and state- controlled economic threat to a commercialist leadership striving to identify itself with the moral high ground of bible belt values. It was also, some will remember, the era of the House Un-American Activities Committee, James Eastland, Dick Nixon, Bill Knowland, Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy. The studio system was being eaten away by network television, every bit as much as it was running scared in the face of claims by such as the fore-mentioned of "communist infestation." Family films, travelogues, heroic war stories, stylish musicals, adventure tales and bible epics were in. And they made money because they were "too big" for the small screen.Victor Mature might have done his best work with Henry Fonda in "My Darling Clementine" (1946), but he starred in "Samson & Delilah" (1949). Robert Taylor's last big one was "Quo Vadis" (1951). Charleton Heston built =his= career on "The Ten Commandments" (1955) and cemented it forever in "Ben Hur" (1959). Kirk Douglas did much the same a year later in "Sparticus." George Stevens's "Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965) was the end of the road, at least in terms of the unquestioningly reverential approach. (John Kennedy had been shot down in front of a thousand extras in Texas, and a Texan was throwing men and money at Vietnam in a way that was testing the cultural tolerance for the white Anglo-Saxon protestant zeitgeist by then.) Despite Mel Gibson's run at the genre in 2004, reverential religiosity hasn't made a comeback in the current era of fundamentalist revivalism. Some observers suggest we have come full circle back to (emotion-soaked) faith in the last sixty years, but I favor Strauss & Howe's notion in their 1992 best seller, =Generations=, that we're only half-way there. I sense the lingering effects of the assassinations, suspect wars and other suspicions of authority that put an end to films like "The Robe." But in what may be a future offering challenges as (or even more) monumental than those faced in the 1930s and '40s smack the masses between the eyes, we may again see a return to the sort of unified, anxiety-driven hopefulness that was the common cultural norm when the moguls gave so many green lights to these expensive, but hope-providing cultural manipulations. I'd love to see reality and rationality win out, but history says the sort of socially approved emotionalism that made "The Robe" work so well in 1953 is the better bet in the face of any "big scare."

James Hitchcock The historical epics which were so popular in the fifties and early sixties frequently had a religious theme. Some were based, not always faithfully, on stories from the Bible ("The Ten Commandments", "Solomon and Sheba", "Esther and the King"), while others tried to convey a Christian message indirectly. Thus the central character of "Spartacus" is treated as a metaphorical Christ-figure, and "The Egyptian" draws parallels between Christianity and the monotheistic religion of Atenism which briefly flourished under the heretical Pharaoh Akhnaten. "The Robe" is one of a number of films which deal with the early days of the Christian Church and its persecution by the Roman Emperors. The most famous film of this type is "Ben Hur", but others include "Quo Vadis?" "The Silver Chalice" and "The Fall of the Roman Empire". The stories told by such films were normally fictitious- they were often based upon once-famous novels- but were set against a background of historical fact.The plot of "The Robe" is essentially similar to that of "The Silver Chalice" which was made the following year. Both concern a sacred relic of Christ; in "The Silver Chalice" this is the cup which He used at the Last Supper, whereas in "The Robe" it is the robe which He wore at His crucifixion. Lloyd Douglas, who wrote the novel "The Robe", said that he did so to answer the question: what happened to the Roman soldier who won Jesus' robe through a dice game? In the story, this soldier is Marcellus Gallio, the military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus. He is in some respects an unlikely hero for an epic. The heroes of such films were normally strong, confident men of action like Ben-Hur or Spartacus, but Marcellus is not really a career soldier. He is an upper-class playboy, a gambler, drinker and womaniser who owes his exalted military rank to the influence of his father, an important senator. He enjoys little respect among the men he commands, although he gets the better of a centurion who dares to challenge his authority in a memorable swordfight, one of the film's few action sequences. He is only sent to Judaea because he has offended Caligula, heir to the Emperor Tiberius.After the Crucifixion Marcellus is overcome by feelings of guilt and, haunted by memories of the man he has crucified, loses his reason, believing that Christ's robe has bewitched him. To help him overcome his mental problems, Tiberius sends him back to Judaea, where he meets an idealistic group of early Christians and finds himself drawn to their religion. As one might expect in a fifties epic, Marcellus eventually becomes a Christian himself as do his sweetheart Diana and his servant Demetrius. (Demetrius was to become the hero of his own film, "Demetrius and the Gladiators", a sequel to "The Robe". This sequel was, unusually, based on an original screenplay rather than a novel, although it used some of Douglas's characters. Douglas had in fact written his own sequel, "The Big Fisherman", but the studio did not own the film rights).The film contains a number of historical inaccuracies. The Roman province of Judaea is referred to anachronistically as "Palestine". The historical Tiberius was a cruel and dissolute tyrant, but is portrayed here as a benevolent elder statesman. His wife appears here as the "Empress Julia", although in fact Tiberius divorced Julia for adultery long before he became Emperor, and by the time the film is set she had been dead for many years. The Jews never believed that the Messiah would be the Son of God; that is a purely Christian concept. Most importantly, the Emperor Caligula, although undoubtedly tyrannical, never persecuted the Christians as he is shown doing here; during his reign, only a few years after the death of Christ, the new religion was far too insignificant to pose any threat to the Roman state. (The first organised persecution of Christians took place under Nero).The leading role is played by Richard Burton in the first of his three epic films. (The others were "Alexander the Great" and "Cleopatra"). It is scarcely Burton's finest hour, and he did not really deserve his Oscar nomination, but he acquits himself reasonably well as the complex hero Marcellus. There are also decent performances from the lovely Jean Simmons as Diana, Ernest Thesiger as Tiberius, Michael Rennie as St Peter (although it is difficult to imagine this ascetic philosopher-saint ever having worked as a fisherman), and Jay Robinson, playing Caligula as a ranting, carpet-chewing and slightly camp megalomaniac. Victor Mature as Demetrius is impassive but impressive, like a gigantic statue. (Rennie, Robinson and Mature would all get to repeat their roles in "Demetrius and the Gladiators")."Demetrius and the Gladiators" is, in fact, one of those sequels which is rather better than the film that inspired it. It offers more in the way of spectacle than does "The Robe" and has a more interesting storyline, raising some important moral issues about pacifism, non-violence and Christian forgiveness. With a less stolid actor than Mature in the leading role it could have been a classic. The message of "The Robe", by contrast, never gets much further than "Christians Good, Pagans Bad", and although the conflicted central character of Marcellus does offer some complexity, any attempt at moral depth goes out of the window with the simplistic, sentimental ending to the story. "The Robe" is certainly better than "The Silver Chalice" (I cannot think of an epic which is actually worse than that ridiculous film) but it falls a long way short of the likes of "Ben-Hur" or "Spartacus". 6/10