Review of Gli amici di Gesù - Giuda

Raffaele Mertes' second film in the Jesus series is the middle one, the first being "Mary Magdalene" (the best one) and the third being "Thomas" (the worst one). "Judas" starts quite promising, the film begins with the Palm Sunday spectacle, Judas being in the lead of the procession crying"Osanna" and all that, quite confident that Jesus is the Messiah and rightful king of Israel. Judas is quite human here to begin with, we get to know his family (with two sisters and a father who hasn't forgiven him for having followed Jesus) and an ailing mother, and the family bonds are quite tender and sincere. We also get to know his sweetheart, a certain Sarah, who cheats him, asking him for thirty pieces of silver to save the life of her brother, and Judas believes her and steals the money from the Jesus community, learning too late that she betrayed him - her brother nevertheless ends up being crucified as one of the bandits executed together with Jesus on Golgotha. The music and the settings are exquisite, like in all these three films, but half way through something happens, and everything falls out of all credibility. Nothing makes any sense any more, Judas gets mixed up with the Romans, Pontius Pilate laughs him to scorn, and the films depict the Romans as the real villains here. In brief, the film derails, and then nothing can save it any more. Peter makes an interesting appearance as the one who actually tries to save Judas, Danny Quinn as Jesus is more prominent here than in any of the other two, while Mary Magdalene is completely absent and Jesus' mother only appears once. A good film of great promises ends up a Biblical soap opera of cheap effects of sex and violence, and Judas himself appears more and more unconvincing. Pity, because Enrico lo Verso is a great actor, he is a specialist on films like this, and he made an unforgettable appearance as Farinelli's brother Riccardo Broschi in the film 1994 of Farinelli, one of the best films of that year. Well, once you have seen all three of Raffaele Mertes' Jesus films, you don't have to see them again.