I gave this 1 star...and the real Apostle Peter would have no doubt given it none. It was rarely faithful to the Book of Acts in any specifics, more than not going of on wild tangents.My wife rented this from netflix. The description said it was made for Italian TV, but I didn't do the math...this would appear to be a Roman Catholic based film. Portraying Peter as the "rock" that the Church was built on, mechanical repetition of the Lord's Prayer, the constant recital of the Sermon on the Mount and not the Gospel (which is what was done in Acts).The lip syncing bothered me as did some of the acting and editing, but the content is what really bothers me. As has been mentioned before, this really went wacko when they got to Rome.If this were a BIBLICALLY ACCURATE movie, I could easily sit for three hours, but this was a waste of time.If you want an accurate portrayal of the Apostles, get the Acts series from "The Visual Bible".This was basically a ride through fantasyland.

THE PROS OF THIS MOVIE: All-star cast line-up: Omar Shariff, Flavio Insinna, Lina Sastri, Milena Miconi. The legendary Omar Shariff gives a magnificent performance as Saint Peter, and this is the FIRST film that I ever saw him act. His final scene in the film is extremely touching. Flavio Insinna shines as David, the Roman slave Gladiator fighting for his family's freedom. It's always a joy to see him act in a fatherly role. His interaction with the children is extremely heartwarming, and his scenes with his wife, Anna, are beautiful. Omar and Flavio's scenes together is wonderful. Their interaction has such chemistry which really brings out the best in this film. Lina Sastri and Milena Miconi, who also worked with Flavio respectively in Don Bosco and Don Matteo, played their parts superbly. Lina's performance as the Virgin Mary was impeccable, and Milena Miconi, who I almost didn't recognize, because of her red hair dyed black, beautifully portrayed Mary Magdalene.THE CONS OF THIS MOVIE: First, the movie's 197 minutes long, and usually I don't have an attention span past 2 hours. Second, Flavio doesn't appear until the second half of the film, and he's like the third person listed in the credits, which is the only reason why I even bothered to watch this film. Third, Flavio, Lina and Milena's voices were all DUBBED!!!!! The whole point of me watching this film was to hear Flavio's NATURAL voice!!!!! They hired some macho voice-over to dub Flavio's voice.Overall, the movie is wonderful to watch, but some scenes they could've done without. The actor who portrayed Jesus was fantastic. This was an excellent production done by Rai and Lux Vide.

I'm sorry to burst any religious bubbles here, but it was one of the most disappointing portrayals of this amazing time of Church history I have ever seen. I was very excited when I saw this film in the video store and with Easter coming up. I thought it would be a very appropriate for the time of year. I also was excited to see Omar Sharif as St. Peter and I thought this movie was going to be pretty good. Omar Sharif didn't disappoint, however, just about everything else did. With one exception: The cinematography, which was quite beautiful at times.However the acting was terrible. I was trying to figure out why their voices were out of sync, and I thought, "Oh well it's an Italian film." But Sharif's mouth as did other actor's seemed to be speaking English. There are few who looked like they were speaking another language (assume Italian) hence the dub, but the majority was terribly out of sync. It's listed as an English speaking film, so I don't know what happened. To be honest, I think "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" was in better sync.The direction was something to be desired. It almost seemed as if the director Giulio Base did one take on everything and said, "That'll work, let's fix it in post if needed". When it seemed that Base was trying to create an "individual moment", it only worked because of Sharif. However, with the dubbing/sync issues some of it was absolutely laughable. Especially whenever the character Mark (Possibly the Gospel Author) would cry (Which seemed to be more than my 3 year old daughter). It just wasn't believable.The story itself seemed relevant and historically plausible until we get to Rome and we're introduced to a fictional, forbidden, love story and to a fictional slave family, whose father is a masked gladiator. This is when the wheels fell off completely for me. The story moves into the realm of nonsense and it's unclear what is fact and what is fiction. In Rome, all of a sudden these two fictionalized B & C story lines are introduced after almost 90 minutes into the film. I didn't care about these people, I cared about Peter and Paul and wanted to know what happened to them, the other stories just seemed thrown in there by a studio or executive producers thinking we needed a love story. It was a distraction rather than an enhancement.If one of the underlying objectives of this film is to show Rome and St. Peter as the beginning of the Papacy and the establishment of the Holy See then this fictional tale of this family and the two forbidden lovers just deflates the authority of this story. In addition, the gladiator fight scenes looked like two 10 year-olds playing Power Rangers on their front lawn. The "out of the blue" conversion at the end of the Roman official who hated Peter and resisted Christianity the whole time is never addressed, but he's given the final words as St. Peter hangs from the cross to the effect, "All of Rome has changed because of you Peter". Why on earth would you allow that, in addition to people just sitting around as if Peter is being crucified in their living room? If this happened like this I don't know, but due to above mentioned fictional aspects of the film I doubt the scenes accuracy. The only aspect that I do know was true was Peter being crucified upside down and the words he used, which were beautiful "I am not worthy to die in same manner as our Lord".I don't even want to get started on the editing, which had no rhythm and pulled us out of scenes like smelling salt did to Apollo Creed in Rocky I & II. Editor Alessandro Lucidi as is Base, is no strangers to this genre. However if the director doesn't give you anything to cut out from to cut to then you're stuck with what you have I guess.The story was too spoon fed for me, almost written for a 12 year old audience. I would recommend the film for Catholic school students grades 4th – 8th. I don't think a lot of Evangelicals or Protestants would approve of the story due to its portrayal (however true it may be) of the establishment of Rome as the "Heart of Christ Church" as Sharif's St. Peter put it. However, maybe somehow the Holy Spirit can overcome the obstacles of this film and deliver the message it was trying to make to those mentioned above. I just think the filmmakers missed a great opportunity to deliver a powerful and true story. Peter and Paul keep talking about "The Truth" but in the context of this film "The Truth" comes into question. I have feeling the producers might have come into the edit bay after the director's cut and really messed this film up, because I can't buy that Base would make the decisions he made.

"One heart, one soul" These words that appear many times in the magnificent latest movie by Giulio Base are not just the words that relate to early Christian attitude but they are clearly reflected throughout the film made with honest effort and great faith both from the crew and the cast. I have seen many religious historical epics. Nevertheless, I have to admit that seldom have I seen such a purely faithful movie where almost each moment is an experience. Let me discuss some of the aspects of the film that make it a brilliant piece of film art.CONTENT: Giulio Base's film can be divided into two parts concerning the content. The first part discusses purely historical events from the New Testament, beginning with the death and resurrection of Christ and going on to Apostles' meetings, conversions to the new faith, quarrels who actually has the right to be baptized, persecutions from Jews, the miraculous story of Saul/Paul, and ending with Peter's journey to the heart of the empire, Rome. The events showed in the second part take place primarily in Rome, with some fictitious characters that are contextualized in the whole life stories of Peter and Paul. We see two families whose lives are connected by love and faith. Claudius Maximus (Ettore Basi), the son of a wealthy Roman, Persius (Ennio Caltorti), falls in love with a Christian girl Silvia (Bianca Guaccero). He does not see any benefit in the new faith at first but slowly starts to believe in the Son of God. Will this help him retain good relations with his family? Moreover, a mystery from his family's past is revealed at the moment of the death of Claudius' Grandma... In the other family, David (Flavio Insinna), the masked gladiator called Trachus, fights on arena as a gladiator. However, he hides this truth from his Christian wife, Anna (Claudia Koll). Yet, his life in two worlds cannot last forever and he once has to stand before the choice... earthly or spiritual freedom?... Among these vivid stories, the director shows Peter-Paul relations. Sometimes, they are exaggerated because these two have not met so many times and probably died on the same day not having met in prison before. Yet, it must be treated rather in the symbolic way. The primary fact about them is that they were the two greatest Apostles of Christ's Church. In the end, we see the persecutions of Christians and Peter who leaves Rome and meets the Lord on his way who is going to be crucified again...BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS: The film is filled with a number of magnificent scenes that I deeply experienced to tears. If you decide to see the movie, pay attention to little aspects that are perhaps not so clear at once but noticed after a longer inspection. These aspects, which I noticed at the second viewing, are the real pearls of the film. These are, among many others, the visit at Cornelius' in Caesarea, the Eucharist in prison, the symbolic moment of joy at Christ's resurrection, the conversation with a prostitute ("Is there really such a God who will forgive?") or Paul's miraculous way for Damascus. Except for the above, I will never forget Sylvia-Claudius conversation in his beautiful gardens. "What do you lack? What more is there that can make you happy? asks Claudius. Immediately, the question is answered by a voice coming from the streets of Rome "Jesus is true happiness!" I also loved the moment of retrospection in time. Peter decides to put up his mission in Rome but unintentionally comes back in memory to the words of Christ: "You are the rock and on this rock I shall build my Church". The end is also unbelievably beautiful and touching, which refers to one historical and spiritual fact: Rome has changed forever and the whole world will never be the same since the Redeemer makes all things new...CAST: Among the films about Peter's elderly years in Rome, Omar Sharif portrays the fishermen of people in the most memorable way I have seen so far: better than Dennis Quiley in A.D (1985), more authentic than Franciszek Pieczka in QUO VADIS? (2000), even more appealing than Finlay Currie in Hollywood's monumental production QUO VADIS? (1951) by Mervyn LeRoy. He is great with that blink in his eyes that probably real saint Peter had and at showing love for all men that real saint Peter learned from his Lord. Omar Sharif is magnificent and even if you are not religious, you will love this film thanks to his performance. Other cast are not that famous but they give fine performances, too. I particularly liked Bianca Guaccero in the role of gentle young girl Silvia, so in love with Claudius. Among others, these are Italian cast who very well fit to the roles of the Romans.LOCATIONS: There is one more reason why I like the movie. The landscapes that the film shows are very much like the ones in Palestine. After my journey to the Holy Land, I deeply feel this sense of authenticity. Therefore, some biblical films seemed so unnatural because they were made in wrong locations. Giulio Base's film does a great job throughout, including the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, the reconstruction of the Jerusalem and the Rome of the 1st century. So far, such an authentic film concerning locations was Franco Zeffirelli's production with Robert Powell.I would recommend everyone to see this film, no matter if old or young, Christian, Jew or Muslim, believer or atheist. It is a splendid film which is not a "Christian propaganda" as some cynical people unjustly call such films. It is the film which primarily focuses on the dignity, freedom and love of every human being. 10/10 Excellent movie that I dream to see for the third time!