April 13, 2019

Review: Richard Burton in The Robe

In writing about its 2009 Blu-ray release, The New York Times' Dave Kehr referred to The Robe as Richard Burton's "first important American film." That's fundamentally true: for this is a picture that symbolizes a call-to-action from an industry at a paradigm shift - as the first production ever released in CinemaScope, the film was a reminder to the public that the limits of television were finite, that entertainment of epic enormity could only be made possible via Hollywood filmmaking. The top-grossing film of 1953, The Robe is important solely due to the business virtues it represents. As a film, it's stodgy and forgettable at best.