He Who Must Die (French: Celui qui doit mourir) is a 1957 French-Italian film directed by Jules Dassin. It is based on the novel Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis. It was also published as The Greek Passion.
Taking place in a Turkish-occupied Greek village shortly after World War I, villagers want to stage a Passion Play, that occurs once every seven years. The townsfolk leaders decide who plays the roles of Jesus, Peter, Judas, and so on. But the Passions a reality and the actors lead by their priest (Jean Servais, Rififi, The Devil’s Nightmare) use their biblical parts to put an end to war and poverty. The wealthiest of the citizens want nothing to do with the people who are suffering.
The cast includes Melina Mercouri (Never on Sunday,Topkapi) as Katerina, Gert Frobe(The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, Goldfinger) as Patriarcheos, Carl Monher( Cave of the Living Dead, The Fall of Rome) as Lukas and Gregoire Asian (The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The Three Worlds of Gulliver).
Jules Dassin’s He Who Must Die receives a 1080p Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber. The 2:35:1 letterboxed image looks fantastic with rich blacks and cheerful whites. The greyscale looks perfectly balanced. There is a lot of depth to the image and the contrast looks strong here with plenty of details to the characters faces in close-ups. Scenery looks sharp with very minimal issues outside of a few speckles. No DNR appears to have been applied.
The French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 for Kino’s Blu-ray is also quite strong with a lot of aggressive moments during action scenes and with Georges Auric’s musical score. That’s where the lossless track shows the most depth. Dialogue is easy to follow with legible English subtitles.
Extras for this release include a commentary track by Daniel Kremer who reflects on the film and there are trailers for other Kino Lorber catalog releases which include He Who Must Die, Port of Shadows, Quai Des Orfevers, and Leon Morin Priest.
He Who Must Die is a lesser-known film that I think fans of religious films and foreign classics might dig more than the average viewer. It’s not a technically bad film, but for me it wasn’t something that I found interesting. Some movies are like that. Fans of the film are in for a real treat with the excellent audio and video quality to go with a commentary track, and for that the release can be recommended!
He Who Must Die
Director- Jules Dassin
Cast- Jean Servais, Carl Mohner, Gregoire Asian
Country of Origin- France/Italy
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –9/28/2022