The late great Omar Sharif, who was quite a good actor, gave a good performance in this film as St. Peter. Sadly, the film was marred by bad dubbing. This film was made for Italian television in 2005. I think Sharif did his lines in English, but most of the actors did theirs in Italian. The dubbing wasn't very good. Some of the voice actors used for dubbing into English weren't really good actors either. This might be a better film if it was in Italian and subtitled.
There were aspects of the film I thought could be better. Saul/Paul starts persecuting the Church much to early, actually before Pentecost. In reality Saul/Paul persecuted the church 3-5 years after Jesus' crucifixion. They also combine two times that Peter is imprisoned and escaped, probably for time constraint. Stephen's defense and his stoning were too rushed.
There was an aspect of the film I did like, which was Peter's relationship to the other Apostles and to Paul, after his conversion. The film even portrays Peter being at Paul's trial and execution. In reality, it's possible it could've happened, but it's also quite possible it didn't. Also ,I liked Peter's relationship to Jesus at the beginning of the film and shown in flashbacks throughout the film.
Most of the last part of the movie is a fictionalized account of Peter in Rome ministering to the Christians living there. Some aspects of this worked better than others. Such as Paul's friendship to a Christian family that are slaves to a Roman official works fairly well. But a romance between the Roman official's son and a Christian woman does not work as well.
It's worthwhile seeing once for Omar Sharif's performance. In fact I gave the film a 6/10 because of his performance. I would have given it a higher score if it didn't have so many flaws. It would be better if it was either in Italian and subtitled or redubbed with better voice actors.
Review of San Pietro
San Pietro
(2005 TV Movie)
Omar Sharif gives a good performance in a film marred by bad dubbing.
17 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers