Greatest Story Ever Told

Rating: 60%


(http://melanielinktaylor.mzteachuh.org)

Also Known As:

George Stevens Presents The Greatest Story Ever Told

Version:

Language:

Length:

191 minutes: Uncut

Review Format:

DVD

Year:

1965

Country:

Predominant Genre:

Historical

Director:

Uncredited:

Outstanding Performances:

Premiss:

The life of Jesus.

Themes:

Alienation | Art | Christianity | Coming-of-age | Compassion | Courage | Curative | Destiny | Emotional repression | Empathy | Friendship | God | Grieving | Humanity | Identity | Individualism | Justice | Loneliness | Love | Loyalty | Mankind | Materialism | Narcissism | Personal | Personal change | Political | Political Correctness | Preventive | Rationality | Redemption | Role modeling | Sadomasochism | Schizophrenia | Self-Esteem | Solipsism | Totalitarianism

Similar to:

He is not the Messiah – he’s a very naughty boy.

Summary: Passionless, two-dimensional retelling of the life of Christ.

Portentous, literal and rather leaden attempt to bring Christ’s teachings to a Hollywood epic - in the style of a filmmaker who only understands the words but, like a child, does not understand their meaning. The film takes itself very seriously, stifling any opportunities to explore or infer both character and story. It is both sincere and un-ironic in its reverence which tends, thus, to lean towards self-parody. Only Max VON SYDOW’s Jesus’ other-worldliness offers nuance in a film weighed down by the literalness and the stiffness of the dramatic interpretation.

Really little more, then, than a collection of cinematic tableaux vivants that, unsurprisingly, inspired much of the parody of Monty Python’s Life of Brian. The religious poetry is nullified by the movie’s religious fundamentalism aimed at the childish who cannot see the flaws in The Christ’s ideas: The narcissism, the Death worship, the schizophrenia, etc. (A modern-day psychiatrist would, most likely, have The Anointed One confined to a lunatic asylum.)

(http://apennyinthewell.blogspot.co.uk)

The lack of numinousness in this telling also saps much emotion from the drama; leaving behind a beautifully-photographed parade of some of the finest acting talent struggling with an apparent commandment to deliver their lines as if slightly drugged. Lifeless, stagy, melodramatic & unconvincing - yet a sumptuous wonder to look at with too-few fine moments of real feeling. A technically-accomplished, but artistically-flawed film; a great story, poorly told; characterized by good intent but little subtlety or imagination. (It was almost an act of Christian charity to give this movie a rating as high as 60%.)

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