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The Greatest Story Ever Told | Year: 1965 Classification: Drama Directed: - George Stevens - Jean Negulesco - David Lean Actors/Actresses: - Max von Sydow - Charlton Heston - Dorothy McGuire A huge sprawling Biblical epic The Greatest Story Ever Told is a huge epic movie that boasts an impressive cast full of Hollywood notables. The movie follows the life of Jesus from his birth in a stable in Bethlehem to his teachings with his disciples all the way to his crucifixion and Resurrection. Because the film is so huge, many parts of the life of Jesus are just skipped over and talked about later by characters who saw it happen or heard about it. This is surprisingly effective to show how quickly Jesus' notoriety spread throughout the area. There are several very good scenes done with no sound except for Alfred Newman's fantastic score even though we know people in the background are screaming at Jesus as he walks by carrying the cross. One particularly effective scene involves Simon of Cyrene, played by Simon Poitier, helping Jesus carry the cross after he has fallen. As Jesus gets up, he grabs onto Simon's arm who helps him go on. It is a very short scene, but nonetheless very moving. The cast for this movie could go on for pages. Max von Sydow gives an excellent performance as Jesus Christ, although he might not look like the usually accepted idea of Jesus. Charlton Heston and Telly Savalas also give very good performances as John the Baptist and Pontius Pilate. The film also stars David McCallum as Judas, Jose Ferrer as Herod Antipas, Dorothy McGuire as Mary, Martin Landau as Ciaphias, Donald Pleasence as Satan(although he is credited as the Dark Hermit), and many others. The film also stars Michael Anderson JR, Roddy McDowall, Victor Buono, Ed Wynn, Sal Mineo, Ina Balin, Carroll Baker, Van Heflin, Jamie Farr, and so many more. There are several very small cameos most notably John Wayne, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, and Claude Rains all of which are pretty good for how small they are. The Special Edition DVD offers the widescreen presentation, theatrical trailer, making of documentary, an altered scene during the crucifixion scene, still gallery, and a filmmaker's documentary. For an excellent look at the life of Jesus, if somewhat sanitized, check out The Greatest Story Ever Told! Just about the LONGEST story ever told! I find it amazing that this film was orginally 4 1/3 hours. Even at it's current 3 1/3 hours, it's still too long. I hate to rag on movies that protray our Lord in a good light, but... While the scenery and backdrops are excellent (the scene where the Magi are following the star is breathtaking) and worthy of an epic, the movie suffers from an abundance of blandness. With the exception of Charlton Heston's energetic performance as John the Baptist, and (believe it or not) Telly Savalas' very respectable and believeable protrayal of Pilate, the rest of the cast comes off flat and uninspired. Max von Sydow's way of playing the part of Jesus comes off somewhat sterile. The only time he seemed to display any emotion is when he was clearing out the money-changers at the Temple. There were a few liberties taken with the story and plot. Not enough to call it irreverent or anything, but definately annoying. The most egregious one was Judas killing himself by falling into the fire on the Temple's altar. Excuse me, but Judas died by hanging himself. Or were the writers absent from Sunday School that day? As mentioned, Charlton Heston put in the most memorable performance of the movie as John the Baptist, and, at least to me, is most in line with how I think the real John actually was. As far as the cameos go, the only ones I recognized were (I wasn't even born when this film was released) Pat Boone, Sidney Poitier, and of course, John Wayne, whose delivery of his single line was flatter than Kansas in the wintertime. Overall, this is a decent picture, but certainly not on the scale of "Ben-Hur" or even "King of Kings". However, I will catch it again the next time it's on AMC and see if it is any better the 2nd time around. Jesus Christ Never Existed. 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' is a famous film some people have seen or at least heard about. Most people fail to realize all of that doesn't matter because Jesus Christ never existed!! Jesus Christ is a mythological figure the church has exploited for hundreds of years and now the film industry has for almost a hundred years. There is absolutely no archeological or historical evidence that Jesus Christ existed. Even if he did exist, it would be highly unlikely he would have received that kind of punishment.<BR>It is a shame that con artists like these filmmakers are using this mythological figure to make millions of dollars. People have to start swaying away from the manipulations of the church and the filmmaking industry and start looking at the hard facts. Jesus Christ and his crucifixion never happened. Buy The Greatest Story Ever Told at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Greatest Story Ever Told Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Greatest Story Ever Told This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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