The Greatest Story Ever Told
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| The Greatest Story Ever Told | |
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| Directed by | George Stevens |
| Produced by | George Stevens Frank I. Davis George Stevens Jr. Antonio Vellani |
| Written by | George Stevens James Lee Barrett |
| Starring | Max von Sydow Charlton Heston |
| Music by | Alfred Newman |
| Cinematography | Loyal Griggs William C. Mellor |
| Editing by | Harold F. Kress Argyle Nelson Jr. Frank O'Neil |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | February 15, 1965 |
| Running time | 225 min. (premiere version) 199 min. (edited version) 141 min. (re-issue version) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 United Artists film about the life of Jesus, directed by George Stevens (some scenes by Jean Negulesco and David Lean). Max von Sydow stars as Christ, and it features a number of other top Hollywood stars at the time, such as Charlton Heston as John the Baptist, and Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate.
The Greatest Story Ever Told held its world premiere on February 15, 1965 at the Warner Cinerama Theatre in New York City. It was filmed in Ultra Panavision 70, and exhibited in larger cities in 70 mm Cinerama.
The music was composed and conducted by Alfred Newman (who wrote the music for How the West was Won, as well as the 20th Century Fox theme), and supplemented (at the request of the director) with the Hallelujah chorus and the Verdi Requiem, (both adapted and conducted by Newman associate Ken Darby).
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[edit] Awards
The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Musical Score, Best Cinematography (color), Art Direction (color), Costume Design (color), and Special Visual Effects (Joseph McMillan Johnson).
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Max von Sydow | Jesus |
| Dorothy McGuire | The Virgin Mary |
| Robert Loggia | Joseph |
| Charlton Heston | John the Baptist |
| Joanna Dunham | Mary Magdalene |
| Telly Savalas | Pontius Pilate |
| Disciples | |
| Gary Raymond | Peter |
| David McCallum | Judas Iscariot |
| Roddy McDowall | Matthew |
| Michael Anderson, Jr. | James the Younger |
| Robert Blake | Simon the Zealot |
| John Considine | John |
| Tom Reese | Thomas |
| David Hedison | Philip |
| Jamie Farr | Thaddaeus |
| Burt Brinckerhoff | Andrew |
| David Sheiner | James the Elder |
The large and notable cast also includes John Abbott, Rodolfo Acosta, Michael Ansara, Richard Bakalyan, Carroll Baker, Ina Balin, Pat Boone, Victor Buono, Richard Conte, Philip Coolidge, John Crawford, Frank DeKova, Cyril Delevanti, José Ferrer, Van Heflin, Russell Johnson, Martin Landau, Angela Lansbury, Mark Lenard, Janet Margolin, Sal Mineo, Nehemiah Persoff, Donald Pleasence, Sidney Poitier, Claude Rains, Joseph Schildkraut, Marian Seldes, Frank Silvera, Joseph Sirola, Abraham Sofaer, Paul Stewart, Harold Stone, Michael Tolan, John Wayne, Shelley Winters, and Ed Wynn. It should be noted that most of these stars play extremely short cameos. This was a criticism labeled at the film at the time, particularly John Wayne as the Centurion who supervises Christ's execution.
The movie was one of only nine feature films to be shot entirely in Ultra Panavision 70.
[edit] Impact
The Greatest Story Ever Told marked the end of the big budget theatrical Biblical/religious spectacle, until arguably The Passion of The Christ. It was Director George Stevens' first flop. The film cost an estimated $20,000,000 and made back $12,000,000 worldwide.
[edit] Trivia
- Cinematographer William C. Mellor suffered a heart attack, collapsed and died on the set.
- During filming, the first snowstorm to strike Arizona in decades buried the whole Jerusalem set. Several hundred cast and crew members, including director George Stevens, went out with snow shovels, wheelbarrows, bulldozers, and butane flame throwers to clear the snow from the set. Just as they were done, it snowed again, even harder than before—forcing the production to close and move to Desilu Studios in Hollywood.
- This movie features three actors who went on to play supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in James Bond movies: Donald Pleasence (Satan) in You Only Live Twice (1967), Telly Savalas (Pontius Pilate) in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), and Max Von Sydow (Jesus Christ) in Never Say Never Again (1983).
- In his dissatisfaction with how his music was heavily edited (multiple times), moved to scenes for which they were not written, or replaced by the works of Giuseppe Verdi and Georg Friedrich Handel, composer Alfred Newman attempted to have his name removed from the credits of this picture. Reference: Darby, Ken. Hollywood Holyland (Scarecrow Press, c1992)
- John Wayne played the part of a centurion at the crucifixion scene the end of the film. If you look closely enough you will notice that his lips didn’t move – the words Truly this was the Son of God were added later in the studio. Wayne's fee for two days' work was a reputed $250,000.
- A large number of famous stars appeared towards the end of the film because of the studio's concerns about recouping the escalating costs. By using these stars it was hoped to increase the audience figures - it didn’t.
[edit] In Modern Media
- An episode of the popular ABC series Dinosaurs referenced the movie title ("The Greatest Story Ever Sold") for a story parodying Christianity in which the cast follows a new religion, "Potato-ism."
- Chapter 62 of the novel The Da Vinci Code referenced the movie title ("The Greatest Story Ever Sold") in a discussion between Sir Leigh Teabing and Robert Langdon.
