IndieWire‘s Jim Hemphill, posted on 1.19.26: “On Saturday (1.17), the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles presented the world premiere of a new 4K restoration of George Stevens‘ The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), one of the most ambitious and experimental of all Hollywood epics.
“Director Martin Scorsese, whose Film Foundation was instrumental in restoring the film (and whose The Last Temptation of Christ is the only biblical epic that rivals Stevens’ film in its audacity and complexity), provided a video introduction in which he celebrated Stevens’ masterpiece as the summation of his work.”
“Masterpiece”? Stevens film is arguably the shallowest, phoniest, most oddly constipated saga-of-Christ film ever made. Let there be no doubt that Scorsese’s low-budgeted The Last Temptation of Christ (’88) is the richest, finest and trippiest of the bunch…the ending is truly magnificent. Pier Paolo Pasolini‘s The Gospel According to St. Matthew is a close second.
Methinks Scorsese primarily fell for the idea of restoring The Greatest Story Ever Told because it was lusciously shot in Ultra Panavison 70, which has an aspect ratio of 2.76:1.
Production-wise Stevens’ film was a a flat-out fiasco, and in viewing terms is truly painful to sit through. I will never, ever see it again. It feels inauthentic and sound-stagey…a pricey, corporatized big-Hollywood presentation with everyone wearing the same white flowing robes and with bizarre American Southwestern backdrops (Nevada, Colorado, Utah) standing in for ancient Judea.
Max Von Sydow‘s Nordic, blue-eyed Jesus wore a far-too-short, much-too-tidy wig, and somehow managed to appear even less authentically Judean than King of Kings‘ Jeffrey Hunter.
And the non-stop cavalcade of Hollywood faces! Dorothy McGuire as the Virgin Mary, Charlton Heston as John the Baptist, Claude Rains as Herod the Great, José Ferrer as Herod Antipas, Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate, Martin Landau as Caiaphas, David McCallum as Judas Iscariot, Donald Pleasence as “The Dark Hermit”, Roddy McDowall as Matthew, Van Heflin as “Bar Amand”, Sal Mineo as “Uriah”, Ed Wynn as “Old Aram”, and Sidney Poitier as Simon of Cyrene…Jesus.
Plus Michael Ansara, Carroll Baker, Ina Balin, Robert Blake, Pat Boone (!!!), Victor Buono, John Considine, Richard Conte, Jamie Farr, David Hedison, Angela Lansbury, Robert Loggia, John Lupton, Janet Margolin, Nehemiah Persoff, Marian Seldes, Paul Stewart, Harold J. Stone and Shelley Winters.
John Wayne was cast as a Roman Centurion for the crucifixion sscene on Calvary. Invented story: Wayne couldn’t quite deliver his only spoken line in the film, “Truly this man was the Son of God”, with sufficient feeling. Stevens: “Can you give it a little more awe, Duke?” Wayne: “Aww, truly this man was the Son of God.”