GreatestStory

The Greatest Story Ever Told

    Soon after the failure of King of Kings (1961), another attempt to portray the life of Jesus on film was ventured with The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). This time, exclusive control of the film was in the hands of George Stevens, who was producer, director, and co-author of the screenplay. Stevens' previous films included The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and Shane (1953). Unlike Ray and Bronston before him, Stevens was a devout Christian. Thus it was not surprising that his intention was to make "the greatest version of the greatest story" (Tatum 88). However, like Ray and Stevens before him, he failed miserably.
     What Stevens did was to try to incorporate into his movie as much as he possibly could. His choice to play Jesus was Swedish actor Max von Sydow.
Sydow was relatively unknown to American audiences, although he did have quite a bit of experience in Europe working with Ingmar Bergman. He was another blue-eyed Jesus, but his hair was a little bit darker. What is most notable with his character is his Swedish accent. Couple this with the fact that a lot of his lines were in the King James dialect, and there seemed to be a strange and unnatural distance between him and the rest of the cast. Playing opposite Sydow was, more or less, every major star of the time.* This was one of the major problems people had with the film. Audiences said it was a real distraction and one critic even suggested that what Stevens had done was turn the "Sacred story of Jesus into a prolonged version of Hollywood Squares" (Baugh 27). It is unclear why Stevens did this. Some people suggest he included the all-star cast to ensure success at the box office (Baugh 26). Others suggest, perhaps more in line with Stevens's rationale, that in order to make the greatest version of the greatest story ever told, he needed the greatest cast ever assembled (Stern, Jefford and Debona 144). This backfired and the cast turned out to be quite a distraction for most people;** however, I did not know whom half the "superstars" were and, short of John Wayne, the other half I did not recognize so this is one critique that I could not share.
     The other major critique with the movie was Stevens' choice of locations. He decided that he did not want to film on location in Israel because he thought that the landscape was too different from what it was in the first century because of war and erosion. He decided that filming in southern Utah would be more appropriate*** (Tatum 87). Stevens also felt that the scenery would be so beautiful that the wonders of "God's country" could not help but lift people's spirits to the divine. According to the critics, this plan also backfired on him. Instead of lifting people's spirits towards God, the scenery served as another distraction and Jesus often gets lost against Rockies and "big sky" behind him or the Grand Canyon below (Baugh 27). This leads some to the conclusion that Jesus is more of a "cowboy" than a "man of God" (Stern, Jefford and Debona 158).   I do not think this is the case nor do I think the scenery was as much of a distraction as it was made out to be; however, I was watching it on the small screen that it had been formatted for.
     This film characterized Jesus in a very interesting way-I would argue that it was one of the most creative ways I have seen. As I alluded to before, what Stevens does in the film is to try to squeeze as much in as possible. He gives the movie a frame, opening and closing it in a church with frescos of Jesus (i.e. Max von Sydow) painted in them. While the camera is panning down the frescos we hear the prologue of John's gospel being read, so already there can be little question to Jesus' divine origin. The church fades into the story of the birth of Jesus. The oddest part about this is that Herod is portrayed as a scholar of the Hebrew Scriptures and uses it to justify the slaughtering of the innocents. There is a heavy emphasis on scripture early on in the film. There are plenty of quotes used from both the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures to explain the action that is going on in the film.
     Jesus is seen very much as a teacher in this movie, although there is much confusion about what he is teaching. At times he is the Markan teacher proclaiming the kingdom of God, and at other times the Matthian teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven. Still during others he is proclaiming himself, using many of the "I am" statements from John. There is even part of the movie where Jesus starts quoting from 1 Corinthians. And what Jesus teaches is not always consistent. For example, he announces the Kingdom of God is here, and then teaches his followers to pray for the advent of God's Kingdom. Or, he tells his disciples to follow what the scribes and Pharisees tell them to do, but then a breath later he tells them that God desires mercy and not sacrifices. So, Jesus can be described best in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) as a schizophrenic teacher.
     Another aspect of the film worth discussing is Jesus' look. Stevens gets very creative in how he chooses to portray Jesus. Many of the scenes look exactly like a holy card. It is quite impressive how Stevens uses the background to provide Jesus with a halo at several points in the film. The most notable example of this is his recreation of the last supper-à la Leonardo da Vinci, where he uses an arch behind Jesus' head to create a mandorla.
     In the end, The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) was another disaster. It also signaled the end for the American Biblical epic as a genre of motion pictures. It was not the end, however, of bringing the Jesus story to film. In the seventies there are new modes to handle the Jesus story. We will not come across the Hollywood Biblical epic again, but what we will have is the Musical Jesus.

*The cast included, but was not limited to: Dorothy McGuire, Robert Loggia, Charlton Heston, David McCallum, Roddy McDowall, Gary Raymond, Telly Savalas, Joanna Dunham, Pat Boone, Martin Landau, Sydney Poitier, and Richard Conte.
**A modern parallel might be if a Jesus movie were made that had Arnold Schwarzenegger as Pilate and Sharon Stone as Mary Magdalene. I could easily see how that would be a little bit distracting.
***Don't ask me.