The Greatest Story Ever Told

The only biblical epic I would consider returning to - it's really an incredible feat in cinematography [love that Ultra Panavision 70] & Sydow makes an interesting portrayal of Jesus.

A who's who of the 60's (Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate lmao), it's a very by-the-numbers overly long epic depiction of Jesus Christ. I'm a big von Sydow fan but here he's totally forgettable - even the casting out of the money lenders is underwhelming - and he's overshadowed by the only thing everyone remembers about this, which is centurion John Wayne's drawling one liner. Ferrer and Pleasance are pretty enjoyable as the villains but it's not worth three hours plus.

Basically a three-hour build-up to one laugh-out-loud funny moment.

The most notable part of this movie is the laugh-out-loud hilarious random cameo by John Wayne as the Roman centurion.

The cinematography is striking, but the film collapses under it's own scope in the final third, leaving a rather dry crucifixion sequence capped by a hilarious John Wayne appearance.

It baffles me how much I like this movie, considering I'm not even a Christian, and all the ones I know didn't like it and thought it was "too long" and dull. To me, the 3h flew by easily, and except for the embarrassment at the end, everything else works. Maybe that's the problem: The average Christian enjoys "tales", run-of-the-mill sermons, and uplifting anecdotes loosely related to their faith. This movie offers poetry, and it doesn't pander or preach excessively. It's the Anti-DeMille epic!

Great scenery. Acted well. Pretty by-the-numbers.

Greatest claim to history is its controlled visual ravishness, a sort of spiritual glow that comes from production alone, but the stiff solemn tone seems to smother any arising thought or feeling. So, it ends up looking like gloss, and it isn't.

Long pompous religious epics are almost always a mistake, and this one is no exception.