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A Filmmaker's Review: The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)

5/5 - Nobody told me this film was almost three and a half hours long...

By Annie KapurPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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An almost three and a half hour long film about the life and death of Jesus Christ, this film not only misses out no details but it also has a pretty great cast of characters. I have to say that honestly, it was so long that I sometimes I felt myself zoning out but the realism of rioting after the death of King Herod and the execution of the masses upon the warning of the birth of Jesus to the King made it more exciting to watch. I have seen many films about the life of Jesus Christ and yet this one has to be one of my favourites.

One of the scenes that I thought was really well filmed was when the rioters dump the Roman Symbol above the gates on to the floor. It’s a really dramatic scene that represents a lot and then, almost a scene later we have the Roman Senate appearing and having the sign lifted back up to its place, proving to be unconquerable for the ‘son’ who has been promised to them (as Herod knew before his death) has not yet been caught or even born. The Roman Senate has absolutely no idea about this and yet, just persecutes some random rioters from the crowd, stringing them up on the palace walls as an example to others. But the rioting seems to continue and nobody is listening to the Romans.

Another thing I liked about this film was the character of King Herod because he is super realistic as a tyrant. He isn’t cliché and angry all the time. He is actually unnervingly calm and just orders people to do his bidding without giving them a reason why. He is really quite a realistic tyrant because there is seriously an amount of fright when he dies as well. As soon as the Jews get word that King Herod has died, they riot and so, we can see from this that there must be some serious fright that they had regarding him. They must have been scared of him to some degree.

Another thing I enjoyed about this film is the way that it began because of the fact it gives the audience serious context. It actually starts off before Jesus is born and so, we get all this history of what is happening in Judea and how the Romans are ruling the state before we get the main character. This allows us to see how the atmosphere doesn’t immediately change, but we get to see where it changes from and how it progresses through the film.

Honestly, I was supposed to watch ‘The Robe’ but I ended up watching this because of the cast listing being so great. In the first hour of the film, it is mainly to establish character and atmosphere progression. We get the character of Jesus growing up pretty fast and thus, missing out the Gospel of Thomas. However, seeing as it includes and excludes many other parts of the Gospels, I don’t think this is a big deal. I know that there is a certain weight working with such a long and intense book as source material and there are things that must be omitted. In fact, I think for the way that the film was made, getting it down to just about three and a half hours without missing out too much was something to be celebrated.

All in all, I feel like the start of the film in terms of atmosphere and context is definitely stronger than the second half of the film. However, I think the story getting underway doesn’t do so until about an hour in but this is due to mainly the story trying to let us know who all the characters are and their impact on the storyline and place as a whole. Definitely, in the beginning, the guy who plays King Herod is my favourite, but as it goes on, Mary is a pretty great character as well. Casting Mary, Mother of Christ, is always a difficult thing to do because she is one of the most well-known figures in human history and between this film and “The Gospel According to St. Matthew”, Mary has been cast pretty well, I think.

If you're going to have a look at stand out scenes then explore the Last Supper scene and the crucifixion because seriously, there really isn't better filmed scenes of these events in cinematic history.

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About the Creator

Annie Kapur

190K+ Reads on Vocal.

English Lecturer

🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)

🎓Film & Writing (M.A)

🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd)

📍Birmingham, UK

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