Coordinates | 35°0′41.69″N135°46′5.47″N |
---|---|
name | The Greatest Story Ever Told |
director | George Stevens |
producer | George StevensFrank I. DavisGeorge Stevens Jr.Antonio Vellani |
writer | George StevensJames Lee Barrett |
starring | Max von SydowCharlton HestonDorothy McGuireJose FerrerTelly Savalas |
music | Alfred Newman |
cinematography | Loyal GriggsWilliam C. Mellor |
editing | Harold F. KressArgyle Nelson Jr.Frank O'Neil |
studio | George Stevens Productions |
distributor | United Artists |
released | (uk) |
runtime | 260 minutes |
language | English |
country | United States |
budget | $20 million }} |
In 1958, when George Stevens was producing and directing The Diary of Anne Frank at 20th Century Fox, he became aware that the studio owned the rights to the Oursler property. Stevens created a company, 'The Greatest Story Productions', to film the novel.
It took two years to write the screenplay. Stevens collaborated with Ivan Moffet and then with James Lee Barrett. It was the only time Stevens received screenplay credit for a film he directed. Ray Bradbury and Reginald Rose were considered but neither participated. The poet Carl Sandburg was solicited though it is not certain if any of his contributions were included. Sandburg, however, did receive screen credit for “creative association.”Financial excesses began to grow during pre-production. Stevens commissioned French artist André Girard to prepare 352 oil paintings of Biblical scenes to use as storyboards. Stevens also traveled to the Vatican to see Pope John XXIII for advice.
In August 1961, 20th Century Fox withdrew from the project, noting that $2.3 million had been spent without any footage being shot. Stevens was given two years to find another studio or 20th Century Fox would reclaim its rights. Stevens moved the film to United Artists.
The Greatest Story Ever Told featured an ensemble of well-known actors, many of them in brief, even cameo, appearances. Some critics would later complain that the large cast distracted from the solemnity, notably in the appearance of John Wayne as the Roman centurion who comments on the Crucifixion by stating: “Truly this man was the son of God.”
Beyond von Sydow, the film’s primary cast was Dorothy McGuire as the Virgin Mary, Charlton Heston as John the Baptist, Claude Rains as Herod the Great, Jose Ferrer as Herod Antipas, Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate, Martin Landau as Caiaphas, David McCallum as Judas Iscariot, Donald Pleasence as “The Dark Hermit” (a personification of Satan), Michael Anderson Jr. as James the Just, Roddy McDowall as Matthew, Joanna Dunham as Mary Magdalene, Joseph Schildkraut as Nicodemus, and Ed Wynn as "Old Aram".Smaller roles (some only a few seconds) were played by Michael Ansara, Ina Balin, Carroll Baker, Robert Blake, Pat Boone, Victor Buono, John Considine, Richard Conte, Jamie Farr, David Hedison, Van Heflin, Russell Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Robert Loggia, Sal Mineo, Nehemiah Persoff, Sidney Poitier, Gary Raymond, Marian Seldes, David Sheiner, Paul Stewart, John Wayne, Mark Lenard and Shelley Winters.
Stevens explained his decision to use the U.S. rather than in the Middle East or Europe in 1962. “I wanted to get an effect of grandeur as a background to Christ, and none of the Holy Land areas shape up with the excitement of the American southwest,” he said. “I know that Colorado is not the Jordan, nor is Southern Utah, Palestine. But our intention is to romanticize the area, and it can be done better here.”
Forty-seven sets were constructed, on location and in Hollywood studios, to accommodate Stevens’ vision.
To fill location scenes with extras, Stevens turned to local sources – R.O.T.C. cadets from an Arizona high school played Roman soldiers (after 550 Navajo Indians from a nearby reservation did not give a convincing performance) and Arizona Department of Welfare provided disabled state aid recipients to play the afflicted who sought Jesus’ healing.
Principal photography was scheduled to run three months but ran nine months or more due to numerous delays and setbacks (most of which were due to Stevens' insistence on shooting dozens of retakes in every scene). Joseph Schildkraut died before completing his performance as Nicodemus, requiring scenes to be rewritten around his absence. Cinematographer William C. Mellor had a fatal heart attack during production; Loyal Griggs, who won an Academy Award for his cinematography on Stevens’ 1953 Western classic Shane, was brought in to replace him. Joanna Dunham became pregnant, which required costume redesigns and carefully placed camera angles.
Much of the production was shot during the winter of 1962-1963, when Arizona had heavy snow. Actor David Sheiner, who played James the Elder, quipped in an interview about the snowdrifts: “I thought we were shooting Nanook of the North.” Stevens was also under pressure to hurry the John the Baptist sequence, which was shot at the Glen Canyon area – it was scheduled to become Lake Powell with the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam, and the production held up the project.
Stevens brought in two veteran filmmakers. Jean Negulesco filmed sequences in the Jerusalem streets while David Lean shot the prologue featuring Herod the Great. Lean cast Claude Rains as Herod.
By the time shooting was completed in August 1963, Stevens had amassed six million feet of Ultra Panavision 70 film (about 1829 km or 1136 miles, roughly the radius of the Moon). The budget ran to an astounding $20 million – 2010 equivalent: approximately $142 million – plus additional editing and promotion charges), making it the most expensive film shot in the U.S.
However, Bosley Crowther in The New York Times wrote: “The most distracting nonsense is the pop-up of familiar faces in so-called cameo roles, jarring the illusion.” Shana Alexander in Life Magazine stated: “The pace was so stupefying that I felt not uplifted – but sandbagged!” And John Simon – later notorious as the frequently scathing theater and film of New York Magazine – wrote in the National Review: "God is unlucky in The Greatest Story Ever Told. His only begotten son turns out to be a bore." Bruce Williamson, in Playboy Magazine, likewise called the movie "a big windy bore."
Brendan Gill wrote in The New Yorker: :If the subject matter weren't sacred in the original, we would be responding to the picture in the most charitable way possible by laughing at it from start to finish; this Christian mercy being denied us, we can only sit and sullenly marvel at the energy for which, for more than four hours, the note of serene vulgarity is triumphantly sustained.
Stevens told a New York Times interviewer: “I have tremendous satisfaction that the job has been done – to its completion – the way I wanted it done; the way I know it should have been done. It belongs to the audiences now…and I prefer to let them judge.”
The original running time was 4hr 20min. The time was revised three times, to 3h 58; to 3h 17 for in the United Kingdom, and then 2h 17 for general U.S. release. Commercially, the film was not successful (by 1983 it had grossed less than $8 million, perhaps 17% of the amount required to break even), and its inability to connect with audiences discouraged production of Biblical epics for years.
The Greatest Story Ever Told was nominated for five Academy Awards:
The Simpsons episode "The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed" parodies the title, although the plot bears little relation to the movie.
Category:1965 films Category:American drama films Category:Christian films Category:Films based on the Gospels Category:Films shot in 70mm Category:Portrayals of Jesus in film Category:Portrayals of the Virgin Mary in film Category:Religious epic films Category:United Artists films Category:English-language films Category:Films directed by George Stevens Category:Herod the Great in popular culture Category:Films shot in Utah Category:Films shot in Arizona Category:Epic films
de:Die größte Geschichte aller Zeiten el:Η Ωραιότερη Ιστορία του Κόσμου es:La historia más grande jamás contada fr:La Plus Grande Histoire jamais contée it:La più grande storia mai raccontata la:The Greatest Story Ever Told ja:偉大な生涯の物語 ru:Величайшая из когда-либо рассказанных историй sv:Mannen från NasaretThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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