The Greatest Story Ever Told [DVD] [1965]

George Stevens’ epic retelling of the Bible substitutes Utah for the Middle East and features a host of big names in cameo roles. Concentrating on the birth, life, execution and resurrection of Christ (Max von Sydow), Stevens was helped by fellow directors David Lean and Jean Negulesco in the filming of certain sequences.
The life of Christ got an excessively long treatment (260 minutes, later trimmed to 195) in The Greatest Story Ever Told, the 1965 film directed by George Stevens. Max von Sydow does beautiful work as Jesus–his spontaneous mourning at discovering his friend Lazarus has died is not like anything in other New Testament epics–and Stevens renders the familiar tale with a handsome authenticity. But the project is nearly undone by an unwise gimmick in which seemingly half of Hollywood’s living stars at the time make brief (often very brief) cameo appearances, some of which are ridiculous (who can forget the sight of John Wayne as a Roman Centurion solemnly intoning, “Truly he was the son of Gaaad”?). But there is a lot to like in the film, and Von Sydow’s sensitive nobility sticks in the memory. –Tom Keogh