The Greatest Story Ever Told

This article is about the film. For other uses, see The Greatest Story Ever Told (disambiguation).

The Greatest Story Ever Told
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	George Stevens
Written by	George Stevens James Lee Barrett
Produced by	George Stevens Frank I. Davis George Stevens Jr. Antonio Vellani
Starring	Max von Sydow Charlton Heston Dorothy McGuire Jose Ferrer
Cinematography	Loyal Griggs William C. Mellor
Edited by	Harold F. Kress Argyle Nelson Jr. Frank O'Neil
Music by	Alfred Newman
Distributed by	United Artists
Release dates	February 15, 1965
Running time	260 min. (premiere version) 199 min. (edited version) 141 min. (re-issue version)
Language	English
Budget	$20,000,000

The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 U.S. motion picture epic produced and directed by George Stevens and distributed by United Artists. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection.

Pre-production

The Greatest Story Ever Told originated as a U.S. radio series in 1947, consisting of half-hour episodes inspired by the Gospels. The series was adapted into a 1949 novel by Fulton Oursler, a senior editor at Reader's Digest. Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century Fox, acquired the film rights to the Oursler novel short after its publication, but never brought it to pre-production.

In 1958, George Stevens was producing and directing The Diary of Anne Frank at 20th Century Fox when he became aware that the studio owned the rights to the Oursler property. Stevens created The Greatest Story Productions, which existed for the sole purpose of bringing the novel to the screen.

The screenplay for The Greatest Story Ever Told took two years to complete. Stevens originally collaborated with Ivan Moffet, then collaborated with James Lee Barrett. This marked the first and only time that Stevens received screenplay credit for a film he directed. Ray Bradbury and Reginald Rose were considered for input on the screenplay, but neither writer participated in the project. The poet Carl Sandburg was solicited to offer input, though it is not certain if any of his contributions were included in the final screenplay. Sandburg, however, did receive screen credit for “creative association.”

During the pre-production phase, the film’s financial excesses began to grow. Stevens commissioned French artist Andre Girard to prepare 352 oil paintings of Biblical scenes that would be used as storyboards. Stevens also traveled to the Vatican to have a private audience with Pope John XXIII, for consultation and advice on the project.

In August 1961, 20th Century Fox announced it would withdraw its support from the project, which already spent $2.3 million without any footage being shot. Stevens was given two years to find another studio that would finance the project, or 20th Century Fox would reclaim its rights to the property. Stevens successfully moved the film to United Artists.

Casting

Stevens cast Swedish actor Max von Sydow to play Jesus. Von Sydow had never appeared in an English-language film prior to this, and was best known for his performances in Ingmar Bergman’s dramatic films.

The Greatest Story Ever Told featured an uncommonly large ensemble of well-known actors, many of whom appeared in relatively brief guest appearances. Some critics would later complain that the large cast distracted from the solemnity of the subject matter, most 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 consisted of 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, Angela Lansbury as Claudia Procula, Martin Landau as Caiaphas, David McCallum as Judas Iscariot, Donald Pleasance as “The Dark Hermit” (a personification of Satan), Sidney Poitier as Simon of Cyrene, Roddy McDowall as Matthew, Joanna Dunham as Mary Magdalene and Joseph Schildkraut as Nicodemus.

Smaller and often fleeting roles (some lasting only a few seconds of screen time) were played by Michael Anderson Jr., Michael Ansara, Ina Balin, Carroll Baker, Robert Blake, Pat Boone, Victor Buono, John Considine, Richard Conte, Frank DeKova, Jamie Farr, David Hedison, Van Heflin, Russell Johnson, Robert Loggia, Sal Mineo, Nehemiah Persoff, Gary Raymond, David Sheiner, Marian Seldes, Harry Wilson, Shelley Winters and Ed Wynn.

Production

Stevens chose to shoot The Greatest Story Ever Told in the U.S. southwest, with locations in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. Among the locations, Pyramid Lake in Nevada was used to represent the Sea of Galilee, Lake Moab in Utah was used to film the Sermon on the Mount, and California’s Death Valley was the setting of Jesus’ 40 day journey into the wilderness.

Stevens explained his decision to shoot his film in the U.S., rather than in the Middle East or Europe, in a 1962 press conference. “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 the 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, both on location and within Hollywood studios, to accommodate Stevens’ vision for the film.

To fill the location-based scenes with extras, Stevens turned to local sources – R.O.T.C. cadets from an Arizona high school were recruited to play centurions and the Arizona Department of Welfare provided a number of disabled state aid recipients to play the afflicted that sought out Jesus’ healing.

Principal photography was originally scheduled to run three months, but it ran nine months due to numerous delays and setbacks. Joseph Schildkraut died before completing his performance as Nicodemus, requiring his incomplete scenes to be rewritten around his absence. Cinematographer William C. Mellor had a fatal heart attack during the 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 while the film was in production, which required several costume redesigns and carefully placed camera angles to obscure her physical condition.

Much of the production was shot during the winter of 1962-1963, when Arizona was hit by heavy snowstorms. 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 his work for 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 efforts to complete that public works project.

Due to the scope of the production, Stevens brought in two veteran filmmakers to help shoot sequences. Jean Negulesco filmed sequences that took place in the Jerusalem streets while David Lean shot the prologue featuring Herod the Great. Lean was also responsible for casting Claude Rains as Herod.

By the time shooting was completed in August 1963, Stevens had amassed six million feet of Ultra Panavision 70 film. The budget for The Greatest Story Ever Told ran up to $20 million, making it (for its time) the most expensive film ever shot in the U.S.

Release

The Greatest Story Ever Told had its premiere on February 15, 1965 at the Warner Cinerama Theatre in New York City. Critical reaction to the film was sharply divided. In its favor, Variety called the film “a big, powerful moving picture demonstrating vast cinematic resource.” The Hollywood Reporter stated: “George Stevens has created a novel, reverent and important film with his view of this crucial event in the history of mankind.”

However, among the negative reviews were Bosley Crowther in The New York Times, who 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 of New York Magazine wrote: "God is unlucky in The Greatest Story Ever Told. His only begotten son turns out to be a bore."

Stevens, however, retained pride in his production. He 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 for The Greatest Story Ever Told was four hours and 20 minutes. The film’s running time was subsequently revised three times: a three hour and 58 minutes edition, a three hour and 17 minute version for release in the United Kingdom, and then a two hour and 27 minute version for general U.S. release. Commercially, the film was not successful, and its inability to connect with audiences discouraged the production of additional Biblical epics for many years.

The Greatest Story Ever Told was nominated for five Academy Awards:

• Best Musical Score
• Best Cinematography (color)
• Art Direction (color) (Richard Day, William J. Creber, David S. Hall (posthumous nomination), Ray Moyer, Fred M. MacLean, Norman Rockett)
• Costume Design (color)
• Special Visual Effects.

For the 2001 DVD release of The Greatest Story Ever Told, a 199-minute version was presented along with a documentary called He Walks With Beauty, which detailed the film’s tumultuous production history.

See also

• Dramatic portrayals of Jesus

External links

• The Greatest Story Ever Told at IMDb