The Oscar nominations received by this film in 1965 are telling. All five nominations are about costume, coloration and cinematography. These are indeed stunning. But the rest of the film is mediocre at best. Max von Sydow is not at all a convincing Christ (his hairstyle is a disaster to begin with). The difference with Robert Powell in "Jesus of Nazareth" is enormous. Only in the Lazarus resurrection scene did I feel some of the heart, the devotion and the passion that must have marked out Jesus Christ. To that I can maybe add the scene where Jesus is clearing the temple at Passover. For the rest I could not get beyond the odd hairstyle. Von Sydow is very aristocratic and regal -was Christ an aristocratic character?- but not very divine. The rest of the cast does not work well either, to say the least. On top of that, many a scene feels unnatural and rigid. The film feels anecdotal and lacks true depth. Mr Stevens seemed to have been more preoccupied with the visuals than with screenplay, editing, character depth, casting and directing. At times the film looks like a Renaissance painting or a painting from the Romantic era. That delivers stunning visual joy but it comes at such a huge cost. Ultimately the film does not convince, especially compared to Zefirelli's Jesus of Nazareth which gets about everything right. If you want to enjoy the beautiful cinematography, the colors, the scenery, do watch this film but I suggest you watch Zefirelli's depiction of Christ to get a deeper feeling for the Master, and Gibson's film if you want to grue at all the gore Christ must have gone through at the end of his mission.
Review of The Greatest Story Ever Told
