The Greatest Story Ever Told

[poliphilo]

The Greatest Story is not the greatest story

It begins and ends in fairytale and has a central section where the hero just bats about from place to place causing awe.

You've seen one healing miracle, you've seen 'em all.

Relationships are sketchy and there's no love interest.

The central figure is almost impossible to identify with.

The role of Jesus kills careers. Max von Sydow went from being Bergman's leading man (unforgettable as the knight in the Seventh Seal) to sitting beside his Hollywood pool waiting for the phone to ring. Robert Powell went from nowhere very much to playing a curly haired comic policeman opposite Jasper Carrott.

The only Jesus movie I've ever watched from beginning to end was Jesus Christ Superstar. It was crap.

Comments

[sovay]

How do you feel about The Last Temptation of Christ? Which I have never seen, but I like Kazantzakis almost on principle; and I notice that Willem Dafoe is still working.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I didn't see that. I didn't want to see it. But I wrote an essay in its defence when it first came out which appeared- bizarrely enough- in a newspaper called The Scotsman.