6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 3.1 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
The life of Jesus Christ.
Starring: Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, Robert Loggia, Claude Rains, José FerrerHistory | 100% |
Epic | 35% |
Biography | 35% |
Period | 1% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.75:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.75:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
German: DTS 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English SDH, French, German
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
It took George Stevens well over five years to bring his life of Jesus to the screen. Unfortunately, those five years were not kind to Biblical spectacles generally, and the sea change in the American temperament especially from 1960 to 1965 may have doomed this project before it ever unspooled before largely uncaring audiences. The 1950’s had seen one mammoth religiously themed epic after another conquer the box office, but that may have initially been due to such then revolutionary techniques like widescreen visuals and multichannel soundtracks. That luster of innovation had worn off to a considerable degree by the time 1961’s King of Kings appeared, and other early 60’s epics like Sodom and Gomorrah seemed increasingly irrelevant in a world roiled by political assassinations, Far East wars and a general social malaise that seemed positively resistant to the usual balms religion, or even religious movies, offered. And so The Greatest Story Ever Told was in more ways than one a dinosaur lumbering through an alien landscape, a creature out of time (in both senses of that phrase), and a film which may simply have arrived too late on the scene to ever have had a chance with either critics or audiences. Sometimes hindsight is kind to such anomalies, and the supposedly clearer vision of some decades on from the premiere can help to smooth out the rough edges that contemporary viewers reacted to when the film first opened. In the case of The Greatest Story Ever Told, however, those rough edges are still completely apparent and the film unfortunately seems no better now than it has from virtually day one. This is no doubt one of the most visually sumptuous films depicting Christ’s life ever captured on celluloid, but it is a vision devoid of any emotional import and it is further hobbled by being absolutely lethargic in pace (it seems almost incredible the original cut of the film ran an hour longer than its current 3 hours and 19-odd minutes). Stevens wanted to bring great works of art which had depicted various aspects of Jesus’ life alive in this film, and that painterly approach means there’s often some glorious sights to behold, but too often it’s exactly like looking at a painting: we simply are viewing lifeless tableaux, artful assemblages of people and places that don’t have an ounce of life in them.
It's never a good sign when a film comes with the infamous "best available elements" disclaimer, and unfortunately that's very much the case with The Greatest Story Ever Told on Blu-ray. An Ultra Panavision 70mm film would seem to be the perfect source material for a stunning high definition transfer, and while this AVC encoded 1080p presentation in 2.75:1 is most certainly a decided step up from the previous SD-DVD, it is still littered with defects and artifacts that keep it from being anywhere near reference quality. On the plus side, colors are often gorgeously saturated and usually very robust, and color timing appears accurate. Fine detail is good to very good in close-ups but diminishes to murkiness in midrange and far range shots, and in fact a lot of this film looks quite soft. While contrast is generally good, some of the darker scenes (and there are a lot of them in this film) suffer from moderate crush with an attendant lack of differentiation between foreground and background objects. The worst thing about this transfer, aside from damage to the master itself, is abundant flicker, registration differences and a lot of artifacting, including low grade noise, shimmer, aliasing and moiré. Grain is largely intact but in some of the opticals becomes dangerously close to noise levels (a good example is in the Crucifixion scene, where the cloudy background comes perilously close to completely devolving). At least we have an anamorphically enhanced transfer in the correct aspect ratio, so the opening and closing titles are at last at least relatively legible.
Much better is the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, especially with regard to one of Alfred Newman's crowning achievements as a film composer. This was one of Newman's favorite scores, and it's easy to see (hear?) why. This is haunting, lushly orchestrated music (Newman had a great team assisting him, including his usual co-hort Ken Darby, as well as Hugo Friedhofer, Fred Steiner, Leo Shuken and Jack Hayes), and it sounds magnificent with the brilliant fidelity of this lossless track. Dialogue for the most part sounds just fine, though it's quite evident (even more so than on the DVD) how much of this film was post-dubbed, with really noticeable differences in hall ambience for the looped work. There's consistent but never really very overwhelming immersion on the 5.1 track. This was obviously meant to be a reverential piece, and as such, aside from the score and some crowd scenes, there simply isn't that much opportunity to exploit a surround mix. There are one or two commanding bursts of LFE, notably the huge thunderclap that caps Jesus' ascent into Heaven in the crucifixion scene.
The original theatrical trailer included on this Blu-ray has an unintentionally (I hope anyway) hilarious pull quote from the old Look Magazine which states "It may run for 40 years!" While I'm sure the reviewer probably meant the film would play forever, the quote can also be taken to mean that the film seems like it lasts that long, because surely it does. This is simply too reverential a treatment to ever muster anything approaching any dramatic immediacy, and that distance is even furthered by an endless array of cameos by a glut of Hollywood stars. Von Sydow is nothing if not interesting in his completely interior take on the character of Jesus, and Stevens offers a lot of painterly visions of Biblical times, places and personages. But it's an emotionally barren enterprise which fails mightily to ignite the religious fervor it so ardently attempts to attain.
1953
1961
2015
1964
Fiftieth Anniversary
1959
Masterpiece
2015
1966
Special Edition
1968
1966
2017
2008
2018
2010
2013
2011
2018
2004
40th Anniversary Edition
1977
2014
2006