The Greatest Story Ever Told Reviews

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. At least, you have to admit that the title was pretty badass. Well, in spite of its ambitious title, it turned out to be a huge flop when it was released after all. To be honest, I’m not a religious man, even the opposite, I’m a die-hard atheist but I always thought that religion was a fascinating subject. At some point, I did try to read the Bible but, to be honest, the Old Testament is such a drag and, after a few hundred pages, I have to admit that I just quit the damned thing. Anyway, I thought it was pretty neat to see a massive epic dealing with the most famous man that ever walked this earth. Still, I’m glad that the version I watched was ‘only’ 3 hours long. Indeed, I understand that they wanted to be faithful to the dogma and scripture but most of the dialogue was some riddles and the fact that I saw the movie on the BBC without subtitles probably didn’t help. At least, Max von Sydow, who was fairly unknown in the US at the time, was a perfect choice and I think he delivered here a solid performance. Concerning the ‘story’ itself, it’s so interesting and actually quite inspiring that the basis of his beliefs was basically love and forgiveness. However, as displayed in this movie, the main reason why so many people started to believe in him was not because his way of thinking was so amazing but mostly because he kept performing some magic tricks on a regular basis such as curing people, changing water into wine or walking on water (it’s interesting that the last two mentioned miracles were actually not displayed in this movie). As a result, with no offence, it does make the whole Christendom look fairly ridiculous but that’s of course a personal opinion. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, at least, if you are interested in the subject matter.