Although it doesn't exactly stick to the letter of the Good Book, THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD still depicts the life of Jesus from his birth to his eventual crucifixtion and resurrection with remarkable accuracy. Several scenes, including Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist, are among the most moving ever filmed. Stevens, who co-wrote the massive tome of a script with James Lee Barrett and Carl Sandburg, filmed on location amongst the vast panorama of the Colorado River basin along the Utah/Arizona border as a stand-in for the actual Holy Land, a move for which critics seemed unable to slam him enough, but which I think worked anyway. Three composers--Alfred Newman, Hugo Friedhofer, and Fred Steiner--are credited with the massive score, and the use of the "Hallelujah Chorus" from George Frideric Handel's great oratorio "Messiah" was a cagey choice on Stevens' part.
One aspect about GREATEST STORY that obviously continues to raise eyebrows and no shortage of ire to this very day is the fact that Stevens seemingly cast half of Hollywood's acting elite in what were primarily cameo roles. This had been done before in films like THE LONGEST DAY and HOW THE WEST WAS WON, to name just two, and would be done again and again in the coming decades. I think that Stevens' flaw was not that he cast so many Hollywood heavyweights, but that he placed a number of them into roles they probably weren't cut out for.
Max von Sydow had the ultimate acting challenge of portraying Jesus of Nazareth here; and given the weight and expectations of Western civilization being imposed on him, he came off extraordinarily well. Charlton Heston, no stranger to Biblical epics he, also gave a tremendous performance as John the Baptist, one that one would expect from an actor of his stature. Telly Savalas, years before "Kojak", gives a steely portrait of Pontius Pilate; and Donald Pleasance, many years before HALLOWEEN, makes a very convincing Dark Hermit (a.k.a. Satan).
In the other roles, Stevens' choice of casting ranges from interesting (Roddy McDowall, Sidney Poitier, Dorothy McGuire, David McCallum) to a bit questionable (Robert Blake, Sal Mineo, Pat Boone [though Boone's later conversion to Christian music makes his presence here far less jarring now than it did then]). But even now, Stevens' casting of John Wayne as a Roman centurion during the Crucifixtion scene is hard to swallow. It's hard to mistake Wayne's drawl with the one line he has ("Truly, this man was the son of God"), and just as hard not to crack a smile at the flat way he renders it.
Still, despite the occasional miscating, the extreme length, and the near-impossibility of getting it 100% correct for everyone, THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD is quite an achievement in cinematic history. Without a whole arsenal of special effects to work with, but with an imposing reputation all his own, Stevens made a definitive Hollywood epic that perhaps needs to be re-examined--hopefully in the original state that it was released.
