The Agony and the Ecstasy
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Movie Reviews of The Agony and the Ecstasy
Movie Review: Surprisingly good restoration of a Todd-AO clunker
Summary: 4 Stars
I'll leave the artistic merits of this movie for others to argue over. Suffice it to say that it moves at a leisurely pace, and that the two main actors (Heston and Harrison) take turns mugging, gnashing their teeth and chewing the gorgeous scenery. However, since Amazon's product listing doesn't list the technical specs, here they are:
This DVD release of THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY was made from the original 65mm Todd-AO negative, digitally restored. Aspect ratio is correct at 2.20:1, anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs. The colors are deeply saturated, and the picture looks quite sharp, with little grain on my high-end Sony HDTV CRT.
The available soundtracks (all Dolby Digital) are 1.0 mono English, 2.0 stereo English, 1.0 mono French and 1.0 mono Spanish. (Contrary to what another reviewer here says, there is NO 5.1 surround soundtrack -- a sorry deficiency for a film originally released in 6-track.) IMPORTANT: On my copy of the disc, the DEFAULT soundtrack is the 1.0 mono English. There is no separate menu for selecting the audio you want, so you must press the AUDIO button on your DVD remote ONCE to get the 2.0 stereo English soundtrack. You'd think Fox would want people to hear the stereo track by default!
The good news is that the 2.0 stereo track is very clean, with the original 5-channel screen spread and directional dialogue faithfully preserved. It's not as full and crisp as a modern soundtrack, but remember that this was recorded forty years ago. If you listen with headphones, it's easy to hear how much of the dialog was re-recorded on a dubbing stage. In a few intimate scenes, though, the whirring of the camera is faintly audible.
Alex North's score has some nifty stereo effects, even if the title theme is disturbingly reminiscent of Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra.
The disc includes the complete roadshow presentation: modern-day introduction (with beautiful aerial photography and closeups of Michelangelo masterpieces), intermission music, entr'acte music and exit music. There is also a demonstration of the 65mm restoration process, and some trailers of other Fox epics from the 50s and 60s, including THE ROBE and THE BIBLE. (None of these extras are mentioned anywhere on the packaging.)
If you're hoping to savor the grandeur of the 60s widescreen epics, this disc will not disappoint.
Movie Review: More Agony Than Ecstacy in this Lengthy Clash of Wills
Summary: 4 Stars
After a decade of declining profits in Hollywood where Biblical epics were concerned, Twentieth Century Fox's "The Agony and The Ecstasy" (1966) managed to recapture much of the glory, if not the box office, of that sort of 50s storytelling without getting too religous. Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison star as two of the Renaissance's most explosive and emotional titans; the great sculptor/painter, Michelangelo and Pope Julius II. Julius is a tyrannical, often crass, dictator who's true aspirations are for the ultimate glory of Rome and preservation of the Catholic church. To this end he will stop at nothing to inspire his people and ignite controversy amongst the clergy. Michelangelo's career as sculptor par excellence is sidetracked when Julius orders him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. "But I'm not a painter," Michelangelo explains. All evidence to the contrary. The battle of wills that ensues is heavy on melodrama but rather flat on inspiration. As Michelangelo, Heston is solid, stoic and virtuous - a sort of Moses with a paint brush. What he ultimately lacks is any real conviction as one of the artsy set. Also, knowning as we do today that Michelangelo was not interested in women romantically, per say, Heston's faux romance with Contessina de Medici (Diane Cilento) is grossly misleading from a historical perpsective. What is compelling about this sometimes stagy, rather long-winded film is the way in which Heston and Harrison's unique acting styles spar off of one another. Director, Carol Reed, whose greatest contribution to cinema will forever be "The Third Man", on this occasion, fills the vast expanse of Panavision with lush photographic set pieces that strangely are cold and disengaging. Overall the film does fall short of expectations, but it remains immaculate craftsmanship from an era in film-making in which such attention to every detail was simply par for the course.
Fox's DVD faithfully returns the film to its original visual vibrance. The color by DeLuxe is rich and very nicely balanced. For decades this film's magenta layer had been so severely faded that for most of its running time the flesh tones and backgrounds looked as though they were suffering from severe sunburn. These oversights, as well as shortcomings in film grain and age related artifacts, have all been corrected. What is still obtusive about the picture quality is its excessive edge enhancement. On widescreen televisions it is barely noticeable. On regular picture tubes, horizontal and vertical lines on much of the Italian architecture shimmer uncontrollably. Quite distracting. The audio is 5.1 surround, remastered from the original six track recording. Yet the audio falls short of expectations. It's slightly muffled and not very aggressive even when the swell of music grows from the side and rear channels. Extras include theatrical trailers for several Fox releases as well as this one. Overall, then, this presentation of "The Agony And The Ecstacy" is still something of a compromise for the home theater audience, as much of a compromise as the film is itself with regards to taking history directly and seriously.
Movie Review: Flawed and bit overweight but otherwise not a bad film
Summary: 4 Stars
I saw this film on VHS in a course about artistic philosophies last semester. I was all set to dismiss it as yet another bloated pictorial Hollywood "epic" starring the granitic Charlton Heston. As it turns out, though...I kinda like this movie. Sure, it is still a bit overweight for its relatively intimate exploration of the artistic process (even though, of course, Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco is one of the towering works of art in history, so I suppose the treatment is understandable). All the same, I was drawn to its vivid depiction of Michaelangelo's agonies and ecstasies in the creation of his big masterpiece. Heston may not have ever been a truly great actor---he was almost always rather stolid in the movies he was in---but he acquits himself fairly well here as Michaelangelo, and Rex Harrison gives a finely nuanced performance as Pope Julius II, who gave Michaelangelo the commission in the first place. It is a tribute to director Carol Reed and his crew that THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY can rise above its extra weight and its cliched (and, by all accounts, nonexistent) central romance between Michaelangelo and the Contessina de Medici (Diane Cilento) to deliver a movie that may not bring great insights into the sometimes-painful artistic process, but still manages to be fascinating and compelling about its central subject matter regardless. Of course it's often always beautiful to look at. That's pretty much a given for these kinds of big Hollywood movies. But THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY turns out to be something more. Bring this movie to DVD ASAP!Movie Review: "I planned a ceiling, he planned a miracle"
Summary: 5 Stars
There is no other film on the subject of art that is better than this one in my opinion. Irving Stone's best-seller was a great read, but in this case the film is better than the book. It centers on the creation of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and the contentious but invigorating relationship between Michelangelo and Pope Julius II; one drove the other "to complete his work", and even their verbal battles were productive. It is about the courage of putting one's vision into reality, the hard work, and the faith in one's self and in God.The script by Irving Stone and Philip Dunne is fabulous; the words flow like sweet wine and there is not a single unnecessary scene, or rarely one that is not meaningful. The direction by Carol Reed is meticulous, the cinematography by Leon Shamroy a marvel, and the score by Alex North adds much to the film. The costuming and sets are lavish for the papal quarters and the Medici household, and give one a sense of 16th century Rome, and the depictions of the fresco painting technique is interesting and educational.
Charlton Heston, gaunt and bearded, is brilliant as Michelangelo, as is Rex Harrison as the warrior pope. The interactions of these two actors is riveting, and the dialogue between them worth hearing repeatedly. Others of note in the cast include Diane Cilento as the Contessina de Medici, Harry Andrews as Bramante, and Tomas Milian as Raphael (the most famous papal portrait I know of is by Raphael, of Pope Julian II).
Though Stone's book and script take much artistic license, there is also a good deal of accuracy. This period of 16th century Italy was one of the most fascinating in all world history, and Pope Julius II was not only one of its greatest art patrons, but also an extraordinary man.
This is a film that moves me to tears with its beauty, and brightens my mind with its words. If you are interested in the artistic process, don't miss this magnificent film.
The film includes a Prologue, a mini-documentary of modern-day Rome and Florence, which traces Michelangelo's life, from his birth in Tuscany in 1475, showing his many wondrous works, including an early sculpture he did at the age of 15, through his death in 1564. Total running time is 139 minutes.
Movie Review: Art vs Commerce
Summary: 4 Stars
What I found fascinating was the PROLOGUE: "The Man Who Didn't Want to Paint." This would normally be an "extra" on any DVD (unfortunately, so far, no DVD of the feature has been released). It is here on the VHS tape, as part of the feature. It runs about 20 minutes, but one should not fast-forward through it. It is fascinating, and adds tremendoubly to the enjoyment of the main feature. In fact, movie channels sometimes run this as a featurette without running the full film. And that's just fine with me.Also, one should see this film in the "Letterbox" format to get the true scope of what director Reed was trying to present. "Full Frame" or "pan and scan" versions add electronic edits where none existed in the original and can chop up a film unnecessarily.
True, this feature reads like a "Reader's Digest" version of the life of Michaelangelo; a sort of "highlights" of the man's life. It does heavily concentrate on the on-again, off-again relationship with Pope Julius II, and sllows Harrison do drop in his deliciously dead-pan one-liners.
Should a new version of Michaelangelo's life be filmed (perhaps as a miniseries)? Most definately. Should an actor who more resembled the artist be cast? Yes. But, remember that AGONY was filmed in the 1960s and star power was the order of the day. Heston was hot; so was Harrison (My Fair Lady). Mr. Heston, however, has left, in print, his impressions (not all of them flattering) of both Harrison and Mr. Reed in his DIARIES. Sometimes, they make more interesting entertainment than the movie, itself.