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Posted: |
May 16, 2018 - 7:55 AM
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By: |
Grecchus
(Member)
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I love the casting of Von Sydow, but more in a hindsight way.
I mean...it was great watching Jesus exorcise Linda Blair, right? 
Or the Alsace-Lorraine gentleman from Three Days Of The Condor. It's a small miracle Von Sydow never became too strongly associated with the role. Come to think of it, he never really became strongly typed in any particular way. Robert Powell also played the role quite powerfully, although, his acting career never really took off into the stratosphere. I think Powell, having been on the small screen in a big way, may have inadvertently burned too brightly in the role and, as such, have been left hot-branded. The only other film I myself associate him with is the one in which he's dangling from the clock face of Big Ben. Then, he seemed to be more heavily into narration and most oddly, a side-kick to Jasper Carrott. Here they are, in a good attempt at eclipsing the Clouseau 'monkey' gag:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWAd6HCx7rM
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Robert Powell also played the title role in Ken Russell’s bio film of MAHLER, as well as a short bit near the beginning of Russell’s TOMMY, playing Tommy’s RAF fighter pilot father, who is shot down.
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Posted: |
May 20, 2018 - 6:59 PM
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By: |
Rozsaphile
(Member)
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This thread, despite its lurid title and placement on the nonmusical side of the board, has moved me to revive an old practice of listening to the score on a relaxed Sunday afternoon. Actually I played the first disc twice today. This is disc 2 of the Ryko set, covering the first half of the film. (I just noticed that Ryko's version mislabels disc 1 as the "original soundtrack." Perhaps that is the source of Thor's surprising error above.)
Quite apart from the film, I find this music extraordinarily satisfying. It has a kind of low-key grandeur, an almost oceanic feeling. Perhaps the vastness of the desert would be a more appropriate metaphor. There are only a few themes and, yes, there's a good deal of repetition. But Newman provides such wonderful variety and delicacy in the scoring that I'm never bored. It all leads up to one of the great finales in all film music. I find some earlier albums of Newman's religious-themed pictures are almost unlistenable. Though admirably produced, the BERNADETTE and KEYS OF THE KINGDOM albums are, to my mind, too full of the typical film music pitfalls: excessive repetition and musically unmotivated outbursts. GSET avoids this trap. It exists on an entirely different plane. I would dispute Jeff Bond, when he says in his good album notes that "the more lyrical cues featured the lush, romantic string writing for which Newman was justly famous." On the contrary, the string writing here is remarkably austere and contained. George Stevens made some terrible decisions on this film, but his conception did inspire Alfred Newman to unexpected creativity. For that I am most grateful.
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This thread, despite its lurid title and placement on the nonmusical side of the board, has moved me to revive an old practice of listening to the score on a relaxed Sunday afternoon. Actually I played the first disc twice today. This is disc 2 of the Ryko set, covering the first half of the film. (I just noticed that Ryko's version mislabels disc 1 as the "original soundtrack." Perhaps that is the source of Thor's surprising error above.)
Quite apart from the film, I find this music extraordinarily satisfying. It has a kind of low-key grandeur, an almost oceanic feeling. Perhaps the vastness of the desert would be a more appropriate metaphor. There are only a few themes and, yes, there's a good deal of repetition. But Newman provides such wonderful variety and delicacy in the scoring that I'm never bored. It all leads up to one of the great finales in all film music. I find some earlier albums of Newman's religious-themed pictures are almost unlistenable. Though admirably produced, the BERNADETTE and KEYS OF THE KINGDOM albums are, to my mind, too full of the typical film music pitfalls: excessive repetition and musically unmotivated outbursts. GSET avoids this trap. It exists on an entirely different plane. I would dispute Jeff Bond, when he says in his good album notes that "the more lyrical cues featured the lush, romantic string writing for which Newman was justly famous." On the contrary, the string writing here is remarkably austere and contained. George Stevens made some terrible decisions on this film, but his conception did inspire Alfred Newman to unexpected creativity. For that I am most grateful.
GSET is my favorite score by Alfred, and a top three score for me overall. I think the writing is the peak of all the...what I call spiritual side of his music world, the others being extraordinary too of course.
I owned both the Ryko and the Varese, but at first didn't feel the need to have the former. Being that I own more than one recording of Ben Hur, Vertigo, and so many others I feel more than a little foolish I got rid of the Ryko (and I'm not entirely sure just how much better the Varese sounds...I think they both sound really good).
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slow-moving and often lacking in dramatic urgency, especially toward the end, when U.A. pulled the plug. It is also, thoughtful, reverent, and a frequent delight to eye and ear.
I agree with this. The photography made it worth my sitting in the not-nearly-full screening at the LA County Museum for the full 3 hours.
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Quite apart from the film, I find this music extraordinarily satisfying. It has a kind of low-key grandeur, an almost oceanic feeling. Perhaps the vastness of the desert would be a more appropriate metaphor. There are only a few themes and, yes, there's a good deal of repetition. But Newman provides such wonderful variety and delicacy in the scoring that I'm never bored. It all leads up to one of the great finales in all film music. I find some earlier albums of Newman's religious-themed pictures are almost unlistenable. Though admirably produced, the BERNADETTE and KEYS OF THE KINGDOM albums are, to my mind, too full of the typical film music pitfalls: excessive repetition and musically unmotivated outbursts. GSET avoids this trap. It exists on an entirely different plane. I would dispute Jeff Bond, when he says in his good album notes that "the more lyrical cues featured the lush, romantic string writing for which Newman was justly famous." On the contrary, the string writing here is remarkably austere and contained. George Stevens made some terrible decisions on this film, but his conception did inspire Alfred Newman to unexpected creativity. For that I am most grateful.
Yes, I find the score wonderfully understated and restrained, particularly for such a big budget effort from Hollywood's Golden Age. It is a very introspective and somber score for such an epic movie.
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Viewed it last night on Prime. What a LONG night it was too! Far too many silent vistas of Jesus walking alone or with his followers...walking...walking...some climbing. An incredibly boring film. Not really a script, just all the characters not really speaking but uttering all the greatest hits of the bible. It comes off like the reading of fortune cookies, or sound bites. Blue-Eyed Scandinavian Jesus, (Max vod Sydow) is just expresionless and boring here. No one laughs in all the film, no one smiles. Everyone wears beige, except for Mary Magdaline who wears red. Was beige the only color available to these people? I never did see Angela Lansbury, or I missed her, and that's possible because Shelly Winters only has one line which she repeats twice, 'I'M CURED!' and then she's gone. I had to wait to the final minutes of the film,as I was really looking for Pat Boone to see what he played, (an angel). I hate to say it but boy was I glad when they killed-off Charlton Heston (as John the Baptist). He was really getting on my nerves, coming off like a relative who keeps shouting at your Thanksgiving meal to 'REPENT!'. Sal Mineo, Joseph Schildraut, and Gary Raymond all did commendable jobs, considering the horrible script and direction. 3 1/2 hours of this, and reportedly it was severely cut from an even longer length. And Handel's music, w.t.f. was it doing in here? Steven's made a major mistake by taking out Newmans wonderful music and replacing it with Handel. Like inserting a Christmas Carol!
The version on Prime had an intermission, but I took 2 extra. I'm glad I saw this with a 'pause' button. Seeing this in an uncomfortable theater seat for 3 1/2 hours would be against the rules of The Geneva Convention.
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Some might think it's the "STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE" of Biblical films.
BIG, VISUALLY GORGEOUS, GREAT SCORE, but in the end just lacks something that brings it all together.
Absolutely gorgeous vistas and lighting and compostions, it may be Cinematographer Loyal Griggs best achievement in lensing. But he lost that year to Freddy Young's 'Doctor Zhivago', which was also superb.
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Some might think it's the "STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE" of Biblical films.
BIG, VISUALLY GORGEOUS, GREAT SCORE, but in the end just lacks something that brings it all together.[/endquote
sorry, d.p.
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Some might think it's the "STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE" of Biblical films.
BIG, VISUALLY GORGEOUS, GREAT SCORE, but in the end just lacks something that brings it all together.
Absolutely gorgeous vistas and lighting and compostions, it may be Cinematographer Loyal Griggs best achievement in lensing. But he lost that year to Freddy Young's 'Doctor Zhivago', which was also superb.
Reportedly, George Stevens toured the Holy Land on a search for locations, but ultimately rejected them in favor of Utah and Death Valley because the real locations "just weren't spectacular enough." At least, that is how some of the derisive critics put it.
What Stevens actually told the 14 February 1965 New York Times was that the historical sites he viewed on his location trip to Jerusalem had been badly eroded by human occupation and warfare and would not represent the landscape as it had been during Jesus’s lifetime.
Bob, I'm glad you mention these points. I was also wondering WHY we'd see Jesus and other locals with The Pyramids in the distant background. Then in the next scene or two, there's this huge string of mountains filling the background covered in snow. With the mountains covered in snow in the background, you'd see Jesus and his followers in the foreground in what looks like flat desert. I was sort of thinking to myself, 'why is Jesus living in Reno, when I can see Tahoe just across the river?
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What Stevens actually told the 14 February 1965 New York Times was that the historical sites he viewed on his location trip to Jerusalem had been badly eroded by human occupation and warfare and would not represent the landscape as it had been during Jesus’s lifetime.
His explanation doesn't hold water. One can easily find stark locations in Israel/Palestine. Others have made Morocco or Italy do just as well. He was after scenic hyperbole, which made an odd match for the subdued dramaturgy (and music). When the money ran out and U.A. pulled the plug, the all-important last act was doomed.
Rozsaphile, this explains now why the actual crucifixion scene looks SO hokey, compared to the rest of the film's interiors and exteriors. The crucifixion looks like, (and I exaggerate here a bit), it was filmed inside some wharehouse with fake wet rocks and a wall right behind them. It's the only fake looking interior in the film, but that's because it's the only exterior scene filmed inside.
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