The Greatest Story Ever Told

Interminable and intolerably reverential rendering of the Life of Christ, originally made in Ultra Panavision 70mm, and soon cut for general release to 225 minutes (with subsequent versions even further shorn, the most ruthless being 127 minutes). Max von Sydow's remarkable performance is consistently undermined by dozens of ill-chosen cameos, such as John Wayne's 'Truly, this man was the Son of Gaaard' Centurion, and Shelley Winters yelling 'I'm cured!' as the Woman of No Name. Sydow resists the temptation to engage the Devil (Pleasence) in a game of chess.