The Agony and the Ecstasy

If you follow Heston's acting career you will instantly fall in love. The facts aren't all right, but it is a great movie! I love it!!!

This film is what typifies a classic. The fact is that we cannot expect Hollywood of the 40's to be that of the 50's, anymore than we cannot expect the 60's Hollywood to be as intellectual as the Hollywood of today. Given the time period in which the movie was shot I like to think that it's a grand example of yesterdays story-telling abilities! Heston & Harrison did a brilliant job showing what it might have been like for a person of power to argue with the likes of someone with the talent & convivtion of Michelangelo. Ironically they were both dependant upon each other. The fact is that without Michelangelo the Pope would have had just a plain plaster ceiling. By the same token without the Pope, Michelangelo would almost have certainly had to abandon his passions in order to survive. This story could have been told from 20 different perspectives! Each yielding criticisms & praise. Shoes come in different sizes for a reason. We would do well to accept the same in the movie business! If you truly love movies, you'll enjoy this perspective immensly. See it yourself, it's the wise choice.

True to its 60s lineage, this effort ignores the personal eccentricities that defined Michaelangelo's life and glosses over Florentine politics, focusing instead on the ceiling itself. The process of developing the final design, almost syncretic, comes alive in typical Heston fashion - that is to say there's a bit of divine intervention involved. If you enjoyed Ben-Hur and other Heston efforts in this genre, odds are you'll enjoy this film.