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The Greatest Story Ever Told The Greatest Story Ever Told is a
1965 film about the life of
Jesus , directed by
George Stevens (some scenes by
Jean Negulesco and
David Lean ).
Max von Sydow stars as Christ, and it features a number of other top
Hollywood stars, such as
Charlton Heston as
John the Baptist , and
Telly Savalas as
Pontius Pilate .
The music was composed and conducted by
Alfred Newman (who wrote the music for
How the West was Won , as well as the
20th Century Fox theme), and supplemented (at the request of the director) with the
Hallelujah chorus (adapted and conducted by Newman associate
Ken Darby ).
The film was nominated for five
Academy Awards :
best musical score ,
best cinematography (color) ,
Art Direction (color) ,
Costume Design (color) , and
special visual effects (
Joseph McMillan Johnson ).
Judas commits suicide by throwing himself into the altar fire, when, in the Gospel accounts, he hanged himself.
The large and notable cast also includes
Claude Rains ,
Jose Ferrer ,
Donald Pleasence ,
Martin Landau ,
Michael Tolan ,
Ed Wynn ,
Harold Stone ,
Michael Ansara ,
Shelley Winters ,
Sidney Poitier ,
Van Heflin ,
Sal Mineo ,
Joseph Schildkraut ,
Frank Silvera ,
Cyril Delevanti ,
Mark Lenard ,
Abraham Sofaer ,
Nehemiah Persoff ,
John Wayne ,
Carroll Baker ,
Ina Balin ,
Rodolfo Acosta ,
Frank DeKova ,
Marian Seldes ,
Joseph Sirola ,
Angela Lansbury ,
John Abbott ,
Russell Johnson ,
Pat Boone and
Richard Conte .
The movie was one of only nine feature films to be shot entirely in
Ultra Panavision 70 .
*An episode of the popular
ABC series
Dinosaurs referenced the movie title ("The Greatest Story Ever Sold") for a story parodying
Christianity in which the cast follows a new religion, "Potato-ism."
*
Dramatic portrayals of Jesus *
