Amazon.com video review:
The life of Christ got an excessively long treatment (260
minutes, later trimmed to 195) in this 1965 film directed by George
Stevens (The Diary of
Anne Frank). Max von Sydow does beautiful work as Jesus--his
spontaneous mourning at discovering his friend Lazarus has died is not
like anything in other New Testament epics--and Stevens renders the
familiar tale with a handsome authenticity. But the project is nearly
undone by an unwise gimmick in which seemingly half of Hollywood's
living stars at the time make brief (often very brief) cameo
appearances, some of which are ridiculous. But there is a lot to like
in the film, and Von Sydow's sensitive nobility sticks in the
memory. --Tom Keogh
