When you have the guts to call your movie The Greatest Story Ever Told, you’d better be able to back it up with the goods. Does this 1965 epic about the life of Jesus do so? Probably not, though I suppose many of the faithful will feel otherwise. Personally, I think the story about my prom night is much more interesting, but no one’s acquired the film rights to it yet.

In any case, Told provides a fairly thorough birth-to-death-to-rebirth telling of Christ’s life. Predictably, it starts with that night in the manger but it soon skips ahead to his adult years when he started to establish himself as a big deal. Why don’t we ever hear anything about his teenage period? What about Jesus’ prom? Maybe that story’d be even better than mine!

Unfortunately, Told omits any mention of Jesus’ prom, first kegger or any related frivolity and heads straight for the big events. Sermon on the mount? Check! Resurrection of Lazarus? Check! Last supper? Check! (As an aside, who paid the check at the Last Supper? No one looked too eager to pick up that tab. I’m guessing Judas.)

At times, Told feels like little more than this kind of de facto “greatest hits” version of Christ’s life. Granted, some of that is inevitable in any movie that attempts to thoroughly depict his existence; we’re so familiar with so much of his work that it all seems boiled down to the usual suspects. However, some expansion of the material can occur, as Scorsese ably demonstrated in 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ, a much better version of the tale.

Told also suffers from an overly talky tone. Many of the big events are simply mentioned and not depicted. Sure, we get to see many of the highlights, but it seemed as though much of the time we simply heard participants tell us what Jesus did, and the man himself (played by Max Von Sydow) is left to look mopey and spout the usual “do unto others” advice. It gets a little old, especially since the movie seems to offer little other than the same generic material.

Although it appears that director George Stevens was deeply interested in this film, Told felt oddly impersonal and detached. It’s a bloated piece that tries to fit in everything; as a result, it does justice to little. Instead, the movie skips from event to event with alacrity, and very little feeling or passion emerges.

I’ve heard many compliments about Von Sydow’s performance, but I don’t agree with them. He creates a noble presence but too little emotion emerges, and Jesus actually comes across as self-righteous and condescending. The scene in which he chastises Peter for judging someone who stole his coat comes across as pretty judgmental in itself. Von Sydow makes the character appear stiff and foreboding, and it’s frankly hard to understand why he was so attractive to so many.

Speaking of the cast, Told has received many criticisms over the years due to its absurd number of cameos. Every time you shake an olive branch, a star falls out and does a cameo. Look at the credits listed on the back of the disc and you’ll find a whopping 29 actors plus a mention of the Inbal Dance Theater of Israel!

Among many others, we find Sidney Poitier, Sal Mineo, Shelley Winters, and an infamous appearance from John Wayne. Stevens and others have defended these additions because in time, their jarring presence would diminish, and that’s partly true. There are a lot of performers in Told whose fame has faded in the last 45 plus years, so their bits have become less problematic.

Nonetheless, even for someone not yet born when Told appeared in 1965, I could easily detect a lot of them, and I found that their appearances quickly took me out of the story. I spent so much time going “hey, that’s (fill in the blank)” that it became hard to hard to concentrate on the story. If the cameos served any real purpose, they’d be easier to excuse, but there’s nothing done by any of the big names that couldn’t have been achieved by an unknown; the stars add little to the proceedings except a distraction.

Told also features some well-known actors in many of the larger supporting roles, with Charlton Heston’s John the Baptist being the most prominent of the bunch. Although Heston never has been much of an actor, he provides a surprisingly earnest fervor to the role. However, what was the deal with his costume and hair? He looked like a caveman! Perhaps this was historically correct, but it looked ridiculous; I felt as though he was preparing for his work in Planet of the Apes.

Not all of Told is negative, however, as the movie does offer some good points. For one, it’s quite well-staged for the most part, and the film features a lot of absolutely gorgeous cinematography. Stevens set up the shots nicely and made the most of the various mid-western vistas that filled in for the Middle East. The splendor of the imagery creates a solid setting for this most famous of stories.

Alfred Newman’s majestic and haunting score also provides some of Told’s highlights. The music changes to fit the various moods of the film, and it helped make the often-detached presentation seem more involving and emotional. It also appears to have directly inspired the score by Gabriel Yared for 1998’s City of Angels; some parts of the music are tremendously similar.

The music and their connection to God are about the only similarities between the small and personal Angels and the epic The Greatest Story Ever Told, however, and frankly, I prefer the former film. Told simply tries too hard to be all things to all people, and it lacks the intimacy and warmth that are needed to bring its subject to life. Although the movie presents some examples of technical brilliance, a scattered focus and an excessively star-studded cast make it no better than mediocre in the end.

The Greatest Story Ever Told appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.75:1 on this Blu-Ray Disc. An inconsistent presentation, this one varied from pretty good to blech!

Like everything else, sharpness was all over the place. Sometimes the very wide 2.75:1 image looked quite sharp and well-defined, but those occasions didn’t dominate. While they were reasonably frequent, significant parts of the movie tended to look soft and fuzzy. Some prominent edge haloes tended to reduce precision as well, but I saw no issues with jagged edges or shimmering.

Digital artifacts were sometimes a concern, and these gave the movie a rather gauzy look. Print flaws were a substantial concern throughout Told. Specks and grit cropped up a lot. Nicks were a less frequent intrusion, but they occurred from time to time. Periodically, I saw a vaguely flickery quality to the image, and some odd flashes appeared during some scenes. Parts of Told passed without significant defects, but much of the film presented some combination of the problems related here.

Colors seemed somewhat pale and muted much of the time. I rarely saw any kinds of vibrant, bold hues, even when the material warranted them. As a whole, the colors remained passable but not much better than that, as they appeared clear but bland. We did get a few shots that demonstrated more vivid tones; just don’t expect many of them.

Black levels seemed acceptably deep and dark, but shadow detail could be more problematic. Some low-light scene came across as heavy and thick, especially when “day for night” photography was used. Though the image occasionally looked very good, the problems knocked my grade down to a “C-“.

A more consistent presentation emerged from the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of The Greatest Story Ever Told. While the track also had some concerns, it seemed pretty strong for audio that accompanied a 46-year-old movie. The soundfield offered a fairly broad and expansive piece. In the front, a good mix of dialogue, effects and music emanated from the side channels. The audio seemed somewhat speaker-specific at times, but the directionality appeared accurate, and at times the sounds blended together adequately.

For the most part, the surrounds simply reinforced the forward spectrum; music was the primary focus of the rear speakers. However, the track actually offered some surround-specific information. On at least a couple of occasions, the rear channels provided aspects of the score that were theirs alone, and effects spread nicely to the surrounds as well. The general ambiance of the film seemed pretty solid, and I found the audio environment to appear generally good for an older film.

Audio quality was less consistent but it appeared acceptable for a film of this vintage. Speech tended to seem somewhat thin and could come across as a bit rough and edgy at times. However, the dialogue remained intelligible and distinct. Effects were similarly tinny and lackluster, but they showed no problems related to distortion and they portrayed the subjects with adequate accuracy.

Not surprisingly, the score lacked significant dynamic range; a little bass crept into the track on occasion, but highs dominated the music and the rest of the audio. Still, the score seemed fairly clear and smooth, so I found it to appear acceptably well-reproduced. At times I detected mild background noise and hiss, most of which appeared to be attached to the dialogue stems. Ultimately, The Greatest Story Ever Told provided a relatively positive auditory experience.

How did the picture and sound of this Blu-Ray compare with those of the original 2001 DVD? I thought both offered pretty similar audio. The DTS track might’ve been slightly more concise, but not by much; it still showed the restrictions of its age.

If you expect big improvements from the visuals, you’ll feel disappointed. I suspect the Blu-ray used the same transfer featured on the DVD 10 years ago. Sure, it got a boost from the increased resolution of Blu-ray, but it still had many of the same problems found on the old DVD. Indeed, the extra capabilities of Blu-ray made some of the transfer’s flaws more apparent. The Blu-ray got the nod over the DVD, but not by a lot; the movie really needs a new transfer for it to benefit much from the Blu-ray treatment.

The Blu-ray replicates the handful of extras from the DVD – sort of. Though both include a documentary called He Walks In Beauty, the Blu-ray comes with a severely edited version. On the DVD, it lasted more than 41 minutes, but here it just goes for 14 minutes, 57 seconds. Why does it lop off so much footage? I have no idea.

The program combines many stills and behind the scenes footage with a variety of interviews. We get comments from publicists Ann and John Del Valle, filmmaker Rouben Mamoulian, executive producer Frank Davis, assistant director John Veitch, associate producer Tony Vellani, and actors Charlton Heston, Shelley Winters, Michael Anderson, Jr. and Max Von Sydow.

As a whole, “Walks” offered a fairly interesting look at the creation of the film. We learn of the painstaking detail put into the production, and the various participants speak of the challenges they encountered along the way. I can’t say this was a frightfully deep piece, but it seemed entertaining enough.

Somewhat more effective is a second documentary called The Filmaker (the misspelling of “Filmmaker” is corrected on the disc’s menu, but since “Filmaker” is what it reads in the movie’s title, that’s what I’m going to call it!) This 27-minute and 38-second piece was created concurrently with Told and it concentrates almost wholly on shots from the production; these are accompanied by narration that discusses the processes.

Some of the material can also be found during “He Walks In Beauty”, but I thought “The Filmaker” provided a more captivating view of the production. We see longer and clearer shots of the production, and I felt I received a stronger impression of the production. “The Filmaker” lacks the retrospective perspective found in “Walks” but it makes up for this with immediacy. All in all, I enjoyed this look at the creative process and thought it was a fairly good documentary.

A few other minor extras round out the package. We get the film’s theatrical trailer plus a Deleted Scene (2:29). This clip shows an alternate version of the “Via Dolarossa” segment. It’s a very slightly alternate version, though; I could scarcely perceive any differences. Since Told originally existed as a longer cut - it lost a substantial amount of material after initial screenings - it would have been great to find that additional footage here; it’s a shame we only discover one mildly-different snippet.

Do we lose any materials from the DVD? Yup. In addition to the full-length “He Walks In Beauty”, the Blu-ray drops an informative booklet and some still frame elements. These are minor omissions but they remain losses nonetheless.

The Greatest Story Ever Told isn’t the Greatest Movie Ever Made, and it contains quite a few problems; at times it represents the worst excesses of the epic genre. However, it does provide some well-executed segments, so the project has its merits.

The Blu-ray offers relatively positive sound and a few fairly interesting supplements, but visuals are inconsistent and not a huge improvement over the 10-year-old DVD. Yeah, the Blu-ray’s more attractive than that release, but not by enough for me to recommend it as an upgrade. The movie needs a new transfer; since it appears to recycle that old DVD presentation, it’s a disappointment.