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The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)

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16 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
A proof of faith and a battle of wills..., 3 January 2000

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Charlton Heston is very good as Michelangelo Buonarotti, the Florentine painter, sculptor, architect and poet, one of the greatest and most versatile artists of the Renaissance who exerted an extraordinary influence on Western art...

The story - based on the Irving Stone best-seller - tells of that period during Michelangelo's life when he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...

Rex Harrison portrays the sprightly Pope Julius II, the greatest art patron of the papal line and one of the most powerful rulers of his age, who led military efforts to prevent French domination of Italy and as a politician and patron of the arts, he shove for a synthesis of church and state, of spirit and culture, with a grandeur unequaled by succeeding popes... His name is closely linked with those of great artists such Bramante, Raphael and Michelangelo... With his wealth of visionary ideas, he contributed to their creativity... Although he had little of the priest in him, he was concerned - toward the end - only with the church's grandeur... He wished for greatness for the papacy rather than for the pope, and for peace in Italy...

The film shows the extraordinary violent temper of the Pope, his lost of his self-control and his rude behavior towards the Florentine when he shouts: 'He will paint it or he will hang!'

But, in one scene, he explains to Michelangelo his reasons: 'If I had not become a conqueror, there would be no church, no pontiff, no hope for peace for mankind and, I might add, no patrons for sculpture, painting, and architecture.'

"The Agony and the Ecstasy" is a proof of faith and a battle of wills... The pope continually asks Michelangelo: 'When you will make an end of it?' and the answer of Buonarotti is invariably the same: 'When I'm finished!'

But despite these recurrent strains imposed on their relations by the two overly similar personalities, their relationship is so close that the Pope becomes, in fact, Michelangelo's intellectual collaborator... The paintings are in form and conception, a product of the artistic symbiosis of two towering figures of the 16th Century-Italy...

Two breathtaking moments of the motion picture are to be mention: The 'Inspiration' scene where the clouds were forming the focal points of Michelangelo's Frescos; and the great sequence of meditation between the Pope and Buonarotti in front of the creation panel...

The supporting cast include: Harry Andrews playing the Italian architect of the Renaissance Bramante; Tomas Milian as Raphael, the master of the Italian High Renaissance style; and Diane Cilento as Contessina Medici, the woman who drives Michelangelo to search his heart for important paths of activity...

The film - an ecstasy for those who love and appreciate great art and powerful work - is a huge spectacle, a rich dramatization, moving and fascinating...

The picture ends by another commission of the Pope to Michelangelo, another huge work, full of swirling figures and terrible images of despair, the powerful fresco: 'The Last Judgment', the ceiling behind the high altar... Michelangelo's continuous argument is heard: 'I still say painting is not my trade!' and, obviously, the Pope response: 'To work, my son!'

And what a huge work Michelangelo left... A breve documentary demonstrates before the beginning of the motion picture: The Pieta of St. Peter's; The Colossal David; and The Moses.

Pope John Paul II led a ceremony December ll, 1999 celebrating the completion of the two-decade restoration of the Sistine Chapel... Speaking haltingly, he said: 'This place dear to the world's faithful not only for the masterpieces it contains but also because of the role it plays in the life of the Church.'

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18 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Purportedly a biography of Michelangelo, it turned out to be that of Pope Julius II, 28 January 2005

Author: Deusvolt

The movie is better than the book in the sense that it is kinder to Michelangelo. Remember that in the book there were hints of the artist's latent homosexuality to explain his lack of interest in women. In the movie, this is attributed to his dedication to his artistry. His greatest rival in the arts, Leonardo da Vinci also does not figure in the movie, but to no great loss as his presence would have needlessly complicated the plot.

The movie portrays Pope Julius II, "the warrior Pope" in good light. He took up the sword to finally bring an end to French interference in the papacy (cf. the "Babylonian Captivity" of the papacy in Avignon). And of course, despite the notorious division of Italy into city states, he struggled to free that country from foreign domination while keeping the papal states intact.

Rome is correctly shown as a city in decay during the Middle Ages. It took Julius II to finally build a Basilica worthy to be the focus of world Christianity. His patronage of the arts and of grand architecture enabled Rome to justly keep the title "The Eternal City."

In the end, Julius II may be judged as a competent monarch and in his way, a faithful priest who initiated many reforms to curb corruption among the clergy.

Heston and Harrison, both great actors, brought out the best in one another as they gamely sparred in this immortal film - one as the driven and haunted artist, the other as the saturnine Pope fighting to preserve the temporal power of the papacy against all odds.

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11 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Creating A Wonder, 17 May 2006

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

The Agony and the Ecstasy is the story of the creation of the Sistine Chapel Roof painting, the time and money it took while Pope Julius II was busy establishing his Papacy as a political force.

Back in those days the Pope was far more than the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He ruled a considerable piece of real estate in the center of the Italian peninsula that were called the Papal States. They varied in geographic size depending on how relatively strong the Pope or his enemies were at a given time. The Papal States were the last independent entity to join a united Italy in 1870.

The Borgias had been nibbling away at the Papal States for years and their triumph became complete when one of their's became Pope Alexander VI in 1491. When Giuliano Della Rovere became Julius II in 1503 succeeding Alexander VI he had it in mind to reclaim the states from the Borgias and their backer the French monarchy. Those are the folks you see Rex Harrison fighting at the beginning of the film.

In fact Harrison's identity as the warrior Pope is made clear right at the beginning of the film when after we see this figure on a white horse killing some foes in battle, he takes off his helmet and some attendees put his papal vestments right over his armor.

But Julius II wanted to be known as a patron of the arts as well as the warrior Pope. His uncle Pope Sixtus VI had built the Sistine Chapel which is today the personal chapel of the papal residence. According to Wikipedia its dimensions are exactly what the Bible lays down as the dimensions King Solomon built his temple. But who knows what Solomon had decorating his roof.

It's a big bare spot and who to fill it with something good. Julius II decided on Michelangelo Buonarrati who's got quite a resume of creativity to recommend him even though it's mostly sculpture.

The film is the story of the creative differences between Michelangelo and Julius. Michelangelo is knowing he's created something for the ages, but he won't see the big picture of the here and now of Renaissance European politics which Julius II has to deal with.

Sir Carol Reed directed The Agony and the Ecstasy and does a marvelous job of creating the look and atmosphere of the Renaissance in Italy. Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison playing Michelangelo and the Pope give outstanding performances.

If the film has a weakness is that it really is a two man show with no other characters developed in any way. The rest of the mostly Italian cast just serve as a crowd.

If you're either a patron of the arts or a Catholic who would like to know how the Sistine Chapel acquired its legendary roof than by all means see The Agony and the Ecstasy.

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Battle of Wills Between Michelangelo and Pope Julius--Fascinating, 1 July 2005

Author: silverscreen888

This is a fascinating, colorful and very-well made film that looks like an epic and is in fact an intelligent drama about sculptor-painter- architect-poet Michelangelo Buonarrotti. Here portrayed by the much taller Charlton Heston, and admirably, he is presented as a man who want only to create beauty, a man without "people skills" or interest in much of anything else--not women, nor war not the dynastic dreams of men--only the Renaissance idea of utilizing one's abilities. He even pays attention to religion only because the world interests him, and he equates his heaven with what men can achieve--and Earth with the same sort of place he expects to find as an afterlife. Carol Reed directed and produced this fascinating look at the Renaissance, with its warrior priests, its worldly dreamers and its subtle change toward a politics of gunpowder, secular pursuits and worldly morality. Philp Dunne, author of "David and Bathsheba" wrote this thoughtful spectacle film as well. In the cast besides Heston are Rex Harrison as Pope Julius, close-fisted patron, admirer and nemesis, Harry Andrews as his rival Bramante, Diane Cilento as the woman who would like to love him, Alberto Lupo, Adolfo Celli, Fausto Tozzi and a narration by Marvin Miller. The opportunity to see the real landscapes in which Michelangelo was born, worked and became inspired is a wonderful one for the viewer; the entire Carrara marble quarry section is stunningly beautiful. The film has battle scenes able done by Robert D. Webb, Leon Shamroy's cinematography, a prelude by Jerrald Goldsmith and sterling music by Alex North, production design by John Cuir and Jack Martin Smith and memorable costumes by Vittorio Nino Novarese. The basic thrust of the storyline is twofold; against the wars conducted by vigorous and all-too-worldly Pope Julius, the war to win secular hegemony for his Papal rule, the counter-current is Michelangelo's desire to further his career in Rome by obtaining a commission from the Pope. He does, an assignment to refurbish the Sistine Chapel for him. But after an attempt at some saints, he leaves Rome, and flees to his beloved Carrara. There, surrounded by mountains, he has a vision at sunset and suddenly knows what he must do. Obtaining Julius's reluctant permission, he sets to work covering that modest ceiling with tremendous figures, a bearded Jehovah, a recumbent Adam touched to life by a divine spark, the world's most famous fresco painted from a homemade scaffolding; in spite of illness, missed meals, filth, deprivation, cold, an injury that nearly costs him his eye and more, including the Pope's indifference to his intense passion for his art, Michelangelo endures. "When will you make an end?" Julius cries. "When I have done," the artist insists. And at the end, Julius, beaten on the field of battle, admits he may also have been wrong about the ceiling...that his fostering of Michelangelo's work may be the most important thing he has ever done. Of course the puritans of the era object to the nakedness the artist has depicted, but Michelangelo says he painted people as God made them. The movie, based on the biography "The Agony and the Ecstacy" by Irving Stone here concentrates on a seminal moment in the great artist's career. He may be a sculptor as he insists; but after seeing this moving and fascinating film, no one can doubt that he is also a stubborn and single-minded man--and a painter of genius. Most underrated; often fascinating fictionalized biography. Heston and Harrison are good, everyone else good as well. Worth seeing many times, if only for Dunne's dialogue and the scenery.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
excellent historical drama, 3 November 2000

Author: Robert D. Ruplenas

I would be more generous than Maltin was with this one. I watched it again recently on tape and my impression improved over my first viewing. The production values are sumptuous, and the construction of a 1:1 mockup of the Sistine Chapel by Dino deLaurentis is a story in itself, evidently. Heston is pretty good as Michelangelo but is, I think, overshadowed by Harrison, who is just marvelous as Pope Julius (a previous commenter remarked on the historically inauthentic absence of his beard; in addition, Julius was too old & inform too ride a horse into battle, but insisted on leading while carried on a litter). The conflicted interplay between Julius & Michelangelo is the core of the film, of course, and the script does its job well in this regard, particularly in the closing dialogue. It is interesting, though, to see how the movie dances around the issue of Michelangelo's purported homosexuality. We are so much more frank today (not necessarily for the better), and one shudders to consider how a contemporary movie would treat this subject (not that there's a chance in hell of a major movie being made today on the subject of the creation of one of the masterworks of West's artistic inheritance). If any movie definitely needs the letterbox format to show it off at its best, it is this one, so watch for it on AMC where it is often shown that way.

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8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
They don't come much more epic than this, 4 August 2002
Author: sychonic

When you think about it, making a movie about artistry is pretty hard. Painting, writing, sculpting, music, whatever, it's not easy to make the act very interesting--painting is painstaking, it takes a long time. But in this movie, they succeed. Not just making a movie, but making an epic, a massive movie out of an act of creation, is a tough thing to do. But they really do succeed. At the heart of the movie isn't really the act of creation, or the passion for it, or even the ceiling itself--it's the adversarial relationship between Rex Harrison (Pope Julius II) and Charlton Heston (Michaelangelo).

It's certainly not that passion and creation are not here, it's just that they enrich the story about two men and their relationship. When Julius comes into the chapel in the middle of the night, and Michaelangelo is invariably there, there's a bond, even with silent incipient tension.

Heston is of course the only person for this role, as epics go, he's the best. For some reason he manages not to be overcome by the massive scale of these sorts of movies--something that happens to almost everyone else (look at Sinatra and Cary Grant in "the Pride and the Passion", they are totally lost in the grande scale, and they're the incomparable Grant and the larger than life Sinatra, not much more to be said there). Heston makes a solid tortured artist and Rex Harrison is quite wonderful as the Pope. He communicates the strength and intelligence of a Pope who loves art but must go to battle to preserve all that he holds dear. There's a scene when the Pope wants people to see the half completed chapel, since he has grown impatient with the time and when Michaelangelo bitterly objects, Harrison explodes with anger--extremely effective. When Harrison passed, it was truly a loss to movies.

There are flaws, no question, and it's not Heston's best work, course, once you've done Ben Hur and the Ten Commandments, nothing else is going to be your best work. The subplot with the sort of love interest is pretty silly, and it goes on a bit too long. The earnestness of the faith in the church, the sincerity of Heston when he says "Holiness" to the pope, a man that drives him crazy, is poignant. His faith is deep, almost as if he derives his love of art from a love of God. There are even some nice moments of levity as when a spattered Michaelangelo spits out a gob of paint and it lands near a watching Julius; or when the Pope creates a cardinal out of teen for payment in order to keep up the painting.

When it comes to big movies, this definitely lays with a handful of others that will never be surpassed--Titanic tried to be this kind of movie, and proves that even with $200 million and all the nifty gizmos of the modern age, it's very difficult to do; c'mon, Rex Harrison and Charlton Heston compared to Leo DeCaprio and Billy Zane--not much of a contest there.

See the movie, forgive it its flaws and appreciate the richness and nuance of the relationship between Pope and Artist.

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10 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Historic picture about two greats figures : Michael Angel and Julio II, 10 May 2005

Author: ma-cortes from Santander Spain

The picture deals upon Michael Angel (Charlton Heston)who is working on the Carrara's marble creating sculptures and is ordered by Pope Julio II(Rex Harrison)the painting the Sistina chapel (thus called but was made by Pope Sisto).Meanwhile they'll develop a relationship with others Renaissance's important person. The film is based correctly in historical deeds and famous personages thus: Raphael(Tomas Milian) who appears painting the¨Athenas's school¨,Bramante(Harry Andrews) author of the dome Vatican ,Girlandaio and the Medicis Florencia's descendant(Diane Cilento and Adolfo Celi). Besides the film paces itself the confrontation among the Julio II troops and the France and Germany army for the possession of the Pope's states. There are epics and impressive battles where the same Pope fights against the enemies. The motion picture narrates specially the creation of the enormous paintings on the ceiling and the difficulties what Michael Angel is suffering to achieve the immortal legacy. The Pope Julio II will assign also the realization of his tomb.

The feature obtained a limited success and made a moderated box-office , nowadays is better valued . Acting of two principal actors is first range ,both are magnificent. Leon Shamroy cinematography is rousing ,the colorful paintings are glimmer and glittering reflecting Bible's scenes. Alex North music is riveting(like Spartacus who he made equally). The sets are overwhelming and breathtaking,they were realized by John De Cuir as production designer. Carol Reed direction and production is excellent,he has got many experience with a long career and had directed other classics (The third man). Rating: Very good,Above average and well worth seeing.

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7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
"When will you end it??", 28 August 2005

Author: Spuzzlightyear from Vancouver

'Agony and the Ecstasy' is one heck of an attempt to be a big of a movie as possible. It's details the story of Pope Julius's commissioning of a reluctant Michelangelo to paint the roof of the Sistine chapel fer heaven's sakes!! It also two of the stars That Mattered In The 60's, Rex Harrison playing the Pope and Charlton Heston as Michelangelo! AND it runs for 2 and a half hours! I mean, this movie must mean something if they have a mini-biography of Michelangelo for the first 15 minutes, right? OK, despite it's too long running length, the movie is a fun sit through actually. It's not exactly a pompous costumed historical drama as it looks, sure there's a lot material covered here, but Heston and Harrison keep the story going quite well with their great portrayals here. I had seen this several years ago, and while Heston is good, it's Harrison who got my attention this time out, as his total control freak Pope character is quite entertaining to watch.

So again, a bit lengthy, but still entertaining.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
One of Hestons best., 19 October 2002

Author: mm-39 from Winnipeg

When will it be ready? When its done! This is a great portrayal of Michal Angelo. Heston's high water mark, and this is hard to out do. Even with the films age it does not look dated. Much better than other movies form this time period. This is a movie with a message. Rent it or even buy it. 8/10

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
" when will you make an end " ?, 7 April 2008

Author: LieutenantJohnChard from United Kingdom

" when i am finished "

and so it be that that is the often repeated exchange between Rex Harrison's Pope Julius II & Charlton Heston's Michelangelo, and thus we have the basis for the film version of Irving Stone 's novel The Agony & The Ectasy. This is a fictionalised account of how Michelango came to paint his masterpiece on the roof of the Sistine chapel, focusing solely on the two main characters of the piece, The Agony & The Ectasy is a character and dialogue driven piece of work.

I'm not here to give you a history lesson on the Renaisssance painters or the background to Pope Julius II {The Warrior Pope} and his term of office, there are many well written comments on this site that revel in that side of things. I'm here purely as a lover of this film and to tell you that i do indeed love it regardless of it's obvious historical failings. It spins a smashing story of two great men driven to distraction by each other on account of each respective mans blustery ego, both men seemingly failing to realise that what irks them so, does in fact flourish the soul. Thankfully the two lead actors here put up a special show to carry the film with ease, both Heston & Harrison really getting their teeth into the roles to feed off each other with quality results, with one scene having Michelangelo goad Julius off his sick bed being particularly memorable. The toil and time consuming lengths that Michelangelo went to finish the wondrous ceiling of the chapel is perfectly captured by the pacing from director Carol Reed, and it's within this mindset that i personally feel engrossed with the characters from beginning to end. Tho it should be noted that the film is not without moments of humour, some scenes shaking you away from the mens battle of wills to bring dashes of levity.

It's safe to say that one should avoid this film if they are after a searing costume drama infused with battles and death encompassing romances, this is purely for those after fine art, fine acting, and most of all, fine story telling, 8.5/10.

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