Movie & TV Reviews And Ratings For Grownups

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Saturday, October 8, 2016

Classic Movie Review: THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY (1965) B+

I have been watching THE GENIUS OF MICHELANGELO produced by a company (THE GREAT COURSES) that sells educational material. It presents lots and lots of details of Michelangelo's life. Somewhat slow going.

See http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/genius-of-michelangelo.html

That was my incentive to borrow from netflix the 1965 production of THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY movie. It stars Charlton Heston as Renaissance artist Michelangelo, who begrudgingly paints the famed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison). It is an adaptation of the Irvine Stone's novel. The novel and the GREAT COURSES Cd's cover Michelangelo's life from birth to death. The film only focuses on the battle of wills between the perfectionist artist and the impatient Pope who commissions (and eventually commands) him to paint the famed ceiling.

In a nutshell the movie is watchable by today's production standards but lacks the excitement and drama that today's movies provide. Especially the (music) scoring, which rates a C-. That portion of movie art has significantly advanced in the last 50 years.

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Warren is retired and lives in Florida where he runs a foreign movie program for adults. He subscribes to NETFLIX and uses Rotten Tomatoes as one of the sources for selecting movies to review.

Started watching movies at about eight years old and was strongly influenced by "Fantasia" for it's combination of music and fantasy. He was profoundly impacted in his early teen years by the social content in "I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG".

As a kid he used to enter the movie house in the middle of a double feature and leave when the movie reached the part where he came in. Loved serials and was able to see most double features for ten or twenty-five cents.

A graduate of Columbia University and City College of New York (CCNY), he strongly believes that good movies . . . with mature content . . . are a significant supplement to education and insight into the world around us. No egghead, he also believes that "It's A Wonderful Life", "Young Frankenstein", "The Producers", West Side Story", and "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" are great films.