![]() ![]() I suppose the one thing I felt was a little dull and frustrating to sit through were the scenes exploring Michelangelo’s sexuality and his relationship with Contessina di’Medici. I guess that’s where I found myself only slightly disappointed. I remembered this film being very different when I saw it many many years ago, as I remembered the Pope and Michelangelo being two titan egos exploding on screen. While Charlton Heston is good here as Michelangelo, I found his performance to be a lot more passive than what I expected. Rex Harrison is really the star performer here and gives an incredible performance. Julius is a constant antagonist in many ways, and its easy to see how his Warrior Pope personality rubs off on others, but for all the aggrivation, its as if Michelangelo has giving him a personal moment of understanding through his painting…of making his own humanity a little clearer. He looks at the painting in marvel as Michelangelo interprets Adam, the beginning of all humanity, as something beautiful. “Not as someone out to judge us? You don’t see god holding humanity with disdain?” He is referring to the image of God touching the finger of Adam. “Is this how you truly see God?” He asks. But the most poignant scene is a moment where Michelangelo finds Pope Julius up on the scaffolding with a candle, trying to understand, and in a kind of understated way, admiring what Michelangelo has done. Of course, this leads to several battles of ego, as the Pope always enters the chapel while Michelangelo is working, saying, “When will you make an end?”, to Michelangelo’s response, “When I am finished.” The Pope winds up defending Michelangelo’s vision against angry Cardinal’s who are shocked at the blasphemy of paintings of nude figures on the ceiling of the church. The Pope finds himself intrigued and allows him to carry out his vision. He meets the Pope in the middle of a battlefield and lays out a huge drawing for the Pope and shows him with the excitement only an artist could have for his inspiration, as he outlines the entire story of creation to the Last Supper on the ceiling. The Pope is not happy about this of course, but then comes the point where Michelangelo outlines his own idea for what the ceiling should be. The first is after Michelangelo makes his first attempt at painting the ceiling, only to feel furiously limited by the assignment, he rips at the plaster of the ceiling and throws a bucket of red paint over his work. But there are two scenes in particular that stand out as highlights. Julius is always berating Michelangelo for his insolence, as the two constantly argue. The relationship between these two men is complex and fascinating. Michelangelo protests, claiming that he did not want to paint and that his first love was sculpting (he was already working on carving the statues for the Pope’s tomb before being assigned to the chapel). But the real heart and soul of the film is the relationship between Michelangelo (Heston) and Pope Julius (Rex Harrison), the warrior pope, who in the midst of battle commissions Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the chapel. I’ll admit it’s not one of my favorite Charlton Heston pictures, and the film did drag for me a little in a few places. Is it blasphemy to say that I think this film is only pretty good? It’s a pretty well admired classic. While they used tricks and lenses to make the chapel appear bigger than it actually was, the set itself still must of been incredible. One of the things that was fascinating to me was that the interior of the Sistine Chapel was replicated on a soundstage. This is definitely a film to see with crystal clarity, because there is some epic imagery, some terrific matte painting shots, and an grand sense of scope (Someday in my life I hope to see this on the big screen). To be honest, I wish I had revisited it through a blu ray or restored DVD as opposed to Netflix streaming, where the image looked fairly pixilated at times, which definitely took away from the grand spectacle of the film. I revisited Agony and The Ecstasy last night. ![]()
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