The Agony and the Ecstasy

“From the age of magnificence comes a new magnificence in motion pictures.”

Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) wants to carve marble, and he has no wish to paint. Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison) hires him for forty statues for a tomb, then orders him up onto the scaffolding of the Sistine Chapel instead, and Michelangelo doubts his skill with a brush. Carol Reed sets the two men against each other across four years, a stubborn artist and a pope who will not wait.