George Stevens’ THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD (1965) was really one of the last of the huge Biblical genre films (though not the last in my series of tributes) as the theme tended to become more personalised in the forthcoming years with much smaller religious type shows such as BROTHER SUN, SISTER MOON and such. GSET is an extremely well made film with beautiful production values and even the odd guest director such as the eminent David Lean and Jean Negulesco to fill some gaps in the narrative once Steven’s was done with it.
Visual effects wise it’s a bonanza! Colleagues on stopmotionanimation.com matte painting thread I’m sure are sick to death of me praising the effects in GSET, so anyone tired of this, best skip to another blog as I’m going to really sing the praises of these effects here. The film was Oscar nominated in a number of categories, including best special visual effects, yet unbelievably lost that year to the frankly plain third rate effects in the 007 adventure THUNDERBALL!! Incredible… a film with minimal, and quite poorly executed visuals even getting a nomination is one thing, but taking home the bloody statuette is quite another. I guess it’s all down to film popularity above quality (same story with ‘ET’ years later when clearly BLADERUNNER should have swept that and other awards, but don’t get me started)…
…Read the Full Article @ Matte Shot
A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX
Please Note: Now, I am going further back into the archives of Matte Shot – A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX to feature even more articles from this great site.
This blog is intended primarily as a tribute to the inventiveness and ingenuity of the craft of the matte painter during Hollywoods’ Golden Era. Some of the shots will amaze in their grandeur and epic quality while others will surprise in their ‘invisibility’ to even the sophisticated viewer. I hope this collection will serve as an appreciation of the artform and both casual visitors and those with a specialist interest may benefit, enjoy and be amazed at skills largely unknown today.