The Agony and the Ecstasy

Another movie that I recently watched off my DVR to make room for other stuff is The Agony and the Ecstasy. It's available on DVD, so I'm comfortable doing a full-length post on it.

Based on the book by Irving Stone, who was also responsible for the book that became Lust for Life, this one tells the story of Michelangelo (played by Charlton Heston) and his painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In and of itself that's not much of a story. But as it turns out, there's quite the backstory which is really what the movie tells.

First of all, Michelangelo was a sculptor. He would take a piece of fine marble from Carrara, Italy (known for its fine marble), and tease a beautiful sculpture out of it. Indeed, the movie opens up with a long prologue showing us a bunch of these sculptures. He wasn't a painter by nature or training. So he understandably didn't feel he was up to doing the Sistine Chapel. Except that he was more or less ordered to by the Pope, Julius II (Rex Harrison).

The bigger part of the backstory is about Julius. Back in those days, a Pope was actually in control of a fairly substantial amount of land, known as the Papal States. This was a time when what is now Italy was mostly city-states and small kingdoms; the country wouldn't be unified until 1870. As for the papal holdings, eventually a treaty known as the Lateran Treaty was signed between Italy and the Pope in 1929 giving him what is now the Vatican. Julius was Pope at a particularly difficult time, with a bunch of Italian city-states, backed by France, lined up against the Papal States, who were hoping for backing from Spain. Julius wanted to make Rome great again, and being a patron of the arts was part of that. So he tapped Michelangelo to paint that ceiling, and when Michelangelo, not being a painter, understandably demurred, Julius insisted on it. As one of the lines in the movie that shows up repeatedly states:

Pope Julius: When are you going to make an end of it?
Michelangelo: When I'm finished!

Indeed, much of the dramatic tension in the movie is over Michelangelo's difficulty in coming up with what he thinks is a suitable painting for the ceiling, especially as it conflicts with both the Pope's ideas and even more so those of some of his cardinals. There's another dramatic arc, which is Julius' constantly being at war to protect the Papal States and, ultimately how it nearly kills him.

The Agony and the Ecstasy is a beautiful movie to watch, but one that's not without its problems. First is the fact that it runs really long. Part of that is an inherent problem with the theme of Michelangelo spending years painting a ceiling. I don't know if there's really any way to make the movie without making that grueling task not seem long. But the movie isn't helped by the prologue and then an intermission and exit music. All of these together take up close to 20 minutes and without them, the movie probably would clock in under two hours, just barely.

There's also an issue with Michelangelo and Julius being such strong characters that everybody else is almost an afterthought. Raphael (Tomas Milian) would probably be an interesting character in his own right; here he's just an afterthought. The Countess di Medici (Diane Cilento) is brought in to serve as a possible romantic interest, but Michelangelo is too damn interested in his art to have any real time for her.

The Agony and the Ecstasy is certainly worth a watch, but I think I prefer Lust for Life.