It's easy to make facile jokes about this monumental epic, based on Irving Stone's biography about Michelangelo and the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but there's no doubting the sincerity of those involved in its making. This is particularly evident in the playing, notably a self-effacing performance from Charlton Heston as Buonarroti himself, his hair cropped tight and his rock-like features looking even more gaunt than usual. Heston was the cinema's man of action at the time and he's ill-suited to the role of the neurotic artist, no matter how hard he tries. Likewise, Rex Harrison's Pope Julius II is more Rex than pontiff, and his constant querying of the painter - "When will you make an end?" - may well be echoed by this film's viewers.

During the Italian Renaissance, Pope Julius II contracts the influential artist Michelangelo to sculpt 40 statues for his tomb. When the pope changes his mind and asks the sculptor to paint a mural in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo doubts his painting skills and abandons the project. Divine inspiration returns Michelangelo to the mural, but his artistic vision clashes with the pope's demanding personality and threatens the success of the historic painting.