

The Agony and the Ecstasy
From the age of magnificence comes a new magnificence in motion pictures.
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.
TMDB
7.0/10
159 votes
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- Status
- Released
- Budget
- $10M
- Box office
- $4M
- Language
- English
- based on novel or book
- vatican (holy see)
- pope
- artist
- painter
- biography
- michelangelo
- 16th century
- italian renaissance
- sistine chapel
Top billed cast

















Behind the camera
Where to watch
All optionsAvailability for United States. Provided by JustWatch through the TMDB API.
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Videos
Release dates
United StatesUS
- Theatrical7 Oct 1965
United KingdomGB
- TheatricalU27 Oct 1965
AustraliaAU
- Theatrical17 Nov 1966
ArgentinaAR
- Theatrical1 Jun 1966
BrazilBR
- Theatrical25 Dec 1965
DenmarkDK
- Theatrical9 May 1966
FinlandFI
- Theatrical24 Sept 1965
FranceFR
- TheatricalU12 Apr 1966
GermanyDE
- TheatricalWest Germany16 Sept 1965
IcelandIS
- Theatrical17 Jan 1970
JapanJP
- Theatrical12 Feb 1966
MexicoMX
- Theatrical18 May 1967
Frequently asked questions
The Agony and the Ecstasy was released on 16 September 1965.
Audience reviews
2- J8.5/10
John Chard
9/18/2014
When will you make an end? When I am finished! And so it be that that is the often repeated exchange between Rex Harrison's Pope Julius II & Charlton Heston's Michelangelo, and thus we have the basis for the film version of Irving Stone's novel The Agony & The Ectasy. This is a fictionalised account of how Michelango came to paint his masterpiece on the roof of the Sistine chapel, focusing solely on the two mai…
- C7/10
CinemaSerf
1/7/2023
Depending on the version you see, this film starts with a gorgeously scored trip around some of the museums of Italy and of the Vatican allowing us to put the sheer magnificence of the talent of Michelangelo Buonarroti into context - and the volume and quality of that body of work, condensed into ten minutes or so, makes this worth watching just as a lesson in the history of art! The story is set during the Papacy of…
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