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The Titan: Story of Michelangelo Movie Review

The Titan: Story of Michelangelo is a 1950 documentary film directed by Richard Lyford and narrated by Fredric March. It’s a very strong, stylish documentary.

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“Out of the void, like magic,

he was bringing the world into being“

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The story follows Michelangelo’s life, career, and renowned artworks from his early works to lasting fame, showcasing detailed looks at his most celebrated creations against the backdrop of his era. This movie ended up winning the documentary feature Oscar for this year and it undeniably deserved that win as it’s such a stellar doc, especially for the time. It holds up so well and is still involving to this day.

Michelangelo is a fascinating subject for a documentary and it’s a shame that documentary movies about famous artists are so few and far in-between. This one ranks among the best that I’ve seen so far, though it has its flaws. It’s a very short and breezing watch at just an hour of runtime. It’s well edited and paced and also very well directed. It had been a German movie at first, but then it was picked up by Hollywood and transformed from a propaganda movie into something more timeless.

While there is not much we learn about the art process of this famous artist and the artworks themselves take a backseat to the historical background that here takes center stage, this is still an interesting look into the life and career of Michelangelo, especially focusing on his place in this era’s society. The narration from Fredric March is incredible. He was a perfect choice for this job as his voice is rich and powerful, befitting the tone and style of the movie so deftly.

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The Titan: Story of Michelangelo is an immensely stylish feature, which was quite rare for American docs of the time. It is so gorgeous, in fact, that it reminded me more of the artistic output from Russia and Germany before WWII. The cinematography is beautiful, the editing is masterful and the choice to narrate about Michelangelo’s life and art while not showing him or recreating his life was terrific. Just observing his statues and buildings was enough to make us understand his importance. Couple that with the perfectly moody background noises and a truly stunning score and you’ve got quite an unexpected audio-visual feast.