JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Since my recent post about Planet of the Apes, it got me thinking about another slightly earlier movie that provides a completely different insight into Glen Canyon, in literally its last days before it transformed into Lake Powell.
The Greatest Story Ever Told was a classic 3-hour biblical epic, released in 1965. It was a pretty good story, but not really a great movie (my opinion), although it was beautifully shot, with gorgeous cinematography in a sort of Lawrence of Arabia kind of way. Originally, director George Stevens’ idea was to film it right there in Israel and Jordan, with the baptism scenes at the Jordan River, but once he took a look at the less-than-inspiring Jordan while scouting for possible locations in 1961, decided it just wasn’t dramatic enough for what he envisioned.
And that’s how they ended up filming those scenes at Glen Canyon. Now it was late 1962, and the Colorado River still flowed through the canyon, muddy and serene, a perfect setting against the red buttes and mesas. The problem the production crew faced was time—Glen Canyon Dam was scheduled for completion in early 1963, and they needed a river, not a lake, for the movie to work. And so they rushed to complete these scenes as the winter of 1962-63 took hold, finishing literally as the waters began to rise at the end of January 1963. What they captured on film between the faux Romans and Navajos posing as Bedouin shepherds was nothing less than the very last days of Glen Canyon as it had been known to that time.
In the attached stills from the movie, you can easily see Gunsight Butte, and the nearby sweeping turns of the Colorado River, in an area that would soon become Padre Bay. And there hip deep in the freezing water is no less than Charlton Heston as John the Baptist, hiding a wetsuit under his outfit to avoid shivering to death in the frigid Colorado River. It was only 5 years later he would be back to almost this exact same spot as one of the astronauts from Planet of the Apes, then paddling a raft on a lake that did not yet exist in 1962, depicting a future Earth alien enough to look unrecognizable to movie audiences of the late 1960s. And so it was in the winter of late 1962 that the same place could pass for the Holy Land of 2000 years ago, with the same actor in a very different role, with a very different setting, and yet the same dramatic backdrop.
If nothing else, the hidden legacy of The Greatest Story Ever Told is as a time capsule, a brief final look at a pre-Lake Powell Glen Canyon, literally days before the dam closed and the waters began to rise…
Here's a Dec 1962/Jan 1963 downstream view from the movie toward Gunsight Butte, with the mouth of Kane Creek Canyon doubling as a gathering spot for Charlton Heston as John the Baptist. This spot is very close to where Heston came ashore on Padre Bay with the other two astronauts in Planet of the Apes, filmed less than 5 years later...
Great pre-Lake Powell view along the Colorado River, Dec 1962/Jan 1963...
Perfect shot up along Gunsight Creek toward Gunsight Butte, in what would soon become Gunsight Bay, minus the Roman soldiers. Filmed in the winter of 1962/63.
Thanks to good sleuthing by drewsxmi (see subsequent post), this shot is not in Glen Canyon at all, but it's the Green River, and that's Turks Head in the middle... In the movie, they mixed this shot in with the ones from Glen Canyon. Thanks for the correction!
Charlton Heston as John the Baptist. He's probably scowling because he's freezing to death standing in the Colorado River in December 1962... Apparently he wore a wetsuit under the loin cloths...
The Greatest Story Ever Told was a classic 3-hour biblical epic, released in 1965. It was a pretty good story, but not really a great movie (my opinion), although it was beautifully shot, with gorgeous cinematography in a sort of Lawrence of Arabia kind of way. Originally, director George Stevens’ idea was to film it right there in Israel and Jordan, with the baptism scenes at the Jordan River, but once he took a look at the less-than-inspiring Jordan while scouting for possible locations in 1961, decided it just wasn’t dramatic enough for what he envisioned.
And that’s how they ended up filming those scenes at Glen Canyon. Now it was late 1962, and the Colorado River still flowed through the canyon, muddy and serene, a perfect setting against the red buttes and mesas. The problem the production crew faced was time—Glen Canyon Dam was scheduled for completion in early 1963, and they needed a river, not a lake, for the movie to work. And so they rushed to complete these scenes as the winter of 1962-63 took hold, finishing literally as the waters began to rise at the end of January 1963. What they captured on film between the faux Romans and Navajos posing as Bedouin shepherds was nothing less than the very last days of Glen Canyon as it had been known to that time.
In the attached stills from the movie, you can easily see Gunsight Butte, and the nearby sweeping turns of the Colorado River, in an area that would soon become Padre Bay. And there hip deep in the freezing water is no less than Charlton Heston as John the Baptist, hiding a wetsuit under his outfit to avoid shivering to death in the frigid Colorado River. It was only 5 years later he would be back to almost this exact same spot as one of the astronauts from Planet of the Apes, then paddling a raft on a lake that did not yet exist in 1962, depicting a future Earth alien enough to look unrecognizable to movie audiences of the late 1960s. And so it was in the winter of late 1962 that the same place could pass for the Holy Land of 2000 years ago, with the same actor in a very different role, with a very different setting, and yet the same dramatic backdrop.
If nothing else, the hidden legacy of The Greatest Story Ever Told is as a time capsule, a brief final look at a pre-Lake Powell Glen Canyon, literally days before the dam closed and the waters began to rise…
Here's a Dec 1962/Jan 1963 downstream view from the movie toward Gunsight Butte, with the mouth of Kane Creek Canyon doubling as a gathering spot for Charlton Heston as John the Baptist. This spot is very close to where Heston came ashore on Padre Bay with the other two astronauts in Planet of the Apes, filmed less than 5 years later...
Great pre-Lake Powell view along the Colorado River, Dec 1962/Jan 1963...
Perfect shot up along Gunsight Creek toward Gunsight Butte, in what would soon become Gunsight Bay, minus the Roman soldiers. Filmed in the winter of 1962/63.
Thanks to good sleuthing by drewsxmi (see subsequent post), this shot is not in Glen Canyon at all, but it's the Green River, and that's Turks Head in the middle... In the movie, they mixed this shot in with the ones from Glen Canyon. Thanks for the correction!
Charlton Heston as John the Baptist. He's probably scowling because he's freezing to death standing in the Colorado River in December 1962... Apparently he wore a wetsuit under the loin cloths...
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