Current and Coming: The Sistine Chapel in San Antonio Editorial Staff
The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968).
Courtesy of the Art Directors Guild Archives; JC Backings; and Melinda Sue Gordon, Society of Motion Picture Still Photographers.
The 1968 MGM film
The Shoes of the Fisherman is a Cold War drama about a pope, played by Anthony Quinn, who helps avert a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and China. During the making of the movie on location, the Vatican was, understandably, unwilling to give a Hollywood production crew the run of sites like the Sistine Chapel. How did filmmakers re-create the majesty of Michelangelo’s masterpiece in the days before digital computer effects? With gigantic hand-painted scenic backdrops.