Adapted from Irving Stone's fanciful biography of Michelangelo and starring Charlton Heston as the artist, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY focuses on the five years that the artist spent creating the Sistine ceiling and his tumultuous relationship with Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison). The pope is a vain and ambitious sort who has commissioned the painting of the chapel with the intention of having his name preserved for posterity. To this end, he tries to bully and threaten the volatile painter, who is answerable only to his muse.