Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Verna Bloom, Barbara Hershey, Irvin Kershner, Victor Argo, Harry Dean Stanton, Tomas Arana, David Bowie
The Last Temptation of Christ is an adaptation of a novel by the same name by Nikos Kazantzakis. It tells the story of Jesus (Dafoe) but it is a fictionalized account and is not a retelling of the stories found in the Gospels. It shows Jesus’ struggles to resolve the conflict between his spirit and his flesh, and how to live with the burden of being the son of God.
It’s easy to see why this film is so controversial as it portrays Jesus as a flawed individual and shows his difficulty in trying to resist the temptations and desires of the flesh in order to follow God’s path. There are some brutal moments early on in the film when we see Jesus writhing in pain as God’s voice sears through his mind, and throughout the film this struggle is present, even when he seems to come to terms with his mission on Earth.
The majority of the film plays out like a greatest hits collection as we see him form the disciples and other famous incidents like the resurrection of Lazarus, the conflict at the temple and the last supper among other things. It was interesting to see them given new twists, but then the film deviates from the Bible in a HUGE way. I could imagine a lot of people simply walking out when the last section of the film begins, but I felt it was incredibly powerful and really struck home the point about how fear can blind us. All through the film Jesus is portrayed as a man who is afraid, afraid of life, afraid of what might happen to him, afraid of the power and meaning bestowed upon his life. In this movie he’s like the rest of us, simply trying to figure out his place in the world and how to marry his desires with his morality and belief system.
The most significant relationship is between him and Judas (Keitel), who is reinterpreted and is shown to be stronger than Jesus in some ways. I loved the progression of his character through the film and how his motivations and philosophy clashed with Jesus’.
There’s a lot going on in this film but it didn’t feel dense or overly long. There’s a lot to think about and a lot of commentary on faith and belief and what it means to be a human. I’m an atheist and I hold a degree in Philosophy so this film is right up my street and I think it’s absolutely fantastic. Scorsese has made some fantastic films and this is right up there with the best of them. It’s one of the few movies where I’ve had to sit in an awed silence as I let the credits roll and try to process everything I absorbed.
If I had one criticism it’s that the film is incredibly white-washed and there’s no diversity in the cast, and at times it can be jarring to hear some of the characters speak with very strong New York accents and dialects (the most jarring for me was when Satan appeared to Jesus in the desert). But other than that it was just amazing. Dafoe was compelling and had a wild eyed intensity as well as a raw vulnerability that properly conveyed the struggles this Jesus was going through.
There are of course some very visceral scenes, especially the nailing on the cross and there’s a lot of blood, and the subject matter as well will be off-putting to some people. I’d strongly recommend this to anyone though. It’s much more interesting than a retelling of the story we’ve heard a hundred times before and I think it provokes some very thoughtful discussion points about the nature of religion, faith, truth, sacrifice, and what it means to be human.
