This retelling of Christ's life features Jesus begging Judas to betray him (only to be called a traitor in return), Jesus building crosses for the Romans to crucify fellow Jews, and British actors and voices *all* playing evil characters. Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ is, despite and because of these things, a brilliant film, one that approaches closest to Christianity's core obsessions and problems. It also serves as a perfect palette cleanser for those who had the distinct misfortune of watching Mel Gibson's processing of Jesus Christ through the Hollywood meat-grinder for (deeply disturbing personal reasons and) money.
But Gibson's dementia aside. Martin Scorsese's film is profoundly quiet and thought-provoking. Is it blasphemous? Or rather, is the controversy it stirred justified? I'd say so. Paul Shrader, the writer of the film, himself admits that on a certain level the film is blasphemy. But not literally. It uses God as a conceit for man's condition and struggle to understand God. And this desire to comprehend which pervades the film renders its blasphemy a noble one. Or forgivable one. The film, after all, explores the relationship between the human and finite with the divine and infinite with a passion present in all aspects of it. The Last Temptation is about the struggle of those two, particularly in the face of destiny and death. In that sense, it is a very existential film. Dafoe's Jesus at first doubts he is even God's son. He doesn't know - he searches. He reaches false conclusions and true ones. The beauty of his struggle lies precisely in not always knowing the answers. He is, after all, human.
And then again, he is not. However, on its own, this statement means very little. The film probes the relationship of the Jesus of Nazareth who sins like the rest of us, with Christ, the son of God who is sacrificed for our sins. It explores the nature and meaning of that sacrifice. The segment that I would imagine caused the greatest amount of controversy, namely (not surprisingly) Christ's last temptation, provides the bridge between Christ and pre-Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. It asks us to imagine Jesus being saved from death. And through this theoretical contemplation we see the necessity of the sacrifice, its binding nature. Judas, in fact, summarizes this perfectly by saying: "The life of a man is not for you. Your place is on the cross" (I am paraphrasing, but the point is there). Jesus' struggle, throughout the film, ends exactly at this point, at this realization which allows him to say on the cross "It is accomplished." The fact that this struggle is made real and accessible to us is what makes this a phenomenal film.
The film's brilliance shines on pretty much all levels. Scorsese's direction is atmospheric, extremely compassionate and restrained (as opposed to the orgiastic explosion of [unnecessary?] violence in Gibson's film). The performances are great. Hershey's Mary Magdalene is amazing. Dafoe's Jesus and even more so Keitel's Judas are brilliant. In fact, Judas in this film is almost as much a central character as Jesus. In The Last Temptation Judas isn't the evil traitor who gets himself killed over a maggot-ridden corpse like in Gibson's tale, but a character so full of love he *agrees* to betray Christ. The act of betrayal here is one of coming to terms with fate very much on the same level as Jesus' acceptance of his self-sacrifice. Judas must betray Christ even though he has grown to love him.
There are many reasons to see this film. It is a deeply spiritual examination of Christ the man and Christ the Son of God and the transition from one to the other. In some way, it is a perfect portrait of a man's search for answers and for God - it is spiritual existentialism, uncannily similar to Kierkegaard. It is the exact opposite of The Passion of the Christ and it should be celebrated.
But Gibson's dementia aside. Martin Scorsese's film is profoundly quiet and thought-provoking. Is it blasphemous? Or rather, is the controversy it stirred justified? I'd say so. Paul Shrader, the writer of the film, himself admits that on a certain level the film is blasphemy. But not literally. It uses God as a conceit for man's condition and struggle to understand God. And this desire to comprehend which pervades the film renders its blasphemy a noble one. Or forgivable one. The film, after all, explores the relationship between the human and finite with the divine and infinite with a passion present in all aspects of it. The Last Temptation is about the struggle of those two, particularly in the face of destiny and death. In that sense, it is a very existential film. Dafoe's Jesus at first doubts he is even God's son. He doesn't know - he searches. He reaches false conclusions and true ones. The beauty of his struggle lies precisely in not always knowing the answers. He is, after all, human.
And then again, he is not. However, on its own, this statement means very little. The film probes the relationship of the Jesus of Nazareth who sins like the rest of us, with Christ, the son of God who is sacrificed for our sins. It explores the nature and meaning of that sacrifice. The segment that I would imagine caused the greatest amount of controversy, namely (not surprisingly) Christ's last temptation, provides the bridge between Christ and pre-Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. It asks us to imagine Jesus being saved from death. And through this theoretical contemplation we see the necessity of the sacrifice, its binding nature. Judas, in fact, summarizes this perfectly by saying: "The life of a man is not for you. Your place is on the cross" (I am paraphrasing, but the point is there). Jesus' struggle, throughout the film, ends exactly at this point, at this realization which allows him to say on the cross "It is accomplished." The fact that this struggle is made real and accessible to us is what makes this a phenomenal film.
The film's brilliance shines on pretty much all levels. Scorsese's direction is atmospheric, extremely compassionate and restrained (as opposed to the orgiastic explosion of [unnecessary?] violence in Gibson's film). The performances are great. Hershey's Mary Magdalene is amazing. Dafoe's Jesus and even more so Keitel's Judas are brilliant. In fact, Judas in this film is almost as much a central character as Jesus. In The Last Temptation Judas isn't the evil traitor who gets himself killed over a maggot-ridden corpse like in Gibson's tale, but a character so full of love he *agrees* to betray Christ. The act of betrayal here is one of coming to terms with fate very much on the same level as Jesus' acceptance of his self-sacrifice. Judas must betray Christ even though he has grown to love him.
There are many reasons to see this film. It is a deeply spiritual examination of Christ the man and Christ the Son of God and the transition from one to the other. In some way, it is a perfect portrait of a man's search for answers and for God - it is spiritual existentialism, uncannily similar to Kierkegaard. It is the exact opposite of The Passion of the Christ and it should be celebrated.