In ancient times, Jesus Christ, a lowly man from Nazareth, tries to resist a calling from a voice he thinks is God, telling him to preach a doctrine of freedom and love for God and one another. Ultimately however he fulfils this destiny, but his cause prompts the Roman authorities to capture and crucify him, martyring him for all time for the sins of mankind.
Because any story about religious faith is an intensely spiritual and cerebral concept, the Jesus story is hard to film (the best adaptation is the 1977 Franco Zeffirelli / Robert Powell TV miniseries Jesus Of Nazareth, and the best cinema version is the 1961 Nicholas Ray / Jeffrey Hunter film King Of Kings). This movie is not based on the gospels, but rather on a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, which retells many of the gospel parables (the sermon on the mount, the stoning of Mary Magdalene, the raising of Lazarus, the money-changers in the temple, the tale of John the Baptist, etc), but with a radically different emphasis on character. Christ is very much a man in this movie, full of fear, doubt and self-pity, struggling with the significance of his destiny, and both Judas and Magdalene feature much more prominently in his story. It ends with a dream sequence in which Satan disguises himself as a child and tempts Christ on the cross with an end to his suffering and a dream of a life as an ordinary man with a family; a temptation which Christ ultimately rejects. It is an extraordinarily powerful, original and thought-provoking examination of Christianity, which has at its heart the fundamental conflict between Christ the Man and Christ the God. It is also exquisitely made and passionately acted by a terrific cast. Dafoe gives a masterful performance in a role which is almost impossible to play, and Keitel, Hershey and Stanton all give tremendous support, while Bowie is an inspired scene-stealing piece of casting as the status-quo-seeking Pilate ("There are three-thousand skulls on Golgotha, probably more. I do wish you people would go and count them sometime."). Brilliantly scripted by Paul Schrader, with superb location photography in Morocco by Michael Ballhaus, and a stunningly evocative score by Peter Gabriel featuring a bewildering variety of ethnic African and Asian sounds and musicians. Movies about religion are often turgid and bland at best. Upon this film's release however, both it and Scorsese were vilified as blasphemous by many so-called devout Christians, many of whom hadn't even seen it - ignorant half-wits, one and all. This is arguably a great director's best and most personal film, and it is a beautiful, passionate, intense, intelligent and above all, deeply spiritual work.
Because any story about religious faith is an intensely spiritual and cerebral concept, the Jesus story is hard to film (the best adaptation is the 1977 Franco Zeffirelli / Robert Powell TV miniseries Jesus Of Nazareth, and the best cinema version is the 1961 Nicholas Ray / Jeffrey Hunter film King Of Kings). This movie is not based on the gospels, but rather on a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, which retells many of the gospel parables (the sermon on the mount, the stoning of Mary Magdalene, the raising of Lazarus, the money-changers in the temple, the tale of John the Baptist, etc), but with a radically different emphasis on character. Christ is very much a man in this movie, full of fear, doubt and self-pity, struggling with the significance of his destiny, and both Judas and Magdalene feature much more prominently in his story. It ends with a dream sequence in which Satan disguises himself as a child and tempts Christ on the cross with an end to his suffering and a dream of a life as an ordinary man with a family; a temptation which Christ ultimately rejects. It is an extraordinarily powerful, original and thought-provoking examination of Christianity, which has at its heart the fundamental conflict between Christ the Man and Christ the God. It is also exquisitely made and passionately acted by a terrific cast. Dafoe gives a masterful performance in a role which is almost impossible to play, and Keitel, Hershey and Stanton all give tremendous support, while Bowie is an inspired scene-stealing piece of casting as the status-quo-seeking Pilate ("There are three-thousand skulls on Golgotha, probably more. I do wish you people would go and count them sometime."). Brilliantly scripted by Paul Schrader, with superb location photography in Morocco by Michael Ballhaus, and a stunningly evocative score by Peter Gabriel featuring a bewildering variety of ethnic African and Asian sounds and musicians. Movies about religion are often turgid and bland at best. Upon this film's release however, both it and Scorsese were vilified as blasphemous by many so-called devout Christians, many of whom hadn't even seen it - ignorant half-wits, one and all. This is arguably a great director's best and most personal film, and it is a beautiful, passionate, intense, intelligent and above all, deeply spiritual work.