A Provocative Film with a Powerful Premise

OK, here’s another one of those reviews recycled as blog posts. As my way to mark Holy Week, I’m posting my DVD review on Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, which was first published in the March 22, 2004 issue of the Philippine Graphic.

Title: The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenwriter: Paul Schrader, based on Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie
Nomination: 1988 Academy Award nominee for Best Director
Rating: R for nudity and violence

From its earliest beginnings, Christianity has taught believers that Jesus is both human and div­ine. The Apostles’ Creed attests that He is God’s “only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary”; and the Angelus, in turn, declares how “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Yet Christian art and literature has too often portrayed Jesus as a stoic, remote and dignified figure, more God than man; and the Church has focused more frequently on His divinity than on His humanity.

The Last Temptation of Christ, Martin Scorsese’s provocative adaptation of Nikos Kazantza­k­is’s very controversial novel, presents the Son of God as a hesitant, all-too-human savior. The film be­came so controversial when it was first released in 1988 that countless conservative Christians, the now-Blessed Teresa of Calcutta among them, had publicly denounced it without ever seeing it. Hundreds had even picketed at the theaters exhibiting the film. Only Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ had matched the furor Scorsese’s film had caused.

Still, the movie offers the open-minded viewer an ultimately worthwhile experience. Gritty and sparse, even occasionally powerful, The Last Temptation of Christ gives the familiar account of Jesus’ ministry, passion and death a fictionalized and rather radical spin. Here, Jesus (Willem Dafoe) starts out as a self-doubting carpenter, unsure of His mission; then develops into a very ins­piring and passionate preacher; and finally evolves into the reluctant redeemer who eventually accepts His fate, but not before experiencing one last temptation at Calvary.

But that’s not all. Judas (Harvey Keitel, sporting kinky orange hair and a New York accent) now comes across as a more sympathetic figure, and even becomes Jesus’ first disciple. And the harlot-turned-disciple Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey) now turns out to be Christ’s former beloved. Not only that, there’s Saul (Harry Dean Stanton), a Zealot who later becomes the apostle Paul; and Pontius Pilate (David Bowie), who now looks more formal and stern than he ever did in the Gospels. No wonder conservative Christians were so incensed.

Provocative as the movie is, its power lies at how it portrays Jesus’ struggle with His humanity, and Scorsese and his longtime screenwriter Paul Schrader manage to bring this to life. No doubt Scorsese has done better work elsewhere (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and GoodFellas easily spring to mind), but no one can deny the commitment and sincerity he brings to the movie, and they show. Plus, one can’t help but admire his courage to take on such risky material. That said, the film is a little overlong (the climactic final temptation could use some further trimming) and Peter Gabriel’s music scores in some scenes, but somewhat misses in others.

The actors, particularly Keitel and Hershey, also deserve admiration for the sincerity they bring to their respective roles. But I have to single out Dafoe’s underrated performance in the title role for a number of reasons. Here, he portrays the ultimate good guy, and heaven knows how hard it is to play such a character, and play it convincingly. But Dafoe manages to pull it off: his Jesus is a very human one—emotional, questioning, struggling. One can’t help but feel His self-doubt concerning His mission, or His passion as He preached about God, or His understandable reluctance to face His fate, to sacrifice Himself to save the world from sin.

The Last Temptation of Christ certainly challenged Scorsese and his actors, and one can’t help but wonder: What attracted them to the novel? What compelled them to make the movie at all? What are the insights they have gathered as a result? Regrettably, the DVD contains no special features that could answer these valuable questions. All it can show for are the usual: chapter-selection and subtitle options, and an unremarkable theatrical trailer.

It may have its shortcomings, but The Last Temptation of Christ remains to be a provocative film with a powerful premise. It may not be for everyone, but those open-minded enough to see it should find it worthwhile. If nothing else, what the movie achieves is that it presents another side to Jesus, a more human side, full of conflicting emotions and contradictions. A Jesus we can truly relate to. For that, one can’t help but appreciate His sacrifice all the more. In this season of Lent, what He underwent for us is something we should reflect on. (Copyright © 2004 by A.I.D.)