Essentials: The Last Temptation of Christ

I recently saw A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995), arguably one of the most extensive and accessible documentaries about American film. Scorsese brings you into the beautiful world he first discovered very young, populated with rich characters, reverence towards film technology and awe towards auteurs he had come to respect. His contribution to the world of modern cinema is history making in its own right. A seasoned director and producer, Scorsese has also taken upon himself to champion film preservation on behalf of not just Hollywood movies, but movies worldwide; something for which I truly admire.

Other aspects of the iconoclast I respect beyond measure are his non-gangster related films. Don’t get me wrong I love Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), The Departed (2006) et al. but his other prestige projects; Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and finally The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) hold a special place in my heart I must express. I consider those three films in particular, the staples of Scorsese’s quest for absolution for which The Last Temptation is the culmination of his artistic expression during his early period.

Scorsese has always said that if he hadn’t caught the film bug and started pursuing pictures as a vocation, he would have become a priest. Indeed it was probably the filmmaker’s religious instruction in youth that helped make Last Temptation and further inform its versatility, beauty universality. The film is in fact based on an immensely controversial book of the same name written by Nikos Kazantzakis. Both the film and book dares to expose the life of Jesus Christ as both human and divine, filled with both holy obligation and temporal temptation. The film diminishes Jesus in the eyes of some, making him out to be frail, afraid and even pedestrian.



...Or worse Willem Dafoe

2nd to last temptation: breaking these signs.

Well done Marty

I won’t bore you with the actual plot of Last Temptation as it, for the most part comports with biblically recorded events. The difference is in the mind of its central character. Unlike Nicholas Ray’s King of Kings (1961) or some of the earlier Hollywood hagiographies, Jesus is dispossessed of symbol status. He is not quite clear on his purpose and in the tradition of Abraham questions the decisions made by God. It is through his faults that the Devil finds a way into his tortured soul. In the 2/3rds mark, the devil, which up until then takes the temporal shape of a serpent, tempts Jesus with life free from godly responsibility. In a haze brought on by crucifixion, Jesus imagines living the life of a normal Judean plebeian, falling in love with Mary Magdalene, having children and dying of old age.

Ultimately unfettered by the Devil’s temptations, Jesus ultimately makes the choice to become the sacrificial Lamb of God, thus securing his divine status. Yet it was that very temptation among other liberties that made Christians go absolutely bonkers about The Last Temptation of Christ. Groups boycotted the film for its supposed blasphemies and religious extremists even firebombed the St. Michael Theatre in Paris during its theatrical release injuring ten. In the fervor of the film’s release many of its detractors hurt their cause by purporting the Jews of Hollywood were out to destroy their religion.

Destroy? I much doubt it. If anything Martin Scorsese’s film is life and faith affirming. The film accepts and celebrates the Christian divinity of Jesus Christ while exposing an uncommon characterization that is much more believable. Not only believable but expresses the very thing that made Christ an important figure, his humanity! Furthermore the film creates a historical context which helps explain simultaneously how someone like Jesus could have existed and why his teachings were so prevalent and dangerous to the likes of Pontius Pilate and the Roman Empire.

The Last Temptation of Christ is ultimately about a man who fights and ultimately accepts his narrative through faith in sacrifice. Nine years after hospitalization and treatment for cocaine addiction, Scorsese was no doubt galvanized by its message of a man fighting inner demons.

While Last Temptation was made eight years after Raging Bull and twelve years after Taxi Driver, with four feature length films in-between I place Last Temptation among the triptych because they depict personal struggles on the part of the protagonists which mirror Martin Scorsese’s own struggles with addiction. But while Raging Bull ends ruefully and Taxi Driver nihilistically, Last Temptation comes full circle, ending with a spiritual affirmation that even staunch zealots cannot deny.

Final Grade: A