The Last Temptation of Christ - Criterion Collection | Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel

The Last Temptation of Christ - Criterion Collection | Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel | Not for the uneducated

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The Last Temptatio...

	The Last Temptation of Christ - Criterion Collection Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel Criterion, 2000 average customer review:based on 274 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

At last, Martin Scorsese's most personal masterpiece can be seen outside of the controversy it engendered, and be seen for what it is: a l5-year labor of love. Nikos Kazantzakis' landmark novel comes to breathtaking life in this moving and spiritual film. The all-star cast includes Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie, and Willem Dafoe as Jesus. Criterion is proud to present this cinematic treasure in an exclusive Director Approved special edition.

The most spiritual movie ever made

The Last Temptation of Christ shows Christ as one who struggled, and some Christians find that blasphemous. Isn't it ironic that in the bible, Jews had Christ crucified for blasphemy, and now some Christians would have Scorsese excoriated for blasphemy?

Christ was revolutionary, and this movie gets that accross with more impact by straying from the familiar biblical account. Some wrong ideas are given voice in the course of this story, but not sympathetically. We learn in this movie that the truth is important and to be careful what voices we follow, and for that wisdom we look... where?

The Last Temptation of Christ suggests that God is to be discovered, not taught. If we wrote down what we discovered, we might all of us be bible writers. Is that blasphemy?

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Not for the uneducated

This movie is not for the uneducated, or those who never entertain a theological thought. Quite the opposite to the warm, fuzzy Christ of today's charismatic Christian fervor where nothing, really, is demanded of the believer, the Christ in the Last Temptation is the genuine human form of God. And, fact is, many in the Christian camp today, are uncomfortable with that realization: that their God-made-man, could actually experience insecurity, depression, and heaven forbid, lust.

I recall when the film first made its appearance in the U.S., the evangelist James Dobson went absolutely, rabidly ballistic. His radio rantings against the movie proved to me that this man has a psychological problem. He ranted, and ranted, and ranted... and yet, Dobson never saw the movie. Dobson reacted to the charismatic hysteria that was fomenting at the time. Hypocrite that he is.

Oh well, be that as it may, The Last Temptation of Christ is a thinker's work - both the book and movie - and only cogent minds will be able to embrace it.

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A good effort with a few distractions

This is a fascinating look at Jesus's dual nature; what he might have been; the struggles and confusion he must have endured; what kind of life he would have had if he had not submitted himself to be sacrificed.
These are the strongest aspects of the story, and the locations in Morocco are perfect. Also, David Bowie gives a too-short performance as Pontius Pilate.

That said, I found the New York and other modern accents from many of the actors to be distracting, and some of the scenes could have been more effective or tightened up. The scenes with John the Baptist and his raving lunatic followers were rather bizarre as well.

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I Really Don't Know What to Think About This Movie

This movie is just purely fantasy about what might of, could of, or should of happened back then, but all the while making a mild attempt to be careful not to overly offend Christians. If they got offended then that's their problem. But I guess seeing Christ assembling crosses and then helping to nail Jews to them would be rather offensive to most Christians, or decent people in general. Being an ex-Christian, I understand that the basis of Christianity is a heartfelt belief in the miraculous resurrection back to life after death of a specially sent "god-man" of virgin birth around 2,000 years ago, who is now called "Christ", and one they have put upon a pedestal and worship as a God and whom they say will only accept them into heaven after they beg him for forgiveness of their wicked and lost souls and acknowledge him as their eternal lord and master. And also that they must make incredible irritants of themselves proselytizing the "good news!" like I (and anyone else born in the free world) haven't heard it a hundred-thousand times already. Yep, I can see a fairly interesting movie plot in all of that.

I bought this movie as a birthday present for my husband since he asked specifically for it. He's a Christian and believes in the virgin birth, miracle stuff, and resurrection business but I no longer do. I watched the movie with him and while watching Jesus thrash around on the floor, rolling about in mental torture of some sort I kept thinking, "It's too bad they didn't understand mental illness back then, especially schizophrenia". Even more so when he was all wild-eyed with a crazed look telling Judas that God was talking to him.

But whether you believe the Christian story or not, it's a fairly entertaining movie although I really wished William Defoe had not played the part of Christ. Even Harvey Keitel was weird as Judas. Defoe just looked freaky with his huge gapped teeth and humongous mouth. I suppose Jesus could have been even freakier looking but who knows......he may have not even existed. But that's beside the point. And the nitty-gritty of life back then was depicted as dry, dirty, ragged, rough, windy and with very little naturally occurring water (lakes, rivers, ponds, pools or even puddles) anywhere. John the Baptist and his band of zealots were mucking about in a trickle of a stream. It was similar to a spaghetti western in realism. Maybe it was too dirty. You could almost smell the stink in the air and I felt like swatting at flies some of the time.

Christians can be happy that the movie ended in the traditional way with him being back, and suffering on the cross with the assumption that he will certainly be resurrected. My heart did hurt for him when he was in the Garden of Gethsemene praying so hard and begging God to stop it all - that he didn't want to do it. William Defoe did act out that scene very well - I felt compassion for the Jesus character. Non-Christians can enjoy the movie too, but they may be a bit disappointed since he is fulfilling the Christian role given him. The dialogue sounded rather stilted and forced - did they really talk like that back then? So Bible-ish, and it wasn't even written then.

I did like how sincere the devil seemed to be in the form of the angel child who helped Jesus down from his cross. That was the only character who seemed real and believable. But when his/her sham was revealed she/he turned into a big ole flaming geyser of sorts, said some devil junk and disappeared - I guess back to hell or maybe the White House, who knows, but it was a bit old and overdone. And having Mary Magdalene suddenly drop dead when she was very happy and apparently healthy and ready to give birth any day made no sense. The entire story was a little hard for me to swallow, but hubby really enjoyed it. But we couldn't discuss it afterwards. Although he is fairly modern thinking about his religion and can watch this movie unaffected negatively by it, he still rails every time I say something the least bit critical, or that which might shed a tiny shadow of doubt concerning his faith in Christianity.

It's not worth $29.99 and that price floored me when I saw it. But I needed it soon, and Amazon usually sends stuff fairly fast. The commentaries and other stuff are sort of interesting, but not enough to keep you awake if you watch it during the late evening hours.

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