The Last Temptation of Christ is the TRUE Passion of The Christ
Romanticizing a man is a sin. It brings about a cultural mob who discredits that man's vision for a future by twisting his image into their singular perception, fueling anger that leaves others in pain. Before "The Last Temptation of Christ" starts a disclaimer from Nikos Kazantzakis' book reads, "This book is not a biography; it is the confession of every man who struggles. In publishing it, I have fulfilled my duty. The duty of a person who has struggled much, was much embittered in his life and had many hopes. I am certain that every free man who reads this book, so filled as it is with love, will more than ever before, better than ever before, love Christ." In battling his sins, Kazantzakis shared a similarity with director Martin Scorsese and the world. The Bible's interpretation of Christ is one of a God, not a man.
Even in Nikos Kazantzakis' own words, it's his internal struggles that are every man's strife. Blind worship achieves nothing in understanding the absolute sacrifice Christ made to protect us from our sins. Before submitting himself entirely to becoming a filmmaker, Martin Scorsese sought to grow into a priest. Growing up in Queens, New York, Martin was surrounded by the sin we typically see displayed in his early work, which later developed into the popular Mise-en-scène he established post "Goodfellas." In his first feature, "Who's That Knocking at My Door," Harvey Keitel plays a young man struggling between his faith and the loyalty he has to his friends that are involved in crime. Five years later, Scorsese writes the same role for Keitel in "Mean Streets" only this time with a few more features under his belt, the message is structurally more fine-tuned.
In his first collaboration with screenwriter Paul Schrader who would go on to pen the script for "Last Temptation," the two men worked on "Taxi Driver." The story is about a man where the world of criminality and urban decay around him transformed Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) into an unlawful man himself. Where giving into sin cleansed Bickle of his moral dilemma, the subsequent films Scorsese made featured characters whose crimes against humanity lead to their downfall.
Jake LaMotta's (once more Robert DeNiro) violence leads to the destruction of the relationship he has with his wife, children, and brother. Henry Hill's (Ray Liotta) life in the mob results in him selling out his friends, tarnishing his relationship with his spouse and losing everything he had. "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "The Irishman" share the same themes. Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) renounces religion from the get-go pursuing him into a life filled with bloodshed until the last blood that has been spilled was his own.
Succumbing to sin is a pang of guilt, Mr. Scorsese has combatted since his adolescence to today. Beyond his childhood, it's no secret that Scorsese was addicted to cocaine. Proceeding his drug addiction in life was more than one failed marriage. In an interview with the late Roger Ebert regarding "The Last Temptation of Christ," Scorsese was quoted saying, "I am living in sin, and I will go to hell because of it." Ever since Martin Scorsese was a child, he wanted to make a film documenting the life of Jesus. To make such a movie would be a monumental task fraught with conflict. When Barbara Hershey, who would go on to play Mary Magdalene in the film presented Scorsese with Nikos Kazantzakis' book, Marty finally had a chance to tell his story.
The story of Christ seems to have always been adapted in a textbook style of sainthood. Exploring Jesus as a man would be the burden Scorsese would take on knowing the implications of embarking upon such a project. When discovering that the film was to be made, Scorsese's parents even had their reservations. They feared for their son's life due to the controversy they knew the picture would stir. Initially, "Last Temptation" was produced by Paramount at a budget of $14 million and was set to be shot in on location in Israel. At the last minute, Paramount dropped out.
Proceeding the fallout Universal Pictures and theatre chain, Cineplex Odeon co-financed the film with half the budget at $7 million. The movie would be shot in Morocco. Upon release, "Last Temptation" was met with the burning of two cinemas in Paris and Besançon by French fundamentalist Catholics resulting in several injuries and one death.
For decades the film was banned in several countries, including Argentina, Chile, Bulgaria, England, and Mexico. In the Philippines and Singapore, "The Last Temptation" is forbidden to this day. At home, several theatre chains refused to screen the movie. One of these, General Cinemas, later apologized to Mr. Scorsese for that decision. Video stores wouldn't carry the religious picture on their shelves either. All this controversy for what? Because Martin Scorsese dared to examine Jesus as a man.
Repenting for his sins as the author of its source material did, Martin Scorsese sought to make an honest portrayal of Jesus. There's a tumultuous relationship between Christ (Willem Dafoe) and Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey). Within the first 20 minutes of the film, with an unspoken past between the two that's insinuated. Christ begs Mary for her forgiveness. When crucified, Jesus verbalizes his regrets for being a poor son to his mother, Mary, mother of God (Verna Bloom). Initially, being a speaker for peace, Christ resorts to bloodshed. The frustration stems from the lack of communication he receives from his almighty father. Continually Jesus asks for a sign but is never given one.
That lack of communication leads to resentment. In Christ's bitterness, let alone his self-loathing, we begin the picture with Jesus not being the one crucified but instead using his carpentry skills to work alongside the Romans to crucify Jewish rebels. The image of the blood coming from a man's feet splattered on Jesus' face is one that forebodes the regret of the decision he will later make in the film. The apostles hang on Jesus' every word slavishly. The only Apostle to truly challenge him is Judas (Harvey Keitel)
Sent initially to kill Jesus for his collaboration with the Romans, Judas agrees to follow Jesus on his crusade. Contrary to the usual depiction of Judas, "The Last Temptation" creates a more sympathetic angle of the condemned Apostle yet never strays from the public's negative perception of Judas. Being an assassin, Judas warns Jesus that if he strays too far from the path of what he perceives is a war against the Roman's then he'll cut his throat. When Christ promotes peace, Judas pins Jesus against a wall with a knife to his throat; however, he resists the act of killing, still believing in Christ's words.
With his declaration of war as Jesus cleanses the temple of Jerusalem with his army, Jesus's hands bleed. It's a final message from God for him to be crucified. When demanded to give the order to purge, it's Judas whom Jesus asks for help when he feels ill, unable to provide the call to action. Confiding in Judas his need to be crucified, punished for his deeds, saving humanity through self-sacrifice, Judas relents. Weeping, he begs Jesus not to go through with the final will.
In the final moments before turning himself into Pontius Pilate (David Bowie), Judas storms out of the last supper, disgusted with how Christ is going to suffer. Judas' behavior comes to the dismay of Peter (Victor Argo), proclaiming, "we're not finished yet!" It is Judas above all the apostles in the end who cares for Christ the most. Entering as the killer, leaving as a heartbroken friend, it is Judas who was the purest among the saints. Diving into the film's most ubiquitous moments, Jesus is met by a little girl. A Guardian Angel (played magnificently by Juliette Caton), she informs Jesus that he was not meant to suffer anymore but to be happy. For he was not the Messiah. He has done enough to please God.
Jesus is shown a world away from the desert filled with lush greenery. Witnessing such a contrast in beauty. Jesus asks the Angel, "Why has it changed so much?" She replies, "It hasn't changed. You have. Now you can see its real beauty." Jesus, at last, lives a life of harmony. He has children with Mary Magdalene, who dies the day after their affair. According to the Angel, it was God's will for her to die so she could present him with the gift of his offspring.
Now an older man on his death bed, the world of Jerusalem, is engulfed in flames. The Jews have rebelled against the Romans as Jesus lays saddened yet complacent in his life choices that have doomed the land of God. Surrounded by his Apostles, the one who's too furious to speak with Jesus is none other than Judas. In his rage, Judas' first words to his friend he hasn't seen in decades are "TRAITOR!" Judas is the one that reveals to Christ that the Guardian Angel all along is Satan. The revelation strikes Jesus like a meteor. He gave in to the temptation of comfort by living a lie.
Gleefully Satan proclaims to Jesus that he accepted the fate of humanity, and it's time for him to die peacefully. Crawling to his knees, Jesus begs his father to be crucified; thus, we jump back in time to Christ on the cross. A looks elation slathers across Jesus' bloodied face as the sinning onlookers spew hatred at him. "It is accomplished!" Proclaims the Messiah, he dies as does the film stock in a moment of dual serendipity.
In fiction, we discover a greater truth. Literature, music, film, all can understand a human being on a level far higher than what facts can provide. Evidence can read like a rap sheet of all your previous actions, whether criminal or innocent—filmmakers before and after covered the story of Jesus with a cold calculation deprived of pure passion. Whether it be a childish display of the Messiah lacking any real substance or the heartless gorefest that is "The Passion of The Christ," the filmmaker fails to explore his very soul.
Nikos Kazantzakis wanted humanity to understand to be sinful was okay as there can be redemption. Through fictionalizing the Bible, did he grasp not merely the physical but the psychological offering Christ had made. Living with regret for what he considers to be sinful actions, Scorsese opted to go in a daring direction by adapting Kazantzakis' book as a means of his own atonement. I can only speculate, but Scorsese welcomed the repercussions of his work, which could have cost him his life, yet he wanted to exercise the regrets he held within his heart.
By examining Christ as a man has Martin Scorsese been able to analyze the duality between sainthood and sin that man carries within themselves. Resisting villainizing, Judas, Scorsese chooses to dignify him. He makes us understand that weight he had to bear when prosecuting his friend, thus making him holier than those who hung on Jesus' every word. Through Jesus' selfishness by giving into violence and temptation, can we understand that Christ-like any one of us did not brazenly take to the cross. His penance was met with the type of self-doubt that makes him far more heroic by examining his psyche in a way the Bible fails to do.
The decision to use American actors who don't attach a fictitious British vernacular that's often used in cinematic historical pieces is a deliberate choice to make the characters relate to not the audience but Scorsese as he saw the apostles as "street guys." Such a contemporary method of speech could have been unintentionally comical yet perfectly coincides with a modern audience who's not dragged down by an ancient dialect.
The true passion for Christ is empathizing with his decisions. It's questioning what you would do in his position? How would you resist temptation? In his subsequent years, Scorsese wouldn't have tackled those temptations as vigorously until he made "Silence." The story is of a Jesuit priest who chooses comfort instead of death, yet slowly dies inside from his regret for the rest of his mortal life and perhaps beyond that.
Who's to say the Bible itself isn't a work of fiction? If it were not, then why are there four Gospels? Could it not be argued that Nikos Kazantzakis book could be considered Gospel? How can it not be viewed as an act of love on Scorsese's behalf to understand Jesus by making him flawed? Perhaps if society could interpret, even question the good book, then there wouldn't be so much bloodshed in the name of Christ. Maybe theaters wouldn't be burned down because of a director's opposing vision of the great Gospel.
Much like in the film, when Jesus first speaks words of peace, many misinterpret it as a call to rampage. Importance should be set on compassion when those disagree with someone else's religious beliefs, not vitriol. "The Last Temptation of Christ" is the most loving portrait of Jesus Christ placed on film as it does question the man on a moral level. By understanding Jesus on a morally ambivalent scale, can the artist reach some semblance of salvation.
