The Last Temptation of Christ-The roomie and I took this in yesterday morning. It'd been well over 30 years since I'd last seen it.
Obviously, because of who I am today, I have some issues with the film that 24 year old me didn't have.
That said, I think there is a very metatextual narrative to this film that a lot of people may have not picked up on.
First off, being a Christian, I do not agree with the film or novel it's based on as an examination of the life of Christ. And if I'm being honest, I don't think it's meant to be some kind of revelation of the 'historical Jesus' at all.
What I DO think is interesting, however, is the parallel that many Christians have to this Jesus, as historical fiction, in matters of conflict of faith and how we punish ourselves and don't give ourselves the Grace we need to walk in spiritual peace. I think more Christians need to understand this story and see it as a man (author Nikos Kazantzakis) struggling to understand his own relationship with God. I don't think he needed to make Jesus the main character of this story in order for it to still be poignant (see Silence, a more effective story of this type), but the book exists, the movie exists and it does no good to wish it were otherwise.
Dafoe's Jesus blames himself for what happened to Mary Magdalene by not taking her as a wife. His desire to be chaste had nothing to do with God and had everything to do with fear and uncertainty about not hearing God's voice and why it is that he doesn't think he hears it. Scorsese, the director of this film, visited similar themes in his adaptation of Shusaku Endo's excellent novel Silence, about Jesuits that face severe torture at the hands of Japanese samurai and wonder why God isn't saving them. I get the impression Scorsese, a man of faith as far as I know, often struggles with what many describe as God's 'silence'.
There are other subversions of established, canonized scripture in the story, such as Judas being a veritable consiprator in Jesus' martyrdom. Jesus believes he must be martyred on the cross but it's really just hubris because he fears dying and he insists that Judas be the one to betray him to the Pharisees and the Romans because Judas is the only one he can trust with this awful responsibility. Judas, played by Harvey Keitel, is a very rough individual in this interpretation, a zealot tasked with killing Jesus but who ultimately becomes his most loyal disciple.
At the end, Jesus lives in a dreamlike delusion while on the cross where Satan visits him disguised as a guardian angel who tells him that God sent her to take him off the cross and allow him to live a normal life. This is clearly 'the last temptation of Christ', the devil's last shot at corrupting the Son of Man at his most vulnerable state. Here we see a Jesus who is healed from his wounds and his suffering, 'makes it up' to Mary Magdalene by marrying her and attempting to have a family with her ony to see her die before the baby can be born, marrying the sister of Lazarus (who is murdered by the zealots earler in the film to try and suppress the truth of Jesus' divinity) and having a family with her and also making a mistress of Lazarus' wife at the same time. It's a Jesus free of his guilt but also his purity, just another jabroni living a jabroni's misguided 'he gets us' lifestyle right up until the very end. Essentially, Anton Lavey's 'do as thou will' philosophy manifest. The guardian angel tells Jesus 'there is only one woman in all the world. One is as good as another, then.'
He has a chance encounter with his disciple Paul, who tells him that who he is now doesn't matter because they have taken his life and turned it into a myth in order to propagate their messiah narrative. When Jesus says he'll expose their lies because he didn't rise from the grave after three days, Paul tells him it doesn't matter because no one will believe him when compared to the monolith that is Jesus Christ. It's fairly compelling to watch, especially since Jesus believed he was hearing God's voice (in some fashion) for much of the film even though he couldn't understand it. It's only after he gives in to his mortal desires that he stops hearing it.
At the end of the film, as Jerusalem falls in fire and bloodshed as a result of his cowardice and choosing the body over the spirit (something that he railed against for most of the movie), it is a vision of Judas that comes to remind him that he's not supposed to be there and that this is all a lie. He tells Jesus that the guardian angel is Satan, the pillar of flame in the desert, who admits it when he is exposed, believing he has triumphed over God himself. Sensing he still has a chance to make things right, he crawls through the wreckage of Jerusalem and back up to Golgotha to return to the place he was always supposed to be. Waking up, he finds himself once more on the cross, exactly as things should be and he is happy at last. It's an oddly heroic moment of ultimate sacrifice, facing death bravely and with a higher purpose in mind over choosing to right what he mistakenly believes are his own mortal wrongs. Looking up, he smiles and cries out 'It is accomplished!' and then dies. There is a screeching noise at that point, what I can only assume is the voice of God and all the angels as he ascends, and a triumphant song plays out. Jesus overcomes his last temptation.
Again, as a Christian, I can only classify the story as a pure blasphemy and not worthy of the Holy Trinity. But as an examination of our own mortal failings and weakness, I found it utterly fascinating. On that level, I can appreciate the story and its analysis of faith, the weight of one's spirit and what it means to resist temptation rather than clutch at my rosary (despite not being Catholic). At the end, Jesus embraces who he is supposed to be and truly accepts his divine role in the universe. That is an analogy to anyone thinking they are doing God's will before they truly understand it. I also think those that watch this film and feel threatened by it aren't confident in their own faith. That says a lot about how such a film is received.
How strong is your conviction?
I give the film 4 out of 5.
