Week 23: The Last Temptation of Christ
"The Dual substance of Christ-
the yearning, so human,
so superhuman,
of man to attain God...
has always been a deep
inscrutable mystery to me.
My principle anguish and source
of all my joys and sorrows
has been the incessant
merciless battle between
the spirit and the flesh
and my soul is the arena
where those two armies
have clashed and met."
-Nikos Kazantzakis, from his book "The Last Temptation of Christ"
This film is not based upon the Gospels
but upon this fictional exploration
of the eternal spiritual conflict
These words open Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. They must be remembered throughout the entire picture. This film is not meant to be a depiction of the life and death of Christ as told in the gospels, but an exploration of the largest paradox in the bible itself- the idea that Jesus Christ was both the son of God and human at the same time. This bold decision has single handedly caused the film to be unfairly deemed as blasphemous. To this date The Last Temptation of Christ still stands as one of the most controversial films of all time.
I suppose I can understand where the controversy comes from, particularly from those outspoken opponents whom have never seen the film in the first place. Yes, the film does show Jesus having discrete sex with Mary Magdalene. There is also intense violence and nudity, although neither could be called gratuitous. When thinking of the picture as a whole, in context with the message the film is trying to give, these scenes are absolutely necessary to get the point that Scorsese and Nikos Kazantzakis (the author of the novel) are trying to get across. Regardless of interpretation, the film has been doomed with an air of notoriety. It is a shame. This is one of the most profoundly religious experiences in this history of the medium.
The Last Temptation of Christ tells the abbreviated story of Jesus (Willem Dafoe), from his days as a carpenter, to his time in the desert, his miracles, and eventual crucifixion. It is as broad as any Easter Pageant or passion play. We see Jesus preach to his disciples, heal the sick, raise Lazarus from the dead, etc. In many ways it is the same story that has been told for centuries, albeit through the eyes and production values of a Martin Scorsese Picture. The times of Christ are seen with stark realism through Scorsese’s lens- when stones are thrown we see blood, while prostitutes are degraded we see their naked flesh. The purpose of this is to not talk down to the viewer. These are the times of Christ, and they are dark and primitive.
The main difference between this film and others is in its bold depiction of Jesus. I remember watching countless passion plays at church in my youth. Growing up in the Midwest it is impossible to not be indoctrinated into the gospels, regardless of your religious affiliation or lack thereof. The plays were always the same. Christ performs miracles, spreads the word of God, is betrayed by Judas, chastised by Pontus Pilate, whipped, beaten, and then hung on the cross. Sometimes the play ended here, the climax being the crucifixion; others would end with the resurrection of Christ. Regardless of how they ended, they were always the same- their intent being to show the passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson’s film of the same name is nothing but a more graphic version of this type of depiction). Families would sit, watch, and view Christ’s sufferings as the ultimate sacrifice of love and devotion, knowing that God sent his only begotten son to die for the sins of the human race. People would cry, sinners would be saved, and at the end of the production we would eat cookies in basement somewhere.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with these types of pageants. They celebrate the gospel of Jesus, the cornerstone of Christianity. They use the images to spread the word of their belief systems. The problem here, at least for me anyway, was that Christ was always unattainable. He was more a spectral image than a man. In the productions he would also seem fearless, brave and all knowing- in short, he was God walking the earth. Because of this, the ultimate paradox- Christ was a man, is never really explored.
This is what makes Scorsese and Kazantzakis’s work so unique. Never before (or since) have I ever seen a more fully realized depiction of Christ. The Jesus in this film is a man, plain and simple. There are long stretches at the beginning of the film where he is shown struggling with his own faith- at times, prior to his days in the desert, he does not even know he is the son of God at all, his faith is constantly challenged- his desires constantly human. When one accepts the belief that Christ was a man, it forces them to understand that he had human desires. He feels anger, lust, grief, depression, sadness, confusion and elation. It may be blasphemous- but it is perfectly understandable to belief that Christ may have even resented God’s decision that he must die on the cross. This makes the mental, the psychological, pain and suffering of Jesus possibly more relevant that the physical pain he felt during the crucifixion.
The film is masterful because it succeeds exactly in what it sets out to do- explore the relationship between Jesus: the man and Jesus: the son of God. Willem Dafoe’s performance is the most moving and powerful portrayal of the Christian messiah because of this very fact. Dafoe, in what most certainly be one of the most thankless roles of all time, plays Jesus- not as a God, but as a man, in every single scene. We see the range of human emotion through his eyes and his actions. After his time in the desert, when Christ actually begins to perform miracles, it is as if it is not Jesus speaking at all- God is simply speaking through him.
Scorsese makes many excellent directorial and thematic decisions here. He is our greatest living director. The camera is constantly alive- always moving and shifting its angles so that we are looking at the action from Scorsese’s perspective. Scorsese’s most famous camera technique, the “God’s eye view” in which the entire frame is shown from above, is used more effectively here than in any of his other pictures. This is fitting. Scorsese wants us to watch certain sequences as God would be watching them, peering down on his son. His use of music (a world score by the brilliant Peter Gabriel) is rousing and effective. I have a feeling that Mel Gibson, in his own Passion of the Christ, advised his own composer, John Debney, to listen to the score in this film for ideas.
There has been some criticism of the acting, particularly against Harvey Kietel’s Judas Iscariot. Some viewers have complained that some of the characters seem to have Brooklyn accents, particularly Kietel. Others have complained that the film is not historically accurate due to its choice of dialect- plain spoken English. Scorsese responds to these claims in the commentary of his picture. He wanted people to understand what is being said. There is no stilted English from the King James court here- no “Thou’s or “Ye’s” for a reason. Scorsese wanted viewers to look past the language. It is more difficult to get a genuine emotional experience when you spend the whole moving trying to figure out what is going on.
The ultimate strength of the film- the crux of all of the controversy- is the last temptation itself. For the majority of the picture the story of Jesus is shown, for the most part, the way you may have heard. Christ appears more human, there is a little more blood and a lot more nudity, but for the first two hours there is nothing necessarily outrageous about this picture, or for that matter, Kazantzakis’s novel. The turning point of the film comes immediately after the crucifixion. Jesus is on the cross, the deed has been done and then the “fictional” part of the tale kicks in. Christ, who has been tempted by Mary Magdalene as well as countless times in the desert, is given his fictional “last temptation” on the cross.
An angel in the form of a young girl comes to Christ on the cross and tells him he does not have to die. He can live a human life free of sacrifice, raise a family and engage in earthly pleasures. The “angel” (who is obviously Satan) uses the story of Abraham and Isaac to convince Jesus that God only wanted to see if his son would sacrifice himself, and did not actually expect him to. The angel helps Jesus off the cross and they go away together. Jesus marries Mary Magdalene; they have sex and raise a family. Magdalene dies and Jesus goes on to mate with Mary, the wife of Lazarus. Jesus enjoys his mortal life- but at what cost?
One day Jesus is walking through the streets of Jerusalem and overhears Paul (Harry Dean Stanton) preaching Christianity. Paul is telling the masses that Jesus has been resurrected, has died for their sins, and now heaven is free for everyone. Jesus calls Paul a liar, and Paul gives one of the best monologues I have ever heard about modern religion, not just Christianity. It can be appreciated by believers and non-believers alike. I have never heard religion explained with such clarity:
“Wait just a minute. What's the matter with you! Look around you, look at all of these people, look at their faces. Don't you see how unhappy they are? Don't you see how much they're suffering? Their only hope is the resurrected Jesus. I don't care if you're Jesus or not- the resurrected Jesus will save the world and that's what matters. I created the truth, out of what people needed and what they believed. If I have to crucify you to save the world, then I will crucify you- and if I have to resurrect you I will do that too, whether you like it or not. You don't know how much people need God. You don't know how happy he can make them. He can make them happy to do anything- he can make them happy to die. All for the sake of Christ. Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of god, the messiah. Not you. Not for your sake. You know, I'm glad I met you, because now I can forget all about you. My Jesus is much more important, much more powerful."
I consider myself a secular humanist. I am, in essence, an atheist. I do not believe that Jesus was the son of God, or that there is a God necessarily at all. There may be, but if there is, I believe that we as a species will always be far too limited to understand its will. However, I do understand the need for religion. I embrace it, at least when it is not used for evil (and it is- frequently). Paul sums it all up. Jesus may have been the messiah, he may not have been. The story has been altered for thousands of years, but the result still remains. The simple message of Christianity (and all other religions for that matter) is hope and love. Everything else is dogma and misunderstanding. I believe that our ultimate purpose is to better ourselves and our community through the spread of love, happiness, and the common good. One does not have to be a beliver to appreciate the moral teachings of the bible. There is beauty within that book that can be appreciated on a variety of levels, not only spiritual ones.
The “last temptation” in the film is an elaborate hallucination, concocted by Satan himself, to force Christ to forsake his obligations to die. Christ is tempted on the cross to lead a normal life and the last 20 minutes of the film are this hallucination. When the realization comes to Jesus that he is living a fantasy- that his "angel" is in fact the devil- he repents and asks for forgiveness. He accepts his fate and is shown back on the cross, a decades worth of experience taking place in no less than a 30 second vision. The human Christ has repented and has resisted temptation. When he says, in his final words, “it is accomplished” he is completely and willingly sacrificed not only his body, but his mind as well. Once we understand the film's message we have a more thorough and complete understanding of the sacrifice that Christianity relies on- and are better for it. People that think of the film as inappropriate, obscene, or blasphemous have most likely never seen it or simply do not understand it. This is a film that people of all belief structures should see. It is far from evil, it is good.
Review and Analysis by Shaun Henisey
Cast and Credits:
Jesus: Willem Dafoe
Judas: Harvey Kietel
Mary Magdalene: Barbara Hershey
Saul/Paul: Harry Dean Stanton
Pontius Pilate: David Bowie
Universal Pictures presents a Martin Scorsese Picture. Screenplay by Paul Schrader based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Photographed by Michael Ballhaus. Edited by Thelma Schoonmaker. Music by Peter Gabriel.
Rated R: For Adult Themes, Nudity, Violence and Strong Sexual Content. Running Time: 164 minutes.