The Last Temptation of Christ

The Last Temptation of Christ, (in Greek "O Teleutaios Peirasmos") also published as The Last Temptation, is a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1951. It follows the life of Jesus Christ from his perspective. The novel has been the subject of a great deal of controversy due to its subject matter, and appears regularly on lists of banned books.

The central thesis of the book is that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to every form of temptation that humans face, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. By facing and conquering all of man's weaknesses, Kazantzakis argues in the novel's preface, Christ became the perfect model for our lives; he sacrificed not only on the cross, but throughout his life. He struggled to do God's will, without ever giving in to the temptations of the flesh.

The film

Martin Scorsese directed a film based on the book, which was released by Universal Pictures in 1988. It stars Willem Dafoe as Jesus, Harvey Keitel as Judas Iscariot, and Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene. David Bowie and Harry Dean Stanton also appear as Pontius Pilate and Paul, respectively. The film was entirely shot in Morocco.

Scorsese has been described as a lapsed Catholic; nevertheless, he maintains a traditionally Christian faith in Christ. He had been wanting to make a film version of Jesus' life for many years. He first attempted to make one in the early 1980s, but the project had to be placed on hold. Finally in 1988, The Last Temptation of Christ was completed and released to theaters.

Protests against the movie from the religious community began before the film had even finished production. The studio was expecting a backlash due to the controversies revolving around any media treatment of Christ (see dramatic portrayals of Jesus Christ), but the protests accompanying Last Temptation were unprecedented. Major religious leaders in the United States blasted the film in fiery sermons, and condemned its subject matter as pornographic.

On October 22, 1988, a French Catholic fundamentalist group launched molotov cocktails inside the Parisian saint Michel movie theater to protest against the film projection. This terrorist attack injured thirteen people; four of them were severely burned.

The movie includes a disclaimer explaining that it departs from the commonly-accepted biblical portrayal of Jesus' life, and that it is not intended to be an exact recreation of the events detailed in the Gospels.

Plot synopsis

In the beginning of the movie, Jesus is constructing crosses for the Romans and being tormented by the voice of God, though this is not listed in the Scriptures. He often uses the divine name in the form "Jehovah".

The main source of controversy stemmed from a scene near the end of the movie in which Jesus imagines himself marrying Mary Magdalene instead of dying on the cross. A brief scene of the married couple making love is shown in the film, sparking the anger of many protesters.

What these controversial scenes portray is Satan’s tempting of Christ with the life of a normal man, a man with everyday desires and concerns, free from the burden of being crucified and being the salvation of mankind. In the guise of a beautiful angel, Satan deceptively brings Christ down from the cross in a dream sequence and gives him the life he has desired, telling him he is in fact not the Messiah.

Under Satan’s sham, Jesus marries and raises a family. However, as he is nearing the end of his life, his most devoted disciple, Judas Iscariot, awakens him to the truth of what is happening. As Judas calls him a traitor, Jesus finally realizes he has abandoned his duty: to be crucified and to be the salvation of mankind. Seeing this, that he has been tempted into living a man’s life and dying a peaceful death, Jesus crawls out into the streets of Jerusalem as it burns with the fires of the Jewish Rebellion, and begs God to return him to his crucifixion, finally rejecting Satan’s offering. At that point, he is returned to the cross, awakening from his dream. Jesus has now been tempted as a man, and having survived the real temptations of a man, Jesus says his dying words, “It is accomplished.”

Critical reception and interpretation

The film has been supported by scholars, film critics, and some religious leaders. In his defense of the movie, noted critic (and friend of Scorsese) Roger Ebert wrote that Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader "paid Christ the compliment of taking him and his message seriously, and they have made a film that does not turn him into a garish, emasculated image from a religious postcard. Here he is flesh and blood, struggling, questioning, asking himself and his father which is the right way, and finally, after great suffering, earning the right to say, on the cross, 'It is accomplished'".

In recent years, the film has been cast in a more positive light within the Christian community. Some conservative Christians groups (many who initially attacked the film) have reexamined the film and found it an acceptable hypothesis on what it might have been like for Christ to be both fully human (subject to all of man's weaknesses) and fully God (total perfection and omnipotence). Some Christian scholars admit that maintaining equilibrium between these two contrasting natures might have been as difficult as The Last Temptation of Christ speculates, a notion that is even suggested in the Gospel of John when Christ admits, "I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (chapter 6). In the case of Kazantzakis's and Scorsese's Christ, there is a notable difference between Christ's will and the will of his Father; yet driven by his love for mankind and his devotion to his Father, Christ constantly denies his own will in order to fulfil his divine mission as Savior. Promise Keepers is the most notable conservative Christian group to recently come out and defend this interpretation of Christ, and acceptance of The Last Temptation of Christ seems to growing in many Christian communities and organizations.

However, some Christians retain a negative view of the film. Conservative film critic Michael Medved has an extreme dislike of the film for its biblical inaccuracy (although the film itself never claimed to be faithful to the Bible), especially its portrayal (in his eyes) of Judas Iscariot being braver and wiser than Jesus.

The film's musical soundtrack was composed by Peter Gabriel and was released on CD with the title Music for The Last Temptation of Christ. The film's score itself has been widely acclaimed as a landmark in the popularization of world music. Gabriel compiled additional material by various musicians as Passion - Sources.

Trivia

The Last Temptation of Christ is one of Kevin Smith's five favorite movies.

External links

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/theater/lasttemptation.html
http://www.skepticfiles.org/xhate/jesusflm.htm
The Last Temptation of Christ at the Arts & Faith Top100 Spiritually Significant Films list
David Ehrenstein essay at criterionco.com

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The film

Plot synopsis

Critical reception and interpretation

Trivia

See also

External links