Review of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) by Andrewzealand — 11 Apr 2015

One more thing I want to say about this movie. I felt that the Jews were portrayed positively in this film, compared to other portrayals of Jesus's life, including the Gospels of Matt, Mark, Luke & John. I respect the Gospels, but I've always noticed a clear bias towards Jews in them (excluding Jesus's followers of course). In this film, when Jesus comes into the temple and challenges the priest in charge, the priest has a reasonable defence for the presence of money changers in the temple and when Jesus yells out "God is not an Israelite!" even his disciples think he went too far and escort him out of the temple. Though I feel Jesus is portrayed as being ultimately right, the Jews are not portrayed as being totally in the wrong. For that matter, neither are the Romans. I like Jesus's conversation with Pontius Pilate (played by David Bowie) which becomes almost a heart to heart debate at one point.

The film doesn't really have definitive "bad guys" as such. There is "Satan" who tests Jesus in the desert and then while on the cross, but you could argue that "Satan" is testing Jesus on God's behalf as per the Book of Job. You could say the only true villain in this film is the dark side of human nature which Willem Dafoe's Jesus teaches is mankind's biggest enemy.