Review of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) by Jack B — 14 Oct 2009

A respectful portrait of Christ that gets his story's message across, but allows itself to be accessible to non-religious viewers. Either this is the only Jesus movie that makes sense to me, or I have a bias towards anything with Martin Scorsese's name on it.

Maybe it's both. The film portrays Jesus as the true son of God, whose time spent on earth is his ultimate test; he's destined for the resurrection from the beginning, but living as a mortal man, he learns just how difficult it is for the average man to abide by his father's values; he feels the same desires and fears as any human being (desire to settle down and start a family, lust, fear of death, the whole nine yards); the knowledge of impending prosecution and crucifixion terrifies him, and while it doesn't end up making him back out of his purpose for living in the first place, it comes close.

That he goes through with it in the end is moving whether you believe the story to be true or not. I'm strictly agnostic, but even an atheist with an appreciation for good filmmaking could enjoy and think for days about this as an uncommonly deep fantasy film at least.

Powerful stuff.