Review of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) by Dan J — 18 Aug 2013

We all know the story. There's no need to dabble into that area and yet that is exactly what Martin Scorsese has done with his biblical epic, The Last Temptation of Christ. After many years of going to church, I never once questioned that Jesus could be a man let alone have a selfish thought.

The possibility of this had never crossed my mind and how could it? He's always depicted as pure and unfaltering and to think otherwise just doesn't seem right in any sense. Yet Scorsese had done just that and what we are left with is, in my opinion, the most accurate depiction of Him.

We see him as a struggling man trying to come to terms with the question "What if Jesus decided not to die for us?" It's something we've all thought of at least once and the obvious answers are pain and suffering and all the evil things evil beings would do.

But it's nothing of the sorts at all and instead we see Jesus have sex, lose the one he loves, raise a family and live the life every man wishes to someday. It's a different take on anything to do with Jesus, especially having watched Mel Gibson's Passion first where we only witness His rise to heaven and not the inner turmoils that must have been plaguing his mind during all of this.

Littered with amazing performances especially from Harvey Keitel as Judas, Scorsese's style and substance and a terrific screenplay, The Last Temptation of Christ is by far one of the most controversial films I've seen to date and yet it's so realistic that it truly will have the audience divided down the middle and it is one of Scorsese's masterpieces.