Review of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) by Janne F — 05 Nov 2009

"What's good for man isn't good for God!".

Director: Martin Scorsese.

Starring: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Vera Bloom.

Running time: 164 minutes.

Country: USA.

I had high expectations for this film because it is a film from Martin Scorsese and it is one of the few Scorsese films that is a non-crime film and has drama within it. This film disappointed me quite a bit. The best things about this film were that it did show how horrifying Jesus' crucifixion really was to endure and to witness. The disappointments for me were that it dragged on a bit and went a bit boring. Also, I know the story of Jesus but I got a bit confused at times because there were an awful lot of events that occurred at around the same time. I was confused on the scene where Jesus was crucified and then his guardian angel came to him and she took him off the cross and he was alive but in the Bible he never came off the cross alive but the screen flashed to Jesus on the cross and he died at the end of it which was a bit weird. I will give this film credit for being underrated because I think most people choose to watch Mel Gibson's Passion Of The Christ over this one.

I have mixed feelings about Willem Dafoe as Jesus because he was powerful enough for the character but I could see him unfortunately as the Green Goblin/Norman Osborn. In this film he was very heroic and it showed how good Willem can be as a hero as well as a villain. If not Jesus in a biblical story then I think that he would have made a good Moses. I did still like him as Jesus though. Harvey Keitel was pretty crap as Judas because he didn't completely show how powerful Judas really was with Jesus and how badly he betrayed Jesus.

As I said, this is one of the few if not the only non-crime film that Martin Scorsese has directed. Scorsese goes drama just like he went comedy in King Of Comedy and like he went epic in Gangs Of New York. He directed this film really well which surprised me a lot. I was blown away by how Scorsese directed Jesus crucifixion. The script was adapted from the Bible which must have been really hard because the Bible is written in Latin which is like the old British language. It was still really good for that.

This is the underrated Scorsese film but it is my least favourite film from him not because it is the weakest but because it is a film that isn't typical Scorsese. There were some scenes within the film that were very confusing and was a bit too much in your face so to speak. Apart from that, a good film to watch.