Review of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) by Camden N — 07 Jun 2009

Martin Scorsese's most disappointing film. The concept is a good one: a character study of Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot, examining their reluctance at the painful roles they are destined to play in humanity's salvation. Unfortunately for the film, it's hurt by a rushed script, an overly nutty turn from Willem Dafoe (admittedly just as much a fault of the script as Dafoe, who certainly did a great job in the film's less nutty, more human instances), and some miscasting of the minor characters. John the Baptist in particular was a real creep. Therein lies the problem - somehow, in the film's attempts to humanize these characters, they made them a bit creepy. Jesus came across as a pathetic nutcase, John the Baptist as...creepy, Judas's motivations were always incredibly muddled, and the only one who really comes across as spot on is David Bowie as Pontius Pilate.

While no fan of the whole "Jesus-portrayed-as-an-emotionless-God-above-it-all" school of Jesus filmmaking (see Max Von Sydow epitomize this in The Greatest Story Ever Told - too bad, as he's an otherwise good actor), I can't help but feel that Scorsese could've made a much stronger film had he done a more straightforward take of the Bible and combined it with elements from the Kazantzakis's novel - maybe a gritty, human take on the story with a more patient pace than this one, which felt so rushed that I never really understood why anyone did what they did, and was surprised at how quickly the crucifixion occurred.

Anyhow, I'm sort of interested to see how Passion of the Christ handles the story, but simultaneously uncomfortable with watching it knowing the true character of Mel Gibson, so for now I might just check out Pasolini's version. His was probably the first "human" take on the story, and also an influence on Scorsese's. I also like the idea of an atheist doing a film on Christ; by not having a certain agenda in mind, he can focus solely on the story itself, and examine it from a human/emotional standpoint rather than a religious one.