Oprah Movie Club Pick for January: The Last Temptation of Christ

1988 religious movie

Rating: 17/20

Plot: The word becomes flesh, but flesh has its fears and doubts and confusions because that's what flesh is--stretchy elastic over a bundle of fears and doubts and confusions. Christians everywhere throw their fists into the air and and start torching movie theaters because flesh also does that. The soul shrugs and wonders how Harvey Keitel got involved in all this.

I don't want to spend too much time on the controversies surrounding this movie, but it is important. Scorsese says he made this film because he wanted to get to know Jesus better, and I can't put thoughts into the heads of people who picketed this and threatened to boycott theaters without even seeing the movie, but if I had to guess, I'd guess that their problem was that they weren't willing to get to know Jesus better. Or maybe for people who don't really understand what Jesus is supposed to be all about. At the heart of Christianity is the idea that God became a person, experienced humanity for 30 or so years, walked around the Middle East telling little Zen koans, got himself crucified, and then rose from the dead in time for Jerusalem's big Easter egg hunt. And it's that first part--ok, and maybe the last two parts--that are the most important. And becoming a human has to involve everything that being a human being actually involves. Jesus couldn't cheat. He's not Bill Belichick. So the Christ in this is probably the most realistic Christ ever portrayed on film with a spectacular performance by Willem Dafoe, and it's a realistic Christ because he's one who fears, has pride, expresses doubt, and desires to rebel. If the humanity of Jesus isn't completely real, the whole thing's just a bunch of magic tricks, isn't it?

There's a quote at the beginning from the novel's author, Nikos Kazantzakis, about the "merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh" with the soul being the arena for that battle. That's humanity. And that's the central conflict of The Last Temptation of Christ. Jesus, while on the cross, has a creepy little girl convince him to climb down and get a life. What follows has to be looked at as a dream sequence, a fantasy, a big old "what if," and that, of course, is where some Christians will start to get irritated. Well, unless they already have problems with Willem Dafoe playing Jesus or a screenwriter with the last name Cocks, or the idea that all the disciples have New Yorker accents. The doubts and the temptations for Christ in this movie are all part of that humanity, and I'm sorry, but if you're not willing to accept that Christ was a human being, you're not really a Christian. And no amount of arson is going to change that.

You know you've made something as an artist when you get that kind of reaction, by the way. When people start burning down movie theaters because they don't like your movie, you've probably made something that matters. See also: Stravinsky's debut of The Rite of Spring or Bob Dylan plugging in his guitar.

Anyway, I think the message is a beautiful one, at least if you take the half an hour or so where Jesus gets married, has sex with a tattooed prostitute, hooks up with Lazurus's sister, and has a couple kids as a dream sequence. Jesus said earlier that he had to be willing to be that sacrifice and willing to die the painful death that he does. His decision in the movie is to accomplish--in fact, that's the verb he uses at the very end of this--what he was supposed to accomplish, and I can't understand why this wouldn't be extremely touching for a Christian. It's like a Christian It's a Wonderful Life, isn't it?

I like the spiritual quest that the first half of this movie is about. I imagine it's the typical spiritual quest. It's unavoidable ("You can't cast God out, can you?"), painful, and filled with contradictions. You struggle to understand the message and eventually decide to accept whatever that message (love or the ax) happens to be. Dafoe (and he really is the best Jesus in film history) has a question which starts with meeting a ghost and becoming purified when his inner-snakes break free. He learns to pity, struggles with his confidence ("What if I say the wrong thing? What if I say the right thing?"), finds some scruffy-looking guys to follow him around, goes through some wacky temptations in the desert, and finally starts delivering a message that doesn't translate very well at all. It's all so realistic. You don't see Jesus stumbling around in other movies. Maybe that's another reason why a lot of Christians didn't like this thing? Maybe they just like to see their Jesus getting beaten and bleeding a lot like in the Mel Gibson thing. Those Christians love their money shots.

The performances in this are pretty good. I wasn't sure that I liked the disciples having voices like characters in any other Scorsese movie, but I ultimately decided that I kind of liked it. Keitel got himself a Golden Raspberry Award for his performance of a very non-Biblical Judas. I thought the character was far more interesting here than he is in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and I thought Keitel's performance was fine. I also liked how Keitel's playing a character who is going to beat somebody up even in a religious movie. John the Baptist doesn't get much screen time, but his scene is a wild one, and John is played by none other than Andre Gregory. And he's playing essentially the same character as the one in My Dinner with Andre. John Lurie plays James (one of the disciples, you heathen), so he gets to talk about fishing. And of course Harry Dean Stanton plays Saul because who would be better in that role? David Bowie's Pilate, bringing in yet another accent. I guess the Romans all have English accents though. Oh, and there's a random Nazarene dude who calls Jesus an "idiot," a word that I'm sure didn't exist back then. That guy? Freakin' Irvin Kershner! How about that?

Nope. I just looked up the etymology, and idiot comes from the early 14th Century. So maybe that's what Christians had a problem with.

And then there's Willem Dafoe. Man, his performance is powerful. He's subdued when he needs to be, and he lets out the emotions when he needs to do that. As good as Dafoe is though, I can't help but wondering how awesome Gene Wilder would have been as Jesus, especially when Dafoe raises his voice a little. By the way, Christopher Walken was actually considered for this role, and so was--you'd better sit down for this--Eric Roberts. Dafoe's perfect though. And did you know they used these eye drops on him to make his eyes more God-like or something and they ended up blinding him for three days?

I have to talk about the score. Peter Gabriel's score was one of the first soundtracks I can remember owning. I can't even remember who tipped me off that it was any good, but it was before I saw the movie. I had a cassette copy for a really long time and eventually bought it on compact disc. I listened to it far more than I should have. It's not a perfect movie score or anything, but it's something I've always connected with. I do really hate the music during the scene where Jesus comes into Jerusalem on his donkey because it starts to sound like a Peter Gabriel song. Those "whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa" vocals are irritating and make you want to reach for the sledgehammer.

You know what else? "Shankar" (the name in the credits) plays violin. Shankar, as you probably know, is the hero of Gunda, another very spiritual movie experience. I assume it's the same guy.

Random notes/questions:

There's one quiet, seemingly unimportant scene that I really like with a curly headed guy who talks about how he longs for God's voice. His line about "the more devils we have inside us, the more chances we have to repent," is awesome. I don't think that guy's from the Bible, but he's a great foil for Jesus during the early part of his spiritual journey.

Jesus's first sermon begins with an extended "uhhh." Then, he starts off with a hilarious joke about a guy spilling his seed on the ground. Jesus sort of sounds like a nut there, all that stuff about God sneaking up to him and digging his claws into his head, and he definitely doesn't sound like he has a promising public speaking career ahead of him.

Random tree miracle where he throws apple seeds on the ground and causes a tree to materialize? That's weird. But it's not weirder than the snake during the temptation scene who actually says "Look at my breasts." The orgasmic "Oh, Jesus" that snake says soon after that is probably why Barbara Hershey was nominated for a Golden Globe award. And then, Jesus has a conversation with a lion that sounds exactly like Harvey Keitel. Has one of those Scary Movie type parody movies lampooned that scene?

Easily the worst scene in this movie is the one where Jesus rips his own heart out. First, the heart seems a little low, but I guess Jesus has to go under the sternum to avoid the ribs. Second, the heart seems a little small. Third, I couldn't stop thinking about how this would work as a football pep talk. There's no way your football team isn't winning a game after your coach rips his own heart out of his chest and shows it to you.

After a while, this turns into a Greatest Hits of Jesus sort of thing. I know most of these miracles, but I don't remember one where possessed dudes pop out of the mud and grope him and his disciples. The water-to-wine miracle is done so casually, suavely. That's cool Jesus right there. Lazarus's coming back from the dead? Man, that wailing noise is so haunting, and I think it's repeated during the crucifixion scene. The movie nearly becomes a touching zombie movie at that point.

Why doesn't anybody thank Jesus after any of these miracles? I know idiot was part of the vernacular of the time, but "Thank you" wasn't?

This kind of feels unraveled a bit in the middle, but there's always the message at the center that makes it work.

"The semen backs up into his brain." I don't know what else to do with this quote, so I'm just putting it right there.

Golgotha looks nearly perfect, a stark hill littered with human bones (inexplicably) and twisted trees or maybe they're crosses. And the crucifixion scene--the money shot!--is so powerful. The nail protruding through the back of the cross, the camera following Jesus as he's raised, those contorted naked bodies hanging there. Then, there's a stunning lack of sound, not even any crowd noise at all for a while. But it erupts! The music intensifies wonderfully, buzzing like an insect choir, and Jesus asks God to forgive them. Oh, and that slow pan from behind the crowd where Jesus stays in the center of the frame. It's just stunning stuff. Most of this is filmed simply, like your typical Biblical epic, but this crucifixion scene is exquisite and masterful.

The creepy little girl shows up. And when she's helping Jesus off the cross, it's all silent again except for the withdrawing of the nails and some footsteps. You see a crowd taunting an empty cross. That has got to be the most horrifying image in cinematic history to a person who believes in the death and resurrection of Christ.

I absolutely love the final shot that disintegrates into colored nonsense. It's something I remembered from seeing this about 20 years ago, and I thought it was a weird but stunning way to end a film that was otherwise fairly straightforward. And now I've read that Scorsese is saying that was a happy accident. Wow.

Question--if you were filming a version of the Gospels, what twelve actors would you cast as the disciples?