The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Directed by Martin Scorsese. Starring Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, Juliette Caton, Andre Gregory, Victor Argo, David Bowie, Irvin Kershner, Verna Bloom. [R]

Scorsese’s thoughtful and moving story of the life of Jesus (Dafoe), working from the same-named book by Nikos Kazantzakis, which explored the duality of Christ as both man and God—as the Lord on Earth, he is infallible and divine, but as a human being, he must therefore also doubt and struggle. Dafoe’s honest and complex portrayal may be the most striking version of the prophet on film. Vivid production never suffers from a sense of inauthenticity or stylized artificiality; rich and moody score by Peter Gabriel, encompassing ancient world rhythms and mysticism. Scorsese can’t smoothly stage or visualize all of the story incidents, and while Paul Schrader’s script adaptation leaves plenty to chew over philosophically and spiritually, several dialogue passages fall flat…yet at the end, when the words, “It is accomplished,” are uttered, they feel profoundly earned. Being misperceived as blasphemous, the film was highly controversial upon release, resulting in countless protests, bans, and death threats around the world (plus a terrorist attack at a Paris cinema); they probably should have actually watched the film before behaving so irrationally.

82/100