Just watched The Last Temptation of Christ. Wow, what a film. I am not religious but I liked this movie because it portrays Jesus as a man who has sinned and is not afraid to confess it, he feels anger and frustration, he trashes a marketplace - all these things and more make Jesus seem more human than what the bible seems to preach.
I did some reading and found out about how some religious groups were protesting the movie upon it's release, had injured audience members in one instance by attacking a theatre showing the film with molotov cocktails...what good role models they are *roles eyes.
But getting back to the movie itself it is an entertaining movie. The scene where Mary Magdalene is having rocks thrown at her and Jesus tells the people that if they haven't sinned then throw a stone. The interesting thing about this scene is that Jesus himself doesn't throw a stone. If the Jesus of the bible doesn't throw a stone then that means he has sinned himself - something which the bible doesn't explore but in the film this fits with how they have differed from the events depicted in the bible, and therefore Jesus is just like other humans and has sinned himself, otherwise he would have thrown a stone too.
Overall this is a great film all across the board. The music is excellent and makes me want to get the soundtrack. I rented this movie through Quickflix so will return it but I want to buy a version that has special features on it.
I would recommend people see this if they haven't. Even if you're not religious, like I am, then you will find there's things about this story that are appealing. There is a lot of violence in this, the severity isn't like Passion of the Christ (which I haven't seen yet), just the fact that there's violence shown in this film is a testament (no pun intended) to the reality brought to the table not only by director Martin Scorcese but to all the actors and others involved in the production.
10/10
I did some reading and found out about how some religious groups were protesting the movie upon it's release, had injured audience members in one instance by attacking a theatre showing the film with molotov cocktails...what good role models they are *roles eyes.
But getting back to the movie itself it is an entertaining movie. The scene where Mary Magdalene is having rocks thrown at her and Jesus tells the people that if they haven't sinned then throw a stone. The interesting thing about this scene is that Jesus himself doesn't throw a stone. If the Jesus of the bible doesn't throw a stone then that means he has sinned himself - something which the bible doesn't explore but in the film this fits with how they have differed from the events depicted in the bible, and therefore Jesus is just like other humans and has sinned himself, otherwise he would have thrown a stone too.
*SPOILER*
The ending differs from the bible. It shows Jesus being saved from the cross by an angel in the form of a girl and being led back to Mary Magdalene. Jesus and Mary have intercourse but she dies afterwards having been killed by God. Jesus is then led to Mary and Martha (the sisters of Lazarus, the man who had died and was brought back from death by Jesus only to be killed again in this movie by the apostle Paul) who he marries and has children with.
Jesus grows old and on his deathbed is visited by Peter, Nathaniel, John and Judas. Judas calls Jesus a traitor because he didn't die on the cross and resurrected after three days to bring salvation to the world, as he had told Judas. He then tells Jesus that the angel who has been with him is actually Satan, who has tested Jesus one more time by tricking him into having intercourse and thereby rebelling against God.
Jesus crawls back to where he was crucified and pleads to God to let him fulfill his purpose and to let him be his son, effectively asking that he be crucified like he was supposed to be - he then finds himself back at his crucifixion having passed the last temptation by Satan.
This ending seems to be much better to the one in the bible because it comes back to Jesus being like any mortal, tempted by the same things we all are etc, and I don't think it's blasphemous to portray him in that way.
The other thing is that what the apostle Paul (the same one who killed the resurrected Lazarus) is preaching to people about Jesus having died on the cross and being resurrected after three days is contested by Jesus himself who accuses Paul of creating lies - Jesus tells him that he didn't die on the cross, and that Paul is lying. This is great because it makes you think of how the bible has been written and passed onto generations and what is in there has been considered by many to be the truth, and here in this film you have Jesus himself saying that what is being preached isn't the truth. Later of course since it's revealed this whole thing is just part of a dream or a different reality, the fact of this scene existing is a bit of a nod to those who believe that the bible isn't the word of God himself but just stories written by people to entertain or to use as teaching tools to people. This is another reason why I like this film and it's boldness.
*END SPOILER*
The ending differs from the bible. It shows Jesus being saved from the cross by an angel in the form of a girl and being led back to Mary Magdalene. Jesus and Mary have intercourse but she dies afterwards having been killed by God. Jesus is then led to Mary and Martha (the sisters of Lazarus, the man who had died and was brought back from death by Jesus only to be killed again in this movie by the apostle Paul) who he marries and has children with.
Jesus grows old and on his deathbed is visited by Peter, Nathaniel, John and Judas. Judas calls Jesus a traitor because he didn't die on the cross and resurrected after three days to bring salvation to the world, as he had told Judas. He then tells Jesus that the angel who has been with him is actually Satan, who has tested Jesus one more time by tricking him into having intercourse and thereby rebelling against God.
Jesus crawls back to where he was crucified and pleads to God to let him fulfill his purpose and to let him be his son, effectively asking that he be crucified like he was supposed to be - he then finds himself back at his crucifixion having passed the last temptation by Satan.
This ending seems to be much better to the one in the bible because it comes back to Jesus being like any mortal, tempted by the same things we all are etc, and I don't think it's blasphemous to portray him in that way.
The other thing is that what the apostle Paul (the same one who killed the resurrected Lazarus) is preaching to people about Jesus having died on the cross and being resurrected after three days is contested by Jesus himself who accuses Paul of creating lies - Jesus tells him that he didn't die on the cross, and that Paul is lying. This is great because it makes you think of how the bible has been written and passed onto generations and what is in there has been considered by many to be the truth, and here in this film you have Jesus himself saying that what is being preached isn't the truth. Later of course since it's revealed this whole thing is just part of a dream or a different reality, the fact of this scene existing is a bit of a nod to those who believe that the bible isn't the word of God himself but just stories written by people to entertain or to use as teaching tools to people. This is another reason why I like this film and it's boldness.
*END SPOILER*
Overall this is a great film all across the board. The music is excellent and makes me want to get the soundtrack. I rented this movie through Quickflix so will return it but I want to buy a version that has special features on it.
I would recommend people see this if they haven't. Even if you're not religious, like I am, then you will find there's things about this story that are appealing. There is a lot of violence in this, the severity isn't like Passion of the Christ (which I haven't seen yet), just the fact that there's violence shown in this film is a testament (no pun intended) to the reality brought to the table not only by director Martin Scorcese but to all the actors and others involved in the production.
10/10
