Rating of
3.5/4
Humanizing the Christ-Figure
cacb3995 - wrote on 03/30/18
Regarding controversial subjects, religion is one of the most sensitive issues around the world, even today. And regarding controversial films, those that thematize religion in ways that its followers don’t care for tend to find themselves in the eye of the hurricane. That is the case of Martin Scorsese’s epic “The Last Temptation of Christ”, which, much like the novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis 25 years prior, received plenty of backlash from the christian community. Banned in several countries, censored in many others, openly critized and deemed as blasphemous, not to mention actual terrorist attacks by fundamentalist groups, the world’s reaction to Scorsese’s alternate telling of the gospel is a story of its own. But today, on holy friday 2018, I’m here to speak about the quality of the movie itself.
As you can imagine, the film is a depiction of the life of Jesus Christ, played by Willem Dafoe. But unlike other interpretations of the new testament, Scorsese’s film focuses much more on a flawed and human Jesus, instead of the all-perfect being we’ve becomed acostumed to associate with the Christ-Figure. Here, Jesus is just a man, plagued by the urges by which we all suffer: fear, doubt, hatred, lust. The movie pays particular attention to his enoamourment with Magdalene (Barbara Hershey) and his relationship with Judas (Harvey Keitel). A refreshing recounting of an ages-old tale, “The Last Temptation” offers a balanced and real perspective to what’s supposed to be divine and God-like.
Full review at: https://breakingthefourthwallsite.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/the-last-temptation-of-christ-humanizing-the-christ-figure/
