Jan 18th 2010
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Starring Wilem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey.
First film of the blog - odd choice. Have seen this a few times and decided to watch it again after seeing Marty win at the G.Globes. Revisiting all his movies as future blogs will show.
LTOC is an epic, its a unique look at the story of Jesus that does not follow the Gospels, but is taken from a controversial fiction novel. The story makes Jesus relatable as a human; we get to see him live the life of a man struggling with morales and ethics. We see Jesus being saved and taken off the cross by an angel; Jesus gets to live into old age, have a family and children. The angel turns out to be the devil and Jesus is returned to the cross to die as a young man again - the whole 'life scenario' being treated like a dream sequence - very odd but it works.
Harvey was always odd to me in this film to me with his red afro and bronx accent but the writing and directing is so good it doesn't matter. Hershey is revelatory as Magdeline. The film was shot on location in Morrocco and looks fantastic, the effects are a little dated but Scorsese is a master so it has a timeless classic feel. Dafoe is the real deal, physically and emotionally; his Jesus is a tortured man filled with anger/doubt, but who knows that only love will save us..
I recommend seeing this movie just for Andre Gregory's John The Baptist alone, it is an incredible performance.
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