This is a retelling of Jesus's life, from his calling to divinity, to his death. It is not based on the Bible, although that is used as a framework.
I have watched this before, and I was very impressed. I've had the Criterion DVD for awhile, and I moved up to the Criterion Blu-ray recently, so it was entirely worth another watch.
I'm not a religious person at all. I have a lot of contempt for the things that people do in the name of their religion, and I specifically believe that religion doesn't necessarily inspire doing good things, but it does inspire justification for not doing the right thing.
So it seems only fitting that the people who felt wildly offended by Last Temptation were those who professed to be devoutly religious. We see those people in the movie. When Jesus finishes his sermon on the mount (which is roughly as aimless as possible, although he gets more focused on his point the longer he goes) he makes it a point that they need to love everything. He makes his way to a point about how everyone's roles will be reversed, how the the hungry will be full, and so forth. Then…
"…the rich will be poor forever!"To which his audience reacts with
"Kill the rich!"
Jesus is much more likable in this than he is in the Bible. He's completely confused about what he's supposed to do. He seems more human, and less mystical.
The performances are generally great. While Dafoe is noteworthy, I really feel like Harvey Keitel is the highlight. His Judas is just perfect.
There's another thing I don't care for - Peter Gabriel's music. While the music itself is fine, the production and arrangement comes off sounding silly, almost like they were trying to draw parallels to Godspell.
No comments:
Post a Comment