the last temptation of christ kazantzakis

It is also worth noting that movies such as the “God’s Not Dead” series and 2017’s “The Case for Christ” achieve box office superiority, while films that do try to subvert the conventions of the religious film subgenre, like Scorsese’s 2016 religious film “Silence” and Schrader’s “First Reformed” from 2017, languish in near obscurity.

In the process, they avoid offending anyone religious, except cinephiles who might be sick of overly optimistic fare and expect some deeply realistic explorations of the human condition instead. Most contemporary religious films employ the Manichean outlook on the clear line between good and evil, or in this case between God and Satan. The outrage was universal, so much so that the film is still banned in several countries as of today. Riots occurred that disrupted its showings in Europe, as Blockbuster later refused to stock VHS copies of the film and even Scorsese himself had to hire bodyguards for the time being. Adapted by Paul Schrader from Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis’s equally controversial 1955 novel of the same name (which is one of several novels banned by the church), the Christian right condemned the film for its blatantly sacrilegious depiction of Christ as a fallible being, down to him making onscreen love to his wife Mary Magdalene. It is no surprise that the film attracted considerable controversy when it was first released in August 1988.

Should he act as the son of God, bringing greatness and freedom to the Jews? Or should he live as a man among mankind, settling down to start a family with Mary Magdalene, played by Barbara Hershey? Additionally, he rebukes his parents Mary and Joseph in favor of his fate as the son of God, and mostly confides in Judas Iscariot, played by curly-haired Harvey Keitel, over his other disciples. He constantly struggles with what his place on Earth should be.

The film features Jesus of Nazareth, superbly played by Willem Dafoe, not as a godlike creature but as a human being with doubts, fears and flaws. Martin Scorsese’s 1988 religious drama “The Last Temptation of Christ” is a powerful and deeply moving exploration of spiritual existentialism, and is therefore more than what its controversial reputation warrants it to be.

The last temptation of christ kazantzakis