The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

            The last temptation of Christ was produced in 1988 and was directed by martin Scorsese. The film was written by Paul Schrader with credits from jay cocks and Scorsese from the adaptation of the controversial novel by Niko Kazantzakis with a similar title. The film’s characters include Andre Gregory, Hershey Barbara, Keitel Harvey, Dafoe will, Stanton harry and Bowie David.  The film was completely shot in morocco. Similarly to the novel the film represents the existence of Jesus Christ including the involved struggles that come from different temptations that he comes through like depression, reluctance, doubt as well as lust (Kazantzakis and Bien, 4).

            The film is fully accurate about the historical information because in its representation of events and individuals the information is accurate. The historical events are however followed loosely which are recorded in the movie because the events are occasionally altered because of dramatic aims.  For instance from the gospels individuals fully understands that Jesus was a carpenter prior to his beginning of the gospel ministry but this is altered by the film as it demonstrates him different (Clews, 30).  He designs and develops crosses for the Romans who are involved in killing Jews.  According to the scriptures, the baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of his entire ministry while in the movie he begins his ministry after visiting the Baptist and the ministry is illustrated after the occurrence of several different events.  Turning water into wine is concurred as his first miracle by those who wrote the gospel while in the film several miracles are conducted prior to the turning miracle. The movie is thus not effective in following the existence of Christ as well as the events which took place in his life chronologically. This would have thus ensured that climatic execution is built by the dramatic events which would not have altered the events (Clews, 31).

            The film illustrates Jesus Christ as a revolutionary as well as a roman’s threat but fails in making the hazard more obvious. The conflict that is illustrated in the movie is confusing because it strays from the historical records of the general life of Christ (Ebert, 222).  The movie assumes that Jesus was fully human who was focused on the earthly pleasures which differ from the offering of the gospel. In the film, the religious leaders were feeling threatened because Christ was involved in opposing many religious laws as well as traditions as he replaced them with fresh ones as well as developing fresh thoughts. None of the instances is recorded in the scripture where Christ was involved in opposing the laws harshly made by the scribes and the Pharisees.  The movie additionally fails in making the death of Christ as a climax event. This is because his hallucination which can also be termed as the last temptation is the climax of the film while he was on the cross. Although the movie was purposed to make individuals generate their own opinions it fails in following the gospel that generating negative opinions from individuals who think that it was blasphemous.  The last temptation is a hallucination about coming down from the cross a living a normal life as a man (Ebert, 223).

            Moreover, the movie fails in giving equal focus on the dual nature of Christ as his human nature seems to overpower his godly one (Conard, 8). Schrader the screenwriter of the film and Scorsese purposed the production to think through the definition of the dual nature of Christ as well as passion. However, their aim becomes more sincere as they affirm faith via the humanism of the film which Christ depicts.  Although the film failed in retelling the entire life of Christ accurately through events it was thus effective in illustrating the real life of Christ.  The movie can thus not be claimed as an offensive scene because it provides a string representation of Christ’s dual existence (Leonard, Bill, and Jill, 443).

            In conclusion, from the movie, it is clear that the film producers made the choice of making the movie a bit different from the gospel in terms of events occurrence for the purpose of expounding the humanness of Christ. Although from the gospel and from the movie Jesus was a full god a full human the movie has focused more on his human side. This is to illustrate the suffering that one must go through in lie.  This is based on exploring the nature of human while still on earth. It was not therefore based on exposing his godly side because without the experience of being a god it is difficult for individuals to understand fully.  The divine qualities have been given more focus on the previous movies which pressured the producers to design it differently in order to expose the human qualities. The film can be described as a challenging movie which illustrates the life of Jesus on the side that is often overlooked.  This helps in evaluating the general perceptions of individuals in regard to Christ.  This additionally helps in challenging the views of people in reference to the world. The film offers an authoritative and an idea-provoking look at a figure of history that transforms the way individuals live and think as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            Work cited

            Leonard, Bill, and Jill Y. Crainshaw. Encyclopedia of Religious Controversies in the United States. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2013. Print.

            Conard, Mark T. The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Internet resource.

            Ebert, Roger. The Great Movies Iii. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Internet resource.

            Kazantzakis Nikos and Bien Peter. The Last Temptation of Christ. Simon and Schuster. 1998. Copyright.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095497/

Clews, Benj. Four Word Film Reviews. Cincinnati: F+W Media, 2010. Internet resource.