Rabbi is the term in Judaism for a religious teacher. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ‘great’ in many senses, including "revered." The word comes from the Semitic root R-B-B, and is cognate to Arabic ربّ rabb, meaning "lord" Rabbi ' onMouseout='HidePop("6002")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Harry_Dean_Stanton">Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton is an American actor of film and television.-Early life:Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, the son of Ersel , a hair dresser, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a tobacco farmer and barber. His parents divorced when Stanton was in high school and later re-married...
as
Paul of TarsusPaul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, ...
Peter BerlingPeter Berling is a German actor and writer. He has worked on several occasions with director Werner Herzog, in his collaborations with actor Klaus Kinski....
as Beggar
David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
as Pontius PilatePontius Pilate was the Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. Typically referenced as the fifth Procurator of Judea, he is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized his crucifixion.Pilate appears in all four canonical Christian Gospels...
Leo MarksLeopold Samuel Marks was an English cryptographer, screenwriter and playwright.-Early life:Born the son of an antiquarian bookseller in London, he was first introduced to cryptography when his father showed him a copy of Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Gold-Bug"...
as Voice of SatanSatan is an embodiment of antagonism that originates from the Abrahamic religions, being traditionally considered an angel in Judeo-Christian belief, and a Jinn in Islamic belief...
Leo Damian as a voice in a crowd
Background
Martin Scorsese had wanted to make a film version of Jesus' life since childhood. Scorsese optioned the novel
The Last Temptation in the late 1970s, and he gave it to
Paul SchraderPaul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter and film director. His influences include Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu and Carl Dreyer, whose cross-cultural similarities he examined in Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer in 1972...
to adapt.
The Last Temptation was originally to be Scorsese's follow-up to
The King of ComedyThe King of Comedy is an American comedy film made in 1981 starring Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis, and directed by Martin Scorsese. It was released in Iceland on December 19, 1982 and subsequently, on February 18, 1983 in the United States by 20th Century Fox.-Synopsis:Rupert Pupkin , a stage-door...
; production was slated to begin in 1983 for
ParamountParamount Pictures Corporation is a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...
. The original cast included
Aidan Quinn-Early life:Quinn was born in Rockford, Illinois to devoutly Catholic Irish parents. He was raised in Chicago and Rockford, as well as in Dublin and Birr, County Offaly in Ireland. His father was a professor in literature and his mother a homemaker. He has three brothers and a sister. His older...
as Jesus, Sting as
Pontius PilatePontius Pilate was the Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. Typically referenced as the fifth Procurator of Judea, he is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized his crucifixion.Pilate appears in all four canonical Christian Gospels...
,
Ray DaviesRay Davies CBE is an English rock musician, best known as lead singer and songwriter for The Kinks - one of the most prolific and long-lived British Invasion bands - which he led with his younger brother, Dave...
as
Judas IscariotJudas Iscariot, "Yehuda" ' was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve original Apostles of Jesus. Among the twelve, he was apparently designated to keep account of the "money bag" Judas Iscariot, "Yehuda" ' was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve original Apostles of...
and
Barbara HersheyBarbara Hershey is an American actress and activist.-Personal life:...
as
Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala is described, both in the canonical New Testament and in the New Testament apocrypha, as one of the most important women in the movement of Jesus. As a follower, Mary was one of many women who accompanied Jesus and the twelve apostles during his travels...
. Management at Paramount and its parent company, Gulf + Western became uneasy due to the ballooning budget for the picture and protest letters received from religious groups. The project went into
turnaroundA turnaround or turnaround deal is an arrangement in the film industry, whereby the rights to a project one studio has developed are sold to another studio in exchange for the cost of development....
and was finally canceled in December 1983. Scorsese went on to make
After HoursAfter Hours is an American black comedy film released in 1985, directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Joseph Minion. It depicts Paul Hackett , a New Yorker who experiences a series of adventures and perils in trying to make his way home from SoHo.-Plot:Paul Hackett , a word processor, meets a...
instead.
In 1986,
Universal PicturesUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
became interested in the project. Scorsese offered to shoot the film in 58 days for $7 million, and Universal
greenlightTo greenlight a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to greenlight something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to pre-production...
ed the production. Critic and screenwriter
Jay CocksJay Cocks is a film critic and motion picture screenwriter.He is a graduate of Kenyon College. He was a critic for Time, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone, among other magazines, before graduating to film writing....
worked with Scorsese revising Schrader's script. Aidan Quinn passed on the role of Jesus, and Scorsese recast
Willem DafoeWilliam "Willem" Dafoe is an American film and stage actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
in the part. Sting also passed on the role of Pontius, with the role being recast with
David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
.
Principal photographythumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is actually shot, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began in October 1987. The location shoot in
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
(a first for Scorsese) was difficult, and the difficulties were compounded by the hurried schedule. "We worked in a state of emergency," Scorsese recalled. Scenes had to be improvised and worked out on the set with little deliberation, leading Scorsese to develop a minimalist aesthetic for the film. Shooting wrapped by Christmas.
The film opened on August 12, 1988.
Controversial content
From a contemporary Christian point of view, the film contains many ideas not present in the Bible. This is seen as a point of contention despite the film opening with a disclaimer stating that it is "not based on the gospels" and is "fictional". One of the predominant sources of controversy stems from a scene near the end of the movie in which Jesus is depicted as marrying
Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala is described, both in the canonical New Testament and in the New Testament apocrypha, as one of the most important women in the movement of Jesus. As a follower, Mary was one of many women who accompanied Jesus and the twelve apostles during his travels...
instead of
dying on the crossCrucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
. A brief scene of the married couple making love is shown in the film, which sparked the anger of many protesters.
The rationale behind this scene is that it represents Satan's tempting of Christ with the life of a normal man, free from the burden of being crucified and of being the salvation of mankind. In the guise of a beautiful, angelic child, Satan deceptively brings Christ down from the cross and gives him the life he has desired, telling him he is in fact not the Messiah. Under Satan’s ruse, Jesus marries and raises a family. However, as he is nearing the end of his envisioned life, his most devoted disciple,
Judas IscariotJudas Iscariot, "Yehuda" ' was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve original Apostles of Jesus. Among the twelve, he was apparently designated to keep account of the "money bag" Judas Iscariot, "Yehuda" ' was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve original Apostles of...
, awakens him to the truth of what is happening. As Judas calls him a traitor, Jesus finally realizes he has abandoned his duty to be crucified and to be the salvation of mankind. Seeing that he has been tempted into living a man’s life and dying a peaceful death, Jesus crawls out into the streets of Jerusalem as it burns with the fires of the Jewish Rebellion, and begs God to return him to his crucifixion, finally rejecting Satan’s offering. At that point, he is returned to the cross. Jesus has now been tempted as a man, and having survived this temptation utters his dying words, "It is accomplished."
Other controversial ideas include images of Jesus constructing crosses for the
RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
, kissing other men on the lips, being tormented by the voice of
GodGod is a deity in theistic and deistic religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
, lamenting the many sins that he believes he has committed, and using the divine name in the form "
JehovahJehovah is a transliteration of , a vocalized Hebrew variant of the tetragrammaton that occurs 6518 times in the Ben Chayyim Hebrew Text of 1525 A.D., on which the Old Testament of the King James Bible is based...
".
Protests
Protests against the movie from religious communities began before the film had even finished production. The studio was expecting a backlash due to the controversies revolving around any media treatment of Christ (see dramatic portrayals of Jesus Christ), but the protests accompanying
Last Temptation were unprecedented.
On October 22, 1988, a French Christian fundamentalist group launched
molotov cocktailThe Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, or Molotov bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
s inside the
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian Saint Michel
movie theaterA movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre, film theater or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
to protest against the film. This attack injured thirteen people, four of whom were severely burned.
In 1989, Albuquerque high school teacher Joyce Briscoe showed the film to history students at La Cueva High School, raising a storm of controversy by parents and local
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
broadcaster
KLYTKLYT is a radio station broadcasting a Contemporary Christian format. Licensed to Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, the station serves the New Mexico area. The station is currently owned by Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque, Inc.. Marketed as "M88," the station's format targets listeners ranging from...
.
In some countries, including
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, the film was banned for several years. It continues to be prohibited in the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
,
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
, and
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
.
Critical reception and interpretation
The film has been supported by scholars, film critics and some religious leaders. In his defense of the movie,
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
writes that Scorsese and screenwriter
Paul SchraderPaul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter and film director. His influences include Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu and Carl Dreyer, whose cross-cultural similarities he examined in Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer in 1972...
:
Writers at
NNDB.comThe Notable Names Database , produced by Soylent Communications, is an online database of biographical details of over 36,000 people of note...
claim that "Paul Schrader's screenplay and Willem Dafoe's performance made perhaps the most honestly Christlike portrayal of Jesus ever filmed."
In recent years, the film has been cast in a more positive light within the Christian community.
Promise KeepersPromise Keepers is an international conservative organization for men, based in Denver, Colorado, United States, self-described as "a Christ-centered organization dedicated to introducing men to Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, helping them to grow as Christians"...
is the most notable conservative Christian group to recently come out and defend this interpretation of Christ, and acceptance of
The Last Temptation of Christ seems to be growing in many Christian communities and organizations.
Some Christian scholars acknowledge that maintaining equilibrium between these two contrasting natures might have been as difficult as
The Last Temptation of Christ depicts, and that the notion is even suggested in the
Gospel of JohnThe Gospel of John , is the last of the four canonical gospels. This non synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth...
when Christ admits, "I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (chapter 6). In the case of Kazantzakis's and Scorsese's Christ, there is a notable difference between Christ's will and the will of his Father; yet driven by his love for mankind and his devotion to his Father, Christ constantly denies his own will in order to fulfill his divine mission as Savior.
However, some Christians, along with people of other faiths, retain a negative view of the film. Conservative film critic
Michael MedvedMichael Medved is a American radio program host and is a conservative political commentator, film critic, and author. His Seattle-based nationally-syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the United States on Salem Radio Network.According to Talkers' Magazine, The Michael...
(who is Jewish) has an extreme dislike of the film for its biblical inaccuracy, especially in what he considers its portrayal of Judas Iscariot as braver and wiser than Jesus.
When
The Passion of the ChristThe Passion of the Christ is a film co-written, co-produced and directed by Mel Gibson. It is based on the New Testament accounts of the arrest, trial, torture, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, events commonly known as The Passion. The film’s dialogue is in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew, with...
was released in 2004, Scorsese's film was mentioned very often when compared to
Mel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American Australian actor, film director and producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in the Mad...
's, mostly for the portrayals of Judas Iscariot and Pontius Pilate and also in analysis of how the 2004 film was an enormous blockbuster while the 1988 film didn't do well at the box office even though both were highly controversial. Gibson's movie did not explore the human character of Jesus Christ, but instead focused on the method of death. Martin Scorsese commented in one interview that he felt his film was aiming for a different point of knowledge for a different audience than Gibson's.
On Rotten Tomatoes.com, the film rating website, the picture had reached a rating of 81%, with an average rating of 7.2 out of 10 as of July 2008, while on IMDb.com, the average rating stands at 7.5 out of 10 as of October 2009.
Soundtrack and music
The film's musical
soundtrackA soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized...
was composed by
Peter GabrielPeter Brian Gabriel is an English musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering...
and was released on CD with the title
Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of ChristPassion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ is a musical album released in 1989 by Peter Gabriel. It is his second soundtrack and eighth album overall...
, which won a Grammy in 1990 for Best New Age Album. The film's score itself helped to popularize
world musicWorld music is the traditional music or folk music of a culture that is created and played by indigenous musicians that is closely related to the music of the regions of their origin.-Terminology:...
. Gabriel
compiledA compilation album is an album featuring tracks from multiple recording artists, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, source or subject matter...
additional material by various musicians as
Passion - SourcesPassion - Sources is the second of two albums of music from Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ. The first album, Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ by Peter Gabriel was released in 1989 in conjunction with the movie....
.
Various vocal samples of
Willem DafoeWilliam "Willem" Dafoe is an American film and stage actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
as Jesus Christ were used in single "The Prophet" by
C. J. BollandC. J. Bolland is a British electronic music producer and remixer.His family moved from Yorkshire to Antwerp, Belgium when he was three years old...
. The track was released in 1997 and quickly became a worldwide club hit.