The Academy Award Winners That Should Have Been: Part 1
imagine the impact that film must have had on moviegoers in 1988, and particularly in a theatrical setting. I finally the saw film a couple of years later on home video, and was so incredibly moved, realizing I had just witnessed and experienced something truly unique and so magnificently powerful. I could not understand what all the controversy about. Here was a film which affirmed the divine nature of Christ more than any other film had done, and yet Christians were acting like the devil himself had made this film.
The main thing that caused conservative Christians such problems was twofold : because of a scene during the last temptation in which Jesus is shown having sex with Mary Magdalene and the fact that the Jesus portrayed in the film is at times a fearful and doubting Jesus, facing temptation at every turn.
I suppose they are also upset because any film about Jesus with nudity in it just has to be evil (there's a scene early on when Barbara Hershey, as Mary Magdalene reveals her breasts to Jesus to tempt him (he resists the temptation, mind you) and scenes of naked women at the waters where John the Baptist is baptizing people.
Are Christians trying to tell us that their faith is so weak as to suggest that these few scenes, and for that matter, one film, can tear down everything they believe in? I wish some of these Christians could explain this to me -- why are you opposed to a film that shows time and time again how Jesus resisted temptation and ultimately accepted his death on the Cross? Isn't this what you teach to everyone you try to convert to Christianity? But enough from me ... I'll let the film speak for itself.
Right from the start, it's clear in this film that Scorsese is making a very different film about the story of Jesus. Jesus is shown building crosses which will be used by the Romans to kill Jews. He is doing this to rebel against God, and is in essence "worse than them! You're a Jew killing Jews!" as Judas tells him. The Jesus of this film is a tortured man, confused about the voices following him, whether they are from God or Satan. He's also a man living in fear -- "You look inside me, and that's all you'll see." In fact, at one point,
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