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The Last Temptation of Christ Review
By admin | August 25, 2009
The Last Temptation of Christ Video
The Last Temptation of Christ Review
COMMENTS
So much has been written about THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST — the most controversial of Martin Scorsese’s films. Critics, reporters, and religious groups have had their say — both pro and con. Back in 1988, more responsible individuals at least saw the film before condemning it, but there were many, particularly high profile religious leaders who took it upon themselves to judge what they had not seen and called it blasphemous. Some saw the film’s release as an excellent opportunity to do a bit of fundraising — ‘give us money to fight this picture and keep it out of your local theaters!’ Apparently, some saw this film — this collection of images on celluloid, as a threat to the church, and some religious leaders believed it posed a threat to the faithful masses. Of course, if one’s faith can be broken by a film, it must be incredibly weak to begin with. And indeed, if one’s beliefs are so weak, perhaps a fresh look at the two thousand year old story can help strengthen them by inspiring discussions, arguments and introspection. This was Martin Scorsese’s belief and it’s what he intended for his film to do.
Since so much has already been said on THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST — it’s artistic merits, it’s unique approach to telling the Christ story, it’s so-called blasphemous passages, and the controversy they inspired, I’ve decided to do something a bit different — something I’ve not done in more than three hundred reviews here at The BIG Picture. I’m going to step back, in a sense, and let the filmmakers, writers, and stars speak for themselves and their picture. Read on and learn what this film meant to them. If you’ve seen THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST you no doubt already have strong opinions about it. Far be it for me to try and sway you from them. However, if you’ve not yet seen Scorsese’s film, perhaps these words will convince you to give it a viewing. Then you can make up your own mind about its artistic value, and its entertainment value. Will it inspire or infuriate you? Perhaps it’ll do neither. After all it’s only a movie …right?
Nikos Kazantzakis (Author of the book ‘The Last Temptation Of Christ’)
”This book was written because I wanted to offer a supreme model to the man who struggles; I wanted to show him that he must not fear pain, temptation or death — because all three can be conquered, all three have been conquered. Christ suffered pain, and since then pain has been sanctified. Temptation fought until the very last moment to lead him astray and temptation was defeated. Christ died on the cross, and at that instant, death was vanquished forever.”
Martin Scorsese
“My film was made with deep religious feeling. I have been working on this film for fifteen years; it is more than just another film project for me. I believe it is a religious film about suffering and the struggle to find God. It was made with conviction and love and so I believe it is an affirmation of faith, not a denial. Further, I feel strongly that people everywhere will be able to identify with the human side of Jesus as well as his divine side.”
“I believe that Jesus is fully divine, but the teaching at Catholic schools placed such an emphasis on the divine side that if Jesus walked into a room, you’d know He was God because He glowed in the dark, instead of being just another person. But if He was like that, we always thought, then when the temptations came to Him, surely it was easy to resist them because He was God. He could reject the temptation of power in the desert; He could reject especially the temptation of sex; and He could undergo the suffering on the cross, because He knew what was going to happen, what death is all about.”
Tom Pollock (Chief Executive Officer of Universal Pictures, which produced the film)
”Faith is not something you normally think yourself into, I realize. You have faith or you don’t. But this movie encourages thinking your way into belief through the exploration of an idea. The idea is powerful, and it works on your emotions. It is the idea of the man Jesus at odds with the divine Jesus, and choosing to die for the sins of man. It’s his choosing that makes the sacrifice meaningful. Otherwise it is preordained.”
Martin Scorsese
“He [Salah Hassanein, head of the United Artists film chain] asked me why I wanted to make this film. I told him that God can’t be only in the hands of the churches. There are so many obstacles in between us and the spirit. In a sense, to make this film was to try to make God accessible to people in the audience who feel alienated from the churches. I said, ’I have had three divorces, does this mean I can’t speak to God because the church says I can’t? No, no! I can talk for myself because I am me.’ “
”He said, ’You people can produce a film, you can act in it, you can direct it, and you can distribute it. But when the audience doesn’t like something or when their religious beliefs are offended, they don’t find where YOU are, they go where they saw it last. I don’t want it in my theaters. Religious films are too much trouble.’“
Willem Dafoe (Jesus)
”The role of Jesus is very difficult to put in place. In acting you have to put yourself in a neutral place. It is very important to start out in a place where you can struggle with the project itself. As an actor facing the part straight on, I could only deal with it in human terms. I think the movie brings out the heart and the spirit of Jesus. It was a difficult movie in every aspect. We were shooting very fast, with long hours, and physically it was draining. But I was working on a great role with great people.”
Michael Ballhaus (Cinematographer)
”We did almost thirty setups a day for the Crucifixion scene. Can you imagine Willem hanging on the cross in the bright sunlight hour after hour? He didn’t complain; he didn’t say a word. When it came time to shoot, he was there. These are things that take tremendous physical strength. Willem was living for this movie. He was up in the morning, at four o’clock, for three or four hours of makeup, and sometimes we were shooting more than ten or twelve hours. Sometimes he didn’t sleep more than six hours and then he had to play his part. I had great admiration for him.”
Harvey Keitel (Judas)
”Marty and I spent hours and hours and days and days discussing religion, discussing theology. These weren’t just discussions about what the dialogue would be, or the historical Judas; these were discussions about things we believed — things we didn’t know, but felt. Our blood went into it. We felt we had to make a total commitment, because that’s what people had given before us, thousands of years ago, up until the present time — their blood for these beliefs.”
Martin Scorsese
”At the Last Supper in The Last Temptation, women are present. Jesus was so great, I just couldn’t see him telling the women at the Last Supper, ’Wait in the kitchen.’ I remember saying, ’How could he say ‘wait in the kitchen’ to these ladies?’ Especially since he was a man who broke the rules. He broke the Hebrews rules, he broke all the other rules, and he would have had the women there. He would have them take part in the first mass. I don’t think he made a distinction between man and woman.”
Thelma Schoonmaker (Editor)
”I started crying in the dailies. I was so overwhelmed that for three days I couldn’t talk to Marty! That hadn’t happened to me since I saw the scene in Raging Bull where De Niro embraces his brother.”
“A girl was explaining why she didn’t like the film: She didn’t like the accents, didn’t like this and didn’t like that. And then she said, ’I cried all the way through it.’ I’ve heard a lot of people say that. That’s power.”
Martin Scorsese
”I interpreted the ‘last temptation’ in the book very much the same way as the Devil tempting Christ in the desert, taking Him up to the top of a building for Him to throw Himself down. The last temptation is for Christ to get off the cross and live the rest of His life as a normal human being. He marries Magdalene, makes love to her for the purpose of having children, and then dies in bed. I imagined it as a series of literal visual tableaux which the Devil shows Christ, so that thirty-six years might go by in a second.”
Barbara Hershey (Mary Magdalene)
”The irony is that the last temptation, the greatest temptation of all, is the most ordinary of miracles — which is our lives, our everyday lives, the fact that we can eat and drink and make love and have babies and get sick and become old and die. The fact that we can just live is the greatest gift of all, though we don’t think of it that way.”
Tom Pollock
”If Jesus was only God in the form of man, then Jesus is not only without sin, but without temptation, or any human foibles. But the idea of this film is that a Jesus who is human and is tempted to remain so has so much more to sacrifice. He sacrifices himself for man, and it becomes a much more meaningful sacrifice.”
Martin Scorsese
”I know from a priest friend of mine that the Kazantzakis book is used in seminaries, not as a substitute for the Gospel, but as a parable that is fresh and alive, which they can discuss and argue about. And this is what I hoped the film would do.”
The majority of the quotes used above came from the following books on the films of Martin Scorsese. These are outstanding resources which offer a wealth of information on the director’s life, thought process, and opinions on his own films and the films of others. If you’re interested in obtaining copies, just click the links — they’ll whisk you to Amazon.com.
Martin Scorsese — A Journey, by Mary Pat Kelly, with forewords by Steven Spielberg and Michael Powell. Thunder’s Mouth Press
Scorsese on Scorsese, edited by David Thompson and Ian Christie with foreword by Michael Powell. Faber and Faber
SYNOPSIS
Jesus of Nazareth (Willem Dafoe) is a carpenter making crucifixion crosses for the Romans. Almost daily, He’s tortured by searing pains in the head accompanied by powerful visions which indicate to him that He has a special purpose in life. Judas (Harvey Keitel), a Zealot, and Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey) an old friend, now a prostitute, scold Him for His weakness. Jesus sees Satan in various forms and is soon convinced that he must preach and bring God’s message to all who’ll listen. He gives His Sermon on the Mount and is told by John the Baptist (Andre Gregory) that He should go into the desert alone so He may speak with God and learn of His mission.
In the desert, Jesus resists temptation by the Devil who manifests himself in the form of a lion, a snake and a flame. He returns to his disciples angered. After raising Lazarus (Thomas Arana) from the dead, and performing a number of other miracles, he leads an assault on the Temple in Jerusalem. Word of Jesus and his miracles spreads, and He’s beginning to aggravate holy men who feel He’s getting too much attention and threatens their own power. Jesus tells Judas that he will have to betray Him so that He’ll be found and arrested by the Romans. Judas reluctantly obeys. Jesus is taken to Pontius Pilate (David Bowie) who sees little threat from the man, but to appease the masses, Jesus is crucified.
While on the cross, Jesus is approached by an angel — a sweet little girl (Juliette Caton) who informs him that his father has decided to spare him so he may live a full life. He takes Mary Magdalene as his wife, has children with two other women after she’s taken from him, and lives to be an old man. On his death bed, he’s visited by an aged Judas and three of the disciples. Paul reminds him of the crucifixion and resurrection, and Judas accuses him of betraying his followers. Jesus rejects the offer of a full life — which was actually a temptation made by the Devil, not a gift from his father by way of an angel. He climbs back onto the cross, says his mission has been accomplished, and then embraces death.
IMAGE
The Last Temptation of Christ is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85 : 1. This new 16 : 9 enhanced transfer was created from the 35mm interpositive on the high resolution Spirit Datacine.
Transfer supervised by Maria Palazzola, with the participation of cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
Telecline colorists: Ron Stetler / The Tape House, NYC and Greg Garvin / Modern Videofilm, LA
DVD quality control: Will Salas
DVD mastering: Sony Digital Studios, NYC
Now THIS is why I’m such a great admirer of the folks at Criterion Collection. Their excellent laser disc of this fine film was actually released around the time DVD was first hitting the market. Even though they produced a director approved transfer of THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST such a short time ago, they were committed to releasing an even more recent, anamorphic transfer for this DVD edition — also director approved and supervised by cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and editor Thelma Schoonmaker. Now THAT’S dedication to producing the best image possible for the consumer. High marks and great appreciation for the folks at Criterion Collection.
I’m a proud owner of that very fine laser disc edition and I recall how thrilled I was when I read it was going to be released. Finally, Martin Scorsese’s labor of love was going to be given the treatment it deserved. And Criterion didn’t disappoint. That is a great looking disc. However, when I read that the DVD was to be anamorphic, I knew it would be even better, and indeed it is.
Both sharpness and detail have been slightly improved. This can be appreciated from the opening shot which swoops in from overhead to find Jesus lying on the ground. If you look at the ground itself you’ll see detail not present on the laser disc. This is noticeable whenever the ground is visible in a shot, and we can more easily distinguish between sand, gravel or a mixture of both. We can also see textures in stone walls and fabric that were not quite so clear on the laser disc. Being able to see this kind of detail in such small elements of the image would imply that greater detail is also being seen in larger objects — like faces in close-up and tattoos on Mary Magdalene and other women in the film — and indeed this is true.
The increased clarity is apparent not only in brighter daylight scenes, but also in darker sequences — for example, when Jesus is tempted by the devil in the desert. Take note of the exceptional clarity which allows us to see the gravel within Jesus’ circle, as well as the details in the body of the snake and the lion. These looked good on the laser disc as well — but they’re better here.
Colors are also slightly improved, appearing a bit richer — particularly reds and blues. Of course, there’s a great many shades of brown throughout the film because of the desert setting. What one can see here is finer shadings in the yellow-browns. Granted, I had to do A/B comparisons to note the differences, but I did this particularly for the sake of our readers who recently (a few short years ago) invested $80 or so in the laser disc and want to know if they’ll see an improvement if they go ahead and buy this DVD. I can tell you that I certainly did on our 100” projection set up. Flesh tones are very well rendered with subtle shadings according to lighting key and complexion. This was also true of the laser disc. We noticed only solid, contained colors — no ‘smearing’ of hues between fields.
Contrast and brightness levels are excellent and consistent throughout the presentation. Blacks are rich and solid, and shadow delineation is very good. We noted no ‘shimmer’ of ‘ringing’ from digital over-enhancement. Though we did see small amounts of fine grain in a few shots with bright blue skys, incidences are few and far between. We saw some very small, white pock marks in the picture every now and then, but this aside, the image is near pristine with no distracting scars or scratches.
If you’ve only ever seen THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST on VHS tape, you’ve never really seen the beauty of the film (nor have you heard it for that matter, but more on that later). You like the film and own it on tape and you’re wondering if you should shell out the extra cash for Criterion’s new disk. Hey, what did you buy your DVD player for in the first place? If you own Criterion’s terrific laser disc addition, you have a tougher choice since the improvement isn’t dramatic. We noticed more because we’re viewing on a large front projection set up and we have anamorphic capabilities. Perhaps you’ll note less improvement on a smaller setup, or if you’re not yet capable of viewing anamorphic images. It’s a tough call. Perhaps you should base your decision on the audio. Read on, home theater fan.
SOUND
The sound was manufactured from the original six-track magnetic masters. Dolby Digital channel remix by Skip Lievsay / C5, NYC.
Audio supervisor: Ken Hansen
The other aspect of this DVD that differs from Criterion’s previously released laser disc is the remastered soundtrack, which is in Dolby Digital 5.1. Sometimes it seems a bit gimmicky when slightly older, or much older films are pressed with new 5.1 mixes. I could list a number of examples — but don’t get me started. In the case of THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST and its new mix, … well let me put it this way: If you’re hedging about whether or not to buy this DVD because you own the laser and you’re not sure if the slight improvement in image quality is worth the extra cash, hedge no more. This recording is the clincher — get the DVD and be happy.
You’ll hear and feel the improvement immediately when Peter Gabriel’s score ramps up with all its percussive splendor during the film’s opening. Mr. Lievsay has made outstanding use of the forward stage, surrounds and .1FX channel to create a tapestry of sound which envelopes the viewer/listener. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I think it’s terrific that Criterion tells us who does the work on their discs. They’ve a right to be proud of their work and it’s good to know who does the ‘magic.’
Most of the improvement you’re going to hear with this mix is in the presentation of Peter Gabriel’s music. There’s more bass — in the front mains of course, but also from the dedicated sub. The music is very expansive and the surrounds provide ample support, and not simply to carry the same signal as the mains. Often various instruments, primarily percussion, can be heard over the shoulders only. This approach places the listener within the music rather than before it, as in a concert hall. Imagine yourself in the orchestra pit, instead of in row ten and you’ll get the idea. Still more clever are instances where a single instrument — for example ‘finger cymbals’ chime in sequence around the room, moving from corner, to corner, to corner — front to back and forward again. This never seems gimmicky. It always works to enhance what’s happening on screen. Most impressive.
The numerous crowd sequences are also enhanced by this new DD track. Shouts, screams, and cries are heard distinctly from different positions about the surroundstage, and as the camera moves us through a scene, the sounds reposition themselves accurately and smoothly. Split effects over the shoulders are very noticeable during such sequences — like the crucifixion, the wedding, and the stoning of Mary Magdalene. The ‘you-are-there’ factor is surprisingly high here.
Though there are considerable improvements in the depth and width of the soundstage, the increased contribution by the surrounds, and substantial use of the .1FX channel to enhance Gabriel’s music, dialogue sounds a bit thin in a number of sequences. Voices are nicely integrated across the forward stage, and all lines are heard clearly, but there’s a slight edge to the sound. However, it’s never fatiguing on the ear. Far from it.
We’re very pleased with Criterion’s decision to go for the full 5.1 mix. The improvement in the film’s soundtrack alone is quite impressive. Peter Gabriel’s compositions go a long way to increase the intensity of Scorsese’s images. The music has never sounded this good. It’s never sounded as wide open — not even during the film’s theatrical release. No gimmicks here.