Diagonaldi Very well executed

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

ghenshall I do have to say how wrong this movie is. Some may agree with me, and many will not. However, I am not concerned with the argument many have with me, but concern is that the blasphemy in this film is deceiving many people, especially ones who already know Christ. Although I have problems with most of the film, mainly I'm annoyed with the second half of the film. The movie portrays Jesus not only running through trials and tribulation, but actually fell into temptation. The movie shows that Satan was able to trick Jesus by disguising himself as a little girl, and after seeing Jesus fall into temptation and marry Mary Magdalene and have sexual relations with her is purely disgusting. No where in the Bible does it say that Jesus had sexual relations with Mary Magdalene. No where in the Bible does Jesus defy God and follow Satan. The Good Word says, "Jesus cried out, 'Father why have you forsaken me'. It was only shortly after this Jesus gave up His Spirit and died." There is no jumping off the cross and joining the devil there. No! He died on the cross and after three days, He rose again. So where in that part of Scripture does Jesus marry Magdalene, and where does the Bible say he lived to be 80 years old?There is nothing in Scripture to support that. No my friends, when Jesus resurrected He carried on with the earth for 40 days before He was ascended into heaven. And the two angels stood near the disciples and said, "This same Jesus you saw going into heaven, will come back in the same way you saw Him go into heaven. I tell you the truth, if you think Jesus fell into temptation, then you are making Him and the Father to be a liar. Literally, anyone who thinks that Jesus had sex with Mary and married her and died at 80 is calling God a liar. For Jesus is the unblemished Lamb who was sacrificed for our sins, therefore, Jesus is sinless even on earth. If anyone does not believe this, they really need help, because I tell you now, the making of this movie was not prompted by the Holy Spirit, but by man's own fantasy through the prompting of demonic spirits.I'm not saying Jesus Christ is a fantasy, but this movie is. The way Jesus died in this film does not match the Word of God. Now, many people are wondering if I'm a child of God, and probably many are accusing me of being Satan's follower. Well, honestly if that accusation helps them sleep at night, then go right ahead, but I'm not going to believe them, for I believe in my Saviour, Jesus Christ, and I know deep down that He would not accept Satan's desires or be tricked by him in any way. The Devil is a liar and the father of all lies (John 8:44).Jesus had much to say to the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew 23. He woed them seven times. Maybe you should take a look.

lasttimeisaw In anticipation of Martin Scorsese's SILENCE (2016), it is tempting to visit the other religious passion project from his backlist, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF Christ, an adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' titular novel, a mini-scaled, semi-improvised, shoe-strung budgeted (a mere $7 million considering its epic 162 minutes length) mortal exposition of the divine sacrifice. Shot in Morocco against a biblical but spartan context, it takes some time to acclimate ourselves with the cast's American English accent, a sense of "they don't belong to that land", which doesn't peter away as the story lumbers on. Willem Dafoe is the son of God, exerts an assiduous endeavor into this taxing challenge which forces his hand to feign wide-eyed gaze, conflicted frown and plangent oration in spite of his vampiric astuteness, he is too contemporary for the role, so is Harvey Keitel's curly ginger-haired Judah, more often than not, it pulls audience out of the context unconsciously, whereas Barbara Hershey's Magdalene, suffers less from this obstacle thanks to her exotic fripperies, a subdued position in the story (less wordy) and her mystical but heroic make-up, an unabashed prostitute has no racial bias of her clientele. Encumbered by its monetary constraint, the film doesn't endow audience with the imaginably breathtaking desert landscape, where Jesus goes alone to seek his true vocation from God and he has to ward off temptations from a talking cobra, an august lion and the flame embodied by Satan, those symbolic vignettes are slam-bang on the nose, but as re-enactments of transcendent design, they are ruefully pedestrian in its artistic form, so is the didactic sequences where he conducts miracles, as blasé as Jesus' human foibles. With regard to the last temptation, adheres to Kazantzakis' urtext, the story posits an alternative for Jesus, what if he is not the chosen one and he is blessed to live as an ordinary human being, getting married, conducting promiscuity and procreating children until reaching his dotage when he realizes all is a sham (thanks to a forthright Judas), concocted by Satan in the disguise of his guardian angel, to lead him astray from his destiny, yet, it is never too late, because all is in God's design, he will return to the cross and consummate his crucifixion. And that's it, a digression into an non-existent life (The only thorny part is his confrontation with apostle Paul, played by a sprightly Harry Dean Stanton, who gives a truth-revealing address about the crux of religion: truth doesn't matter, religion is created to appease the needy mass.) crops up to be just a coup d'oeil on the cross, a miracle conjured by the Almighty to harden J.C.'s dithering resolution and squash his doubts. No one can deny, that could be a very dialectical approach to prove God's existence, only it is inconveniently buttressed by a far too earthly hypothesis borne out of fancifulness. If such an omnipotent being indeed exists, the only way to worship and follow God is the ever-consuming blind faith in lieu of any normal sense mankind possesses, because God is so transcendent and superior to humans, otherwise he cannot be the creator, however, that kind of devotion is not applicable to everyone, because we are a species of cynical and dubious nature, incorrigibly self- centred and restlessly combative. Unimpressed by the film's overtly orthodox and reductive tack to seize upon its contentious content, one might feel prone to luxuriate in a compensatory reward, Peter Gabriel's enigmatic incidental music, wonderfully encapsulates the otherworldly rhythm and vibe clearly the film doesn't fully manage to elicit. Religious epic is not a winning formula for Mr. Scorsese in spite of his own fondness, but it is his prerogative to materialise his dreams just because he is able to afford it, for viewers who hasn't seen SILENCE, it is wiser to lower our expectation in exchange for a less bathetic experience, which is all but imminent.

chaswe-28402 Embarking on this lengthy trip with no prior preparation was baffling. Force fed since childhood with all the stories in the bible, I still could make little sense of what was going on. I had not read the book by Kazantzakis. Fortunately, this site provides a number of explanations, partially dispelling my obtuseness. The solution is actually fairly simple, as I now see it. The Last Temptation is the impulse to lead a normal life: keep working at carpentry, marry, have children and grow old. Pay god minimal attention. The film is an extremely roundabout way of presenting this argument, and I couldn't really swallow it. I thought Dafoe was quite good as Christ: he conveyed a kind of demon-like godfulness. Some might find this off-putting, but it tied in with the angelic little Satan towards the end. Although the movie is very long, and continued for another 30 minutes after it seemed to end, it was worth watching, but not worth watching twice. I note that apparently I did watch it 7 or 8 years ago, but had totally forgotten what it was about. Those several years ago I see I noted that John the Baptist had a good line in the plot, when he said that "The God of Israel is the God of the Desert. If you want to speak to him, go to the desert". Sadly, this is true of the god of Israel: vengeful, punitive and jealous, modelled on the sun blazing down in those barren, arid regions. I prefer the pagan gods of the temperate zone. Beauty, reason, creativity. I was going to give this 8 stars, but I've changed my mind. It annoyed me: 4 stars.

eric262003 It's been well over two and a half decades since this classic film directed by Martin Scorsese came out and what a following it had and not always for the better I might add. Not that I had anything negative to say about it, but it did cause an uproarious impact to over zealous religious fanatics who thought this film was blasphemous and an insult to the Bible let alone God's beloved son Jesus Christ. And even after so many years one has to wonder why? What was the reason for any kind of outrage? The reason "The Last Temptation of Christ" angered the religious community was how Jesus Christ was portrayed. He was depicted not as a patron saint, but as a normal man who conveyed emotions, concerns, fears, doubt and acceptance for who he was. This story is about as real to the person as any other film that portrayed him and refrained from making Christ look like a storybook character, but a real human being with exceptional talents with believable emotions. And it never once goes against any message that Christ has preached about through the years. The opening scene in which Jesus Christ (Willem Dafoe) laying on the ground looks just like a picture page taken from the Bible. When he awakens we observe the man is in excruciating pain. During the course of time he is seen travel around from town to town, looking for knowledge as he remains both enthusiastic and fearful over what God has planned for him. One nailed to the cross The Devil persuades him to live a normal life as regular everyday person, married, with kids and an occupation which he gladly takes in. He eventually lives a fulfilling life as a mortal getting old and happy. While counting his last breaths as Jerusalem is in an inferno, he learns what he did wrong and pleads to his father for his wrong-doing and and to return to the cross and to die for everyone's sins. The humanistic plot point is that we get a better understanding of Jesus and why he sacrificed himself for the sake of our humanity. Whether he was a deity or a human is unimportant, the bottom line was that he was a great service to himself and to all of God's creatures big or small. The primary idiosyncrasy that makes this film more passionate than a certain anti-Semitic Mel Gibson interpretation was that director Martin Scorsese and scriptwriter Pal Schrader took the adaptation by Nikos Kanzantakis by detail and refrained from making it big-budgeted or grandeur. Though inspired by his predecessors from the 1950's he took his low-key interpretation and successfully kind spoke to the viewers instead of just making feel preachy and self-righteous. One of the primary things that turned people off about this movie was the usage of modernized dialect and the obvious New York accent by Harvey Keitel (Judas). My guess is that Scorsese just wanted to attract the moviegoers and to give them a indicator of what's happening in the scenes. If you wanted realism, the film should have been done in Hebrew with subtitles. If there was something that "The Last Temptation of Christ" ticked me off was the overabundance of major Hollywood stars. Sure they put in remarkable performances, but if they're just there to stuff money in their wallets than that is just unexceptional. Dafoe was an excellent choice in the role of Christ, but when regular Scorsese alums like Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton, Barbara Hershey no disrespect for David Bowie (RIP) playing supporting characters can be quite jarring at times. At least Scorsese corrected his mistake when he directed his next religious based film "Kundun" which was a career best for him.For me "The Last Temptation of Christ" is truly right up there with other Scorsese greats like "Taxi Driver", "Mean Streets", and "Raging Bull". The conflicts depicted here are equally poignant in terms of being both spiritual as it was physical. It was still not close to "Kundun" where the spiritual revelation is in full effect. But "The Last Temptation of Christ" has enough charm and enlightenment to lure anyone for a chance to see a film about Jesus Christ in more humane form rather than as a caricature.