Dec. 24, 2002 - 9:28 pm
well, that's two Martin Scorsese films in a row for my mom and i. this is one i had been wanting to watch for a couple of weeks because i felt like watching another Jesus movie after Ben Hur (1959). this seemed to be the highest rated one i could find, and it sounded like a cool concept for a movie as well. so i went with this one.
the story is not based on the Gospels, but instead on a fictionalized account of what might happened in Jesus' life. basically it tells you that Jesus heard voices in his head as a young man and then suddenly realized that it was God directing him in what to do. he later on learned to use his great powers to help others and teach them the will of God. eventually he realizes that he must sacrifice himself and pay for all the sins of other men by dying on the cross...an interesting bit of irony as he himself used to construct crosses for the Romans. the "last temptation" bit is that as Jesus is on the cross, his "angel" comes to him and tells him that God was only testing him and is pleased with his performance. he can now come down and live his life as a normal man. he does this and on his death bed discovers the truth about his destiny.
very cool idea, but i really didn't enjoy it very much. Willem Defoe is a great actor, but he's no Jesus. and the rest of the cast really doesn't belong here either. the music for the film is really bad, and the set design is very poor as well. the special effects are laughable. i think this is a great idea for a film, but it just wasn't done well. i guess i'd recommend reading the book...even though i haven't read it myself. i'm sure the characters you'd create in your head, etc. would look a lot better than this film turned out though.