IT IS ACCOMPLISHED!!!

I have seen several video adaptations of the life of Jesus Christ: "The Greatest Story Ever Told" *yawn*, "The Passion of the Christ" *puke*, even the musical hit "Jesus Christ Superstar". After seeing all of these, I can clearly say that Martin Scorcese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" is the best (non-musical) Christ adaptation ever created.

When a friend of mine first told me that in the movie, J.C. would be played by none other than Willem Dafoe, I was a tad skeptical. Here was a man who I had first witnessed playing the Green Goblin in Spider-Man (which I saw before this movie) and who now was playing the role of the Christian Messiah and Savior. However, after seeing the movie, I was suprised to see that Dafoe had pulled it off......with a vengeance! I wouldn't say he was superb, but he was quite good as Jesus.

I won't go into detail with the plot, as about 2/3 of the movie comes straight from the Good Book. But the other 1/3 is pure fiction (which actually ticked off a lot of die-hard Christians). Therefore I will only describe the fictional parts, which actually form a sort of short story on its own.

When Jesus gets sent into the desert by John the Baptist to wait to hear from God, he is confronted by (if my memory favors) 3 temptations: a snake, a lion, and a third one which isn't in the Bible......a large flame. The flame tells Jesus that he (the flame) is the one he (Jesus) has been waiting for and that if Jesus goes with him he shall have everything he ever wanted. It's at this point that Jesus realizes that the flame is actually Satan. Jesus rejects his temptation, and Satan leaves, saying that oh-so villainous cliché "We shall meet again".

Now let's fast forward to towards the end of the movie, to the point where the last temptaion of Christ actually begins. If you don't want to spoil the ending for yourself, then skip this next paragraph.

Jesus is on the cross, and then he sees a little girl in front of him who claims to be his guardian angel. The girl takes him off the cross and tells him that he is, in fact, not the Messiah (*gasp* have been worshiping the wrong guy this whole time......nope). For the final half hour, Jesus lives the life of a man. He marries his faithful follower Mary Magdalene, who is quickly killed. He then marries some other Mary (Lazaress' sister, I think), and they have kids and they live happily ever after.....not. On his death bed, Jesus is confronted by his most loyal diciples who have come to pay their respects one last time......all except one. Judas, who's a little ticked to find out that he was forced to betray his master and friend for nothing, tells Jesus that he has been living a lie. Under closer examination of the little girl, Jesus realizes that his so-called guardian angel was actually Satan the whole time. Despaired by his gullability, Jesus returns to the Hill of Skulls and begs God to place him back on the cross. BAM!!
He's back on the cross, crucified as he was 30 minutes ago. THe movie ends with Jesus smiling and yelling "IT IS ACCOMPLISHED!!"

I'm a Christian myself, and though I did find the movie a little blasphemist, I was not offended at all. I thought the movie was pure genius. It was more of a masterpiece than the Notre Dame cathedral itself (and probably cost as much too).

As for the effects, they weren't bad. I did find it a bit cheesy when a man is getting his foot nailed to the cross and suddenly blood spurts out and hits Jesus in the face. But I thought Christ's Crusifixion was very well done.

The actors were pretty good for there roles. I have already discussed Dafoe's preformance as J.C. However, I had a few issues with the actor chosen to play Judas. I see Judas being played by a young, ambitious man, instead of a middle aged man. As all Christians should know, Judas is the biggest traitor in the (catholic) history, and yet here he is being played by a kindly old man who is pressured by Jesus into betraying him to the Romans. This is just probbaly my own little pet peeve, though. So it's not a big deal.

All in all, this movie is very well done, very well acted, and very creative. Scorcese should be proud.