Hide Article Text (OCR)
vision thaticlearlyMartinJThe Last Temptation to Chn*opened a WMk ago m rate oties. the Repnareviewed the Wmmthe context at the oontro versy that surrounded its release As the movie opens today tn Orange County Repster fkn crrtic Jm Emerson review* the fitm on its own meritsBy J»m Emersonfnf rwymgr ■it£WKfB he Last Temptation of Christ■ ■ The Mos'ie. not The ContravcrIjr) was written by Schrader (raised i Dutch Calvinist and directed by Martin Scorsese (a former Ro man Catholic seminarian). And the film, which comes to Orange County today, is one of the roost senous. sincere ami demanding religious movies ever made Thiswork - baaed on Greek Orthodox author NikosKamntMkis novel,writtenm 1951 — is hardly the work of blasphemers or theologians. It’s very much what it says it is: A Martin Scorsese Picture - dark fragmen tary, jittery, hallucinatory violent and, finally, exhilaratingThe first shot lt;like the careening opening track of Scorsese’• ’ After Hours/1 only vertical diagonal) slams us mto the Earth, where a troubled Jesus lays dreaming Themovie is that dream — a nightmare of blood and dust, fear and confusion. agony ami despair that is propelled by a yearningfor God and culminates in triumph over sin and sufferingThe picture ends with an ecstatic blaze of colored light that looks like partially exposed film running through the projector the ultimate expression of spiritual apothr osis for Scorsese, who has said: “I don’t know which came first, the movies or the church ... My first vivid memories of childhood were seeing movies, then getting enveloped tn the Catholic religion 1 felt somehow the two co-existed.Scorsese, of all filmmakers, would hardly be interested in trotting out, dusting off and polishing up a sanitized, commercialized dashboard Jesus who walks -- well, floats, at least — on water b cause he’s hollow ;nside His Jesus, like \ie less di vmely tormented souls of such Scorse se Schrader figures as Travis ‘Taxi Driver’’ Bickle and Jake Raging Bull’’ La Motta, is a man of flesh and blood who stumbles along a tortuous, rock-strewnpath toward salvation and feels every bruise and blow along the way.REVIEWTh# film: Tht•twrrmgs W*#m■©f• Mi*' y ’ *tvn* Mteftae*v§f?lpltt0n m wtwip !|y/: vf;mrmf Mm fertwastamon, uumo now jonn Andre GregoryOmma by MareoScores** Scrmmrny by Pm* Sdw»am based w m novel by mm KMMtzmm Muac by Qmm Onamaiograpby by Mtebaai Bai®mu$emms cy Thefena ScivoownrtMP Wafbvf; Opens today bi Orange Coukjj Runowtfl time: 2 Hour*. *C mmutes,Rated: R te* worene* nucMythe beginning of the picture, Jesus * played stirringly by Willem Dafoe, the saintly sergeant who was crucified tn theVietnamese jungle wasteland of ”Pla toon”) hasn't yet become fully cognizant of his divine destiny, but he knows that, what -ever it is, he can’t escape it Jesus prays desperately for some sense to certainty, for God to reveal himself and give him some straightforward answers This Jesus is truly, in Travis Btckk's self descriptionGod’s lonely man” - a label that in someways applies to all of Scorsese’s protagonists, from Mean Streets to Raging Bull’ to King of Comedy ”But. as in all the great and timeless mythological stones (many erf which are much older than the Bible), the hero just has to figure it out for himself Jesus (who is not a wimp, but a man who, like all men. is wracked by doubt) grows stronger and more forceful as he discovers who he is andwhat God wants of him And for Scorsese, Schrader and Kazatzakis, for whom this Jesus represent $ the eternal human strug gk between the flesh and the spirit, that is his — ami. consequently, mankind's — tri umph f§ J jThough some movie goer may get bogged down by the 160-mmute movie’s oc asionaliy leaden solemnity, Scorsese uses hallucinogenic dissolves, jarring jump-cut s and dizzying hurtling, spasmodiccamera movements (one of cinema tog r apher Michael Bailhaui’ trademarks, as previously demonstrated in After Hours and The Color of Money ”) to keep the picture leaping flowing briskly from one familiar biblical episode to the next In that sense, it’s sort of like John Boor man’s 1982 retelling of selected Aurthurian tales, Excalibur — except that, where Boorman chose to emphasize the ritualistic enchantment of that legendary world (evenCRITIC’S CHOICE: MOVIESIt’s been a summer erf cinematic silliness — some of it enjoyable some erfit torturous On the tun side there’s Jonathan Demme s goofy Mamed to the Mob,” Robert Zemeckis honey Who Framed Roger Rabbit are) PercyAdtons whimsical Bagdad Cafe. In the mostly ton category there’s John Cleeses zany A Fish Called Wanda• *Chuck Russell s hokey The Blob” andFrancis Coppola s cotton-candy Tucker (skckJy spun with airy sweet ness, but containing very little substance) As for the bad silliness — well, be warned Vibes. Short Circuit 2 are) Cocktail are about as unbearably awful as movies get these daysJim EmersonrQfigm im vWnro¥#fsy in# urn i#nip*£itixi 01 vnriit in# movm suirring Wtli#fTiDtfo# ii J#sui it 1 it^foyi thouflW orovokioq DtffonAl p#cf of Uimrrmkirmas, sorcerer Merlin sadly' observes, man throws over the many gods lt;rf the past torthe one god of Christianity). Sconeee de mythologizes his story and life so manygreat ,111.1*1 through the ages (from daVinci to Dante to Dostoevsky toDaii). gives us an intensely personal, atom-ncrain vtstun to Christ.It’s difficult to imagine a less commercial concept tor a movie than this deeply and passionately serious version of the Passion Scorsese was only able to make the film he’s dreamed of for 16 years by paring down the budget to a miraculous given the richness of the movie’s imagery 16.5 million (about half of what he’d estimated it would cost in 1983? and by casting it with hot, top, recognizable actors who are either friends or would work forscale just to work with Scorsese And so, we have, for example, BarbaraHershey (who gave Scorsese Kazantzakis book when they- were shooting Boxcar Bertha in 1972) as a Invest ruck, tatooed Mary Magdalene John ‘Stranger Than Paradise Lurie ai a BrwWyneie James the Apostle. Andre Gregory' as a loqua cious John the Baptist who might weU make intense dinner conversation with Wallace Shawn, if be d only put 00 a jacketand cut his hair, Harry Dean Stanton as ascruffy Saul/Paul; Barry Milkr as an East Coast Jewish intellectual Jeroboam; David Bowk as that witty, extremely rational put-down artist, Pontius Pilate And, most important of all, Harvey Keitel — the hero of such early Scorsese films as Who’s That Knocking at My Door? and Mean Streets* — as a tough, impa dent, bull-headed Judas. In the end, the disciple proves himself fully loyal to Jesus only by betraying tom to the Romans. Here, Judas and Jesus are accomplices who conspire to fulfill God’s purpose.To many of us, having been conditionedby a rather narrow 50s Hollywood King James translation of what a biblical movieshould be (you know: Charlton Heston in sandals and Gina Lollobngida in veils), Scorsese’s casting decisions may seem,., inappropriate. Well, they’re certainly odd and unsettling (sometimes laughable), and they don’t always work tor the movie, but they couldn’t be more appropriate for A Martin Scorsese Picture. In keeping will the personal nature of the film, Scorsese populates his holy land with a multiethnic*crowd — not just light skinned Jews and dark skinned Arabs and Ethiopians. tonalso Catholics from Unit Italy The La* Temptation that gives the book and movie their title takes place (accord mg to Kazantzakis) m the space of a lightmng flash to trouble the Savior's final mo meats This alluring apparition — erf a normal, happy. peaceful We with wife andctoWren — appears m an instant. perhaps in that moment when the crucified Jesus cries Father, why have you forsakenme##But tn the movie. it lasts a good 2b 30 minutes This section is the heart and soul of The La* Temptation to Christ - a mini masterpiece film-witton-the-film that redeems the picture even as it highlights the fadings to its fir* two hours For what the movie lacks until this point is any sense to joy - any tantalizing promise of salva turn stoning through Jesus agony When Jesus finally appears to find per sonal happiness and fulfillment, it’s a Ik a fover dream hallucination so stow andheavy and nusbed that it seems to he taking place at the bottom to the Dead Sea. In this elongated instant, Jesus experiences the pleasures to an ordinary’ life one by one Heloves, he is loved, he grows tod — quietly, uneventfully (My then can he see what he mu* give up in order to claim his destinyand accomplish God’s will. AM as he renounces this vision on the cross, he re-jokes: It is accomplished' ”Scorse** has said that those who insist ontrying to interpret the Bible letter-by letter(how can they tru* any English translation to the scriptures ?) should not trouble themselves with his film — even though it doesnot pretend to be gospel or history or biography (Lite all tos films, it’s closer to a spiritual autobiography )Despite its fadings (and partially because to them), Scorsese s The La* Temptation to Out**’ is a challenging, dynamic piece to personal filmmaking For those who have followed the artist’s extraordinary career, and for those whose interest in, and understanding to, the moral and religious issues raised in the New Testament extends beyond mere rote memorization of the text — indeed, tor any intelligent, questioning (i.e., open-minded) viewer — La* Temptation is a fdm that cannot be dismissed, or condemned, in good faith
Newspaper Details
Santa Ana Orange County Register
Santa Ana, California, US
Fri, Aug 19, 1988
Page 136
Full Page
Clipped by
Rotten T.
USA 05 May 2022
Other Publications Near Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana Pacific Weekly Blade
Santa Ana Excelsior
Santa Ana News
Santa Ana Evening Blade
Santa Ana Orange County Register Evening
