Feelings on the film "Last Temptation of Christ"?

[Tallison]

Just finished seeing it for the first time and feel bewildered, like I don't know what I just saw. Not that I didn't like it so much as I don't feel I understood it well enough to even form an opinion. I'm now tempted to read the Niko Kazantzakis' novel on which it's based, hoping it'll improve my comprehension - if that's is the right word - of this particular take on Christ's life. I'd be interested in hearing anyone's perspective on this film/book/narrative. Thanks!

(I'm also posting this thread in the Protestant forum...)

[Tallison]

1. Dialogue on this topic already started in Protestant forum, just FYI!

[regnaD kciN]

8. And, FYI...

...some of us may not like having the "Christian Liberals/Progressive People of Faith" group pigeonholed as the "Protestant forum."

:grr:

It almost reminds me of the Irish joke about a group of militants (from one side or another) accosting a newcomer to the town and demanding to know if he's Catholic or Protestant. The man answers, "Neither...I'm an atheist." "Yes," the militant leader replies, "but are you a Catholic atheist, or a Protestant atheist?"

[Tallison]

2. Well, I just rewatched the film for the second time

in two days, finished it two hours ago at 2am, and am still unable to sleep. I feel stunned, touched, and at the risk of sounding precious, somewhat spiritually reawakened. Now, I was not raised Christian, and I've never considered myself Christian in much of a conventional sense. That said, after two decades of exploring different religious traditions during which I earned a B.A. in religious studies, at one point joined the Catholic Church and at a later one became active in a Buddhist temple, I've remained strongly enticed by and allured to a Jesus as Christ-centered sense of spirituality. Despite this, my issues with various dogmatic and doctrinal tenets of the RC Church and most Protestant denominations have prevented me from ever before fully identifying myself as a Christian.

To digress for a moment, I recall a salient point Joseph Campbell made in his book "The Power of Myth" regarding what a difficult time some have in identifying meaningfully and personally with theistic images of perfection. I don't have a copy of the book by me from which to quote, but he wrote something to the effect that it's through personal flaws and shortcomings that humans ultimately evince their vulnerability within a community and by extention their need and suitability for receiving compassionate love. In other words, imperfections often evoke love and compassion in others; the extent to which a figure is lovable is in some sense proportional to the number and magnitude of his/her flaws. Campbell supposed this condition accounts for the difficulty many have in achieving an emotionally gratifying relationship with a perfectly conceived God.

"The Last Temptation" has me now wondering to what extent Campbell's point has been operative in my own struggle to believe, when for lack of persuasive scientific reasons to in this secular age, it's the emotional ones that become most compelling. And what an emotionally compelling and provocative film I found "The Last Temptation," far more so than "The Passion," which I think is chiefly due to "Temptation"'s portrayal of Jesus as an anguished, self-doubting, identity-conflicted being for whom salvation and redemption never appeared certain until almost the moment of death. That is suffering, and one which renders Christ much more relatable and by extension lovable to me. Yes, lovable. Never before considered the potential for such feelings within my relationship to a Higher Power before. I'm so impressed. Beautiful job, Kazantzakis and Scorsese...

[4_Legs_Good]

3. Beautiful comments!

I'm glad you enjoyed the film and got a lot out of it! I also find it to probably be the most spiritually inspiring film I've ever seen. I see it less necessarily as actually about Jesus than about the struggle within each of us between the divine and the profane, between the desire for God and the need/desire/temptation to cope with the world around us. Also about our inability/resistance to giving ourselves over to God and the different temptations which keep us from God.

When we see these basic struggles which we all face also being faced by Jesus himself, we are more able to come to grips with them.

Oh, and I have to admit, that my favorite part of the film is the Peter Gabriel score, which is simply sublime.

david

[Beer Snob-50]

4. if one reads the new testament and the narrative of the passion of

jesus, i believe you would find someone who really didn't want to go through the process he knew he would have to go through. i have not seen the last temptation but i didnot get that feeling from watching the passion.

[The Jacobin]

5. Its been a while since I have seen the film.

I remember really liking it. I looked up my account on imdb and saw I gave it a 9/10, but no review, so I don't remember why.

I do remember thinking that the film explored what it means that Christ is "fully human" but failed to explore what it means that Christ is "fully divine."

[Dorian Gray]

6. I've never seen the movie

But, I've read the book. I loved the book, actually. It is what started me on the road back to Catholicism. (Despite the mysoginistic leanings of Kazantzakis.)

But, in the end, it's a story. I think most people were probably offended without understanding that it was another take on the temptation of Christ.

[regnaD kciN]

7. As far as I'm concerned, Kazantzakis has more reason...

...to be offended by the film than God does!

TLToC was a wonderful book, but most of that was lost in the cinematic adaptation.

[DemBones DemBones]

9. You all are making me want to read the book.

I never saw the movie, either -- being in my agnostic/atheist phase at the time, I had no interest in the topic.

Of course, I haven't gotten around to seeing "The Passion of the Christ," yet, either, since I very rarely go to theaters in recent years and AFAIK it's not been on pay per view.