'The Last Temptation of Christ' is a movie depicting the life of Jesus Christ that released in 1988 and was directed by Martin Scorsese. The film stars Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, David Bowie and Harry Dean Stanton as leading characters and is based on the controversial 1960 novel, written by Nikos Kazantzakis. Centralized around Jesus, the movie includes temptations of humans face, such as fear, doubt, depression, reluctance and lust. This is indeed an ideal movie to watch out on Easter Sunday. Given below is a short summary of the 'The Last Temptation of Christ' movie.
Story
Jesus of Nazareth is a carpenter in Judea, occupied by the Romans. Since he has been hearing voices, he assumes God to have a plan for him. Therefore, he ends in constructing crosses for the Romans for executing animals and rebels. This lands him as a traitor in the eyes of his fellow Israelis, including Mary Magdalene who spits on him. Judas Iscariot is a zealot rebel belonging to a nationalistic splinter faction revolting against Roman rule. He is sent to kill Jesus on the context of him being a collaborator. He suspects Jesus to be the Messiah and attempts to recruit him for the zealot cause but he refuses.
The movie also showcases an undisclosed history of Jesus with his childhood friend, Mary Magdalene, a Jewish prostitute. Although she asks him to stay with her, he refuses stating that he has to leave for a monastic community. He later saves her from an angry mob who tries to stone for her prostitution and her works for Romans on the Sabbath. Eventually, Jesus builds up a following of disciples and travels to visit John the Baptist. The same day, Jesus is baptized and the entire night is spent in discussing their differing viewpoints. While John believes in gaining freedom from the Romans before the world of God is declared, Jesus considers love to be more important. Jesus, thus, heads off to the desert in search of God.
While Jesus and his ministry reach Jerusalem, he is maddened by money changers in the temple who throw them out. Although Jesus tries to take the temple by force, he soon sees that his hands are bleeding. Thus, he realizes that violence is not the solution to a problem. On request from Jesus, Judas is forced to turn him to the palace grounds where Jesus takes the Last Supper, along with his disciples. While Jesus is adorned with a crown of thorns and led to Golgotha for crucifixion, a young girl, who appears to an angel, turns up to him and brings him down. He is taken to Mary Magdalene and both get married. They have a child, but Mary unexpectedly dies after sometime.
He is informed by his angel that all women are Mary. Hence, he starts a new life with Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus. Years ahead on his deathbed in Jerusalem, Judas enters and considers Jesus to be a traitor. The angel was actually Satan, who was tempting Jesus into the life of comfort. Thus, Jesus realizes and crawls back to the site of crucifixion and begs God to let him be his son. He instantly gets back to the cross and cries out while dying "It is accomplished! It is accomplished".
'The Last Temptation Of Christ' is a film adaptation of the novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis. Check out the plot and summary of this movie.