Not only are there times when it is impossible to take Movieguide‘s “Dr.” Ted Baehr all that seriously, there are times when he is actually so off-the-wall he becomes perversely entertaining.
And this rant against The Da Vinci Code and The Last Temptation of Christ is right up there, in my humble opinion.
Here are two of my favorite bits:
Needless to say, at that point in history, just a few short years ago (1988), Christian leaders were willing to condemn such blasphemy. Now, some Christian leaders, including those supposedly involved in the arts, have decided to join Judas and Neville Chamberlain in calling for people to go see a movie that is just as blasphemous as THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST.
“Judas and Neville Chamberlain”!? What on earth does that mean?
Christian leaders should, of course, speak against the DA VINCI CODE movie and to the movie, but they should not become shills for the movie. Today, however, those shills are even ridiculing on Da Vinci sponsored websites the saints such as Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, who stood so valiantly against THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST and helped to cause it to bomb at the box office.
“Helped to cause it to bomb at the box office”!? Bwahahahaha!
The Last Temptation of Christ was never going to be a huge box-office hit. It was, instead, a movie that Martin Scorsese had wanted to make for over 15 years, and it was a movie that Universal agreed to produce as part of a three-picture deal — in other words, the studio was looking at the bigger picture and planning all along to make its money on the other two movies (one of which, 1991’s Cape Fear, was indeed a hit). And what’s more, as Robin Riley reports on page 32 of Film, Faith and Cultural Conflict: The Case of Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, it seems the film actually made a small profit!
And I don’t know where Baehr gets the idea that this movie, produced for reportedly as little as $6 million, had a promotional budget of over $40 million. That was a lot of money in 1988, and I doubt Universal would have spent it all on this little flick.
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