{"id":45107,"date":"2016-04-28T10:06:04","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T17:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=45107"},"modified":"2016-04-28T10:06:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T17:06:04","slug":"watch-a-better-look-at-the-devil-and-a-few-spoilers-in-a-longer-version-of-the-last-days-in-the-desert-featurette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/04\/watch-a-better-look-at-the-devil-and-a-few-spoilers-in-a-longer-version-of-the-last-days-in-the-desert-featurette.html","title":{"rendered":"Watch: A better look at the Devil (and a few spoilers?) in a longer version of the Last Days in the Desert<\/i> featurette"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
$\"lastdaysinthedesert-makingof-a\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
Two days ago<\/a>, I mentioned that very little footage from Last Days in the Desert<\/a><\/i> had made its way online. Now I wonder if there might be too much<\/i> footage out there.<\/p>\n
Paste<\/i> magazine<\/a> has posted a longer version of the featurette that I posted two days ago \u2014 the new one has a running time of 4:36, whereas the other one runs 2:52 \u2014 and it includes a few clips that I can only assume come from fairly late in the film.<\/p>\n
You can watch the video \u2014 which, in addition to writer-director Rodrigo Garcia and co-stars Ewan McGregor, Ciaran Hinds and Ayelet Zurer, also features co-star Tye Sheridan and producers Bonnie Curtis, Julie Lynn and Wicks Walker \u2014 here:<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\nMeanwhile, my old CT Movies colleague Brett McCracken has written up an interview with McGregor for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.relevantmagazine.com\/culture\/film\/gospel-according-ewan-mcgregor\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Relevant<\/i> magazine<\/a>. A few key bits:<\/p>\n<blockquote>McGregor is not a religious man. As he describes it, the extent of his faith experience was \u201ca very brief religious moment\u201d when he was about 14, back in Scotland.<\/p>\n\u201cIt didn\u2019t leave any mark on me except that I was sort of glad it was brief,\u201d he says.<\/p>\nThe son of two teachers who themselves \u201cweren\u2019t really religious,\u201d McGregor\u2019s childhood experience of church mostly consisted of special occasions related to school or attending Sunday school because it \u201cwas just something to do.\u201d . . .<\/p>\nMcGregor says his family life inspired him in the making of Last Days<\/i>, especially the Jewish faith of his wife. In preparing for the film, he says he drew more on experiences of her Judaism than his experiences with Christianity. Observing men praying in the synagogues, feeling the things they were praying and the way they prayed helped him get inside of the mind of the Jewish Jesus, who prayed a lot in the desert.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd here\u2019s a bit about the very, very end of the film that might be kind of spoiler-ish:<\/p>\n<blockquote>When it came time to assume the iconic posture of Christ on the cross (yes, the film has a crucifixion scene), McGregor expected to have some sort of transcendent experience or religious connection. Yet, when the cameras were rolling and he saw crewmembers and wires all around him as he hung on the cross, it all felt disappointingly mundane.<\/p>\n\u201cThere was something ordinary about it that was pushing against my hopes and expectations,\u201d he says, adding that he was frustrated and annoyed that he couldn\u2019t just have his moment on the cross alone, apart from all the cameras and crew.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s such a stupid thing to say, but it\u2019s how I felt. I wasn\u2019t having the experience that I wanted to have on the cross, because, of course, it was just another shot in a movie.\u201d<\/p>\nDuring a 20-minute period of downtime as they waited for the light to change, the crew asked McGregor if he wanted to get down from the cross. He said no, and as he stayed on the cross, he realized everyone behind him had disappeared and the crew had suddenly become very quiet. As they filmed the shot, McGregor found a bit of what he\u2019d been looking for.<\/p>\n\u201cI felt a connection in that moment,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was quite special.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nPaste<\/i> magazine says it will have an interview with McGregor, too, in a couple weeks.<\/p>\nI linked to earlier interviews with McGregor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/12\/ewan-mcgregor-on-playing-jesus-or-rather-yeshua-and-the-devil-in-last-days-in-the-desert.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2015\/01\/christianity-today-speaks-to-the-director-and-star-of-the-indie-jesus-film-last-days-in-the-desert.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2015\/01\/last-days-in-the-desert-the-sundance-round-up.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2015\/06\/ewan-mcgregors-jesus-and-satan-movie-goes-to-scotland.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\nCheck out earlier trailers and other videos here:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/03\/watch-ewan-mcgregor-plays-jesus-and-the-devil-in-the-first-trailer-for-last-days-in-the-desert.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">The first trailer<\/a> (March 24, 2016)\n<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/04\/watch-last-days-in-the-desert-star-ewan-mcgregor-invites-you-to-an-evening-of-film-music-and-conversation.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">The \u2018Premiere Events\u2019 trailer<\/a> (April 11, 2016)\n<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/04\/watch-the-director-and-co-stars-of-last-days-in-the-desert-discuss-the-films-themes-in-a-new-featurette.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">The three-minute featurette<\/a> (April 26, 2016)<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plus: excerpts from a new interview with Ewan McGregor about the religious inspiration for the film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2621,2769,3648,2683,968,814,345,3646,2675,2676,2704,3647],"class_list":["post-45107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-ayelet-zurer","tag-bonnie-curtis","tag-brett-mccracken","tag-ciaran-hinds","tag-crucifixion","tag-ewan-mcgregor","tag-jesus","tag-julie-lynn","tag-last-days-in-the-desert","tag-rodrigo-garcia","tag-tye-sheridan","tag-wicks-walker"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Watch: A better look at the Devil (and a few spoilers?) in a longer version of the Last Days in the Desert featurette<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Plus: excerpts from a new interview with Ewan McGregor about the religious inspiration for the film.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/04\/watch-a-better-look-at-the-devil-and-a-few-spoilers-in-a-longer-version-of-the-last-days-in-the-desert-featurette.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watch: A better look at the Devil (and a few spoilers?) in a longer version of the Last Days in the Desert featurette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Plus: excerpts from a new interview with Ewan McGregor about the religious inspiration for the film.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/04\/watch-a-better-look-at-the-devil-and-a-few-spoilers-in-a-longer-version-of-the-last-days-in-the-desert-featurette.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-28T17:06:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2016\/04\/lastdaysinthedesert-makingof-a-1024x253.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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