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{"id":5458,"date":"2013-08-14T11:00:54","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T16:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?p=5458"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:29:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:29:28","slug":"5458","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2013\/08\/14\/5458\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Temptation Turns Twenty-Five"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Last week at\u00a0Christianity Today Movies<\/em>, we published a piece<\/a> on the controversial Martin Scorsese film\u00a0The Last Temptation of Christ<\/em>, which turns twenty-five this year. Critic Ken Morefield went back to the film, wondering if it was any good, and if it was worthy of the controversy. What he found was surprising:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fascinating to listen to the commentary track on the film\u2019s Criterion Collection DVD, released in 2000. Made with a $7 million budget for Universal Studios after Paramount gave up the picture, the film begins with a written disclaimer that it is not based on the Gospels but is a \u201cfictional exploration of the eternal spiritual conflict\u201d which, it says, is the clash of \u201cspirit\u201d and \u201cflesh\u201d that grows out of the \u201cyearning of man to attain God.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the DVD commentary, screenwriter Paul Schrader\u2014one of Calvin College\u2019s more controversial graduates\u2014admits that this use of Jesus as a metaphor is \u201ctechnically\u201d blasphemous. But he claims that the critics of the film never made a sophisticated critique. Instead, they were enraged by just one thing: that the movie showed sexual contact between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This is the greatest of the temptations that Jesus overcomes by choosing to remain on the cross and be crucified.<\/p>\n

Read the whole piece here.<\/a> Did you see\u00a0Last Temptation<\/em> when it first came out, or since then? What did you think?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"