Its funny really. I still remember LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST being embargoed, directly or not, by so many theater chains and other companies. For example, as some people tell me, CHIK-FALA closed its doors during the entire run of the movie at this one local-plex.
Then the video stores in my area just refused to carry the movie. Blockbuster blacklisted the movie for years.
Yet now, some Theologists have sort of "rediscovered" this movie and realize, like many of us did beneath that religious right controversy bullshit, that the movie is only a dramatic and alternative meditation on the Jesus Christ of Nazareth myth. The finale sequence, the namesake of the picture, does ask the question: How willing are you to finish something that you don't want to do but believe must be done?
Besides, its easily the best J.C. movie, or at least the most interesting. Forget PASSION OF THE CHRIST or GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, or the very dull KING OF KINGS.
You all notice how the different groups within the movie are represented with differing accents? You have Keitel with a Brooklyn-accent. Harry Dean Stanton with his southern accent. Then the Romans, like David Bowie, being British. Just food for thought...
