The Symbolic Heroic Nature of Jesus
The gross profit and best-selling movie in the year 1988, the Last Temptation of Christ, brought a lot of controversial talk from far and near. Both people that had seen the movie and those that had not had something unique to say about the movie. The movie directed by Martin Scorsese deflected the 1953 novel authored by Nikos Kazantzakis in which Jesus was portrayed as a tormented and fearful man who was defeated by lust and unsure of his path in life. Many religious leaders in the United States blasted the film in fiery sermons and condemned its subject matter as pornographic. In that year of publication, there was a protest by a French Christian Fundamentalist group as they launched Molotov cocktails inside …show more content…
So, he had a grand opportunity to be able to voice out his thoughts when the novel “The Last Temptation of Christ” by Nikos Kazantzakis wrote about the life of Jesus and how he was able to go through temptation repression, lust and fear as a man. Nikos pictured Jesus as a mortal man who had a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene who later conceived children for him and they had a family together. Kazantzakis claims to offer a “supreme model to the man who struggles.” He never intended to write a biography about Jesus but to portray Jesus in the likes of men so that human beings would be able to relate better with the nature of Jesus. Professor of Film and Media Studies, Daniel Cutrara, who was also a Catholic writes a review of the film as he agrees with the battle he also faced as a young Catholic boy who saw Christ as a very holy and divine figure who could not be related with. Cutrara criticizes the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene but finds that of Jesus and Judas more appalling. He believes that Jesus denied and was able to resist the homosocial relationship with Mary by sticking with Judas as he embarked on his ministry. When Jesus was crucified on the cross and falls for Satan’s temptation, he is taken into a world where he gets married and has a family with Mary Magdalene. Judas, with some other followers come to confront Jesus on why he had forsaken his purpose and decided to follow wordly pleasures. Cutrara addresses Judas’ act of confrontation to Jesus as that of a heart broken and betrayed lover who is very angry with his
The gross profit and best-selling movie in the year 1988, the Last Temptation of Christ, brought a lot of controversial talk from far and near. Both people that had seen the movie and those that had not had something unique to say about the movie. The movie directed by Martin Scorsese deflected the 1953 novel authored by Nikos Kazantzakis in which Jesus was portrayed as a tormented and fearful man who was defeated by lust and unsure of his path in life. Many religious leaders in the United States blasted the film in fiery sermons and condemned its subject matter as pornographic. In that year of publication, there was a protest by a French Christian Fundamentalist group as they launched Molotov cocktails inside …show more content…
So, he had a grand opportunity to be able to voice out his thoughts when the novel “The Last Temptation of Christ” by Nikos Kazantzakis wrote about the life of Jesus and how he was able to go through temptation repression, lust and fear as a man. Nikos pictured Jesus as a mortal man who had a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene who later conceived children for him and they had a family together. Kazantzakis claims to offer a “supreme model to the man who struggles.” He never intended to write a biography about Jesus but to portray Jesus in the likes of men so that human beings would be able to relate better with the nature of Jesus. Professor of Film and Media Studies, Daniel Cutrara, who was also a Catholic writes a review of the film as he agrees with the battle he also faced as a young Catholic boy who saw Christ as a very holy and divine figure who could not be related with. Cutrara criticizes the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene but finds that of Jesus and Judas more appalling. He believes that Jesus denied and was able to resist the homosocial relationship with Mary by sticking with Judas as he embarked on his ministry. When Jesus was crucified on the cross and falls for Satan’s temptation, he is taken into a world where he gets married and has a family with Mary Magdalene. Judas, with some other followers come to confront Jesus on why he had forsaken his purpose and decided to follow wordly pleasures. Cutrara addresses Judas’ act of confrontation to Jesus as that of a heart broken and betrayed lover who is very angry with his