After all, Jesus himself often confounded the expectations of his contemporaries, and didn’t necessarily impress most of them as being divine.Īt the same time, I have no intention of trying to stake out some sort of middle ground or happy compromise between the critics’ acclaim and the religionists’ censure. We must not be too quick to judge any particular portrait of Christ merely because it challenges our expectations or makes us uncomfortable, or because it doesn’t immediately evoke his divinity.
In a case like this, where critical thought and religious opinion seem irreconcilable, I feel it is necessary to offer a response that is both critically responsible and spiritually sound - if only to satisfy myself (if no one else) that such a response is indeed possible that critical perspective and orthodox judgment are not somehow exclusive.
Yet I have one foot in each camp - indeed, both feet in both camps, since I write film criticism informed by faith, rather than compartmentalizing or partitioning my beliefs when I review a film. Neither side has much use for the other’s opinion. The Last Temptation of Christ, an ambitious film from a director of significant stature, based upon a serious novel by a talented writer, met with widespread acclaim and praise among film critics, yet drew enormous negative attention in many religious circles, often from people who hadn’t seen the film and were not in a position to frame their objections critically. Why, then, would a critic such as myself, writing years after the fact, deliberately choose to subject himself to such a litmus test? Why would I write about this film when I could just as easily choose to write about some other?įor the same reason that a scientist who is also a believer is drawn to address apparent conflicts between science and faith. Who defends it can expect to be dismissed as a Modernist andĪccused of condoning blasphemy and heresy. In particular, aĬritic who faults a movie like The Last Temptation ofĬhrist can expect to be dismissed as a Fundamentalist andĪccused of judging the film on doctrinaire grounds rather thanĪpproaching it aesthetically and on its own terms while a critic Often in the process ignoring the actual substance of the review, Readers make a litmus-test out of the critic’s conclusions, too However, when passions run high enough, inevitably some The reader naturally wants to have a sense of who the critic is,Īnd reviews of controversial films can provide a convenient index In one way, of course, this is quite reasonable Movies, like Titanic or Dogma, that the critic reviewsĪt his own risk: It is he himself, not the film, that is reallyīeing judged. The Last Temptation of Christ is one of those perilous Martin Scorsese’s controversial 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ: An essay in film criticism and faith SDG
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