The Last Temptation of Christ / The Passion of the Christ

One entry for two Christ movies : 1988 Scorcese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" and 2004 Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ". Scorcese is trying to show Jesus as a man, with his share of doubts and failures ; Gibson is trying to shoot the last hours of Jesus'life as if he 'd been there.

Scorcese's movie seems to me to achieve his goal. Jesus is a real man, he does not know how to convey God's will, and like we do with our problems, he solves it by trying, failing and trying again. As a man, he falls for the devil's last temptation, but, given the context (he's on a cross, and he seems to suffer pretty badly, for Himself's sake ;) ), who would not fall for it. Scorcese is showing a (his?) version of the events that could have taken place and is not pretending to follow the scripture : anyway, you should NEVER believe what's written because it's written, be it in the Bible or not. I've like the subtle touches here and there : the role of Judas (who only betrays Jesus because Jesus commands him to do so), the hysterical scene of Jesus'baptism, the doubts of Jesus in the temple... In the end, what makes it work for me is the humanity of the human Jesus is a more-than-human scheme.

Gibson's movie was more difficult for me. It is supposed to be true to the writings of the Bible and it is globally OK on this : his Jesus is rather Bible-like (as opposed to the more human one of Scorcese) and the story brings no surprise to someone who knows his gospels ; moreover, since the dialogs are in aramean and latin, you almost feel back then. So basically, you spend two hours looking at Jesus being tortured at the hand of the romans and jews and watching blood dripping. Blood lovers will love this movie : Jesus loses almost as much blood than all the zombies of "Brain Dead" combined. This movie is, in my opinion, useful in this aspect : it reminds us of the violence it has taken to bring this Messiah down ; Watching the asepticized pictures of violence in the news everyday makes us forget the true horrors that happen in this world : at least, this movie makes things clear. Now, when I see a cross, I don't see the sacrifice of the Christ, I see the violence, the hatred and the religion, all mingled in a symbol carried around the necks of our kids.