What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?

In life all of us have temptations. Be it a piece of scrumptious looking cake waiting for us in our fridge, a chance to steal something with virtually no chance of ever being caught, or the temptation to stop writing this right now and go watch TV, we all have our inner demons to confront. Similarly, at one point or another, all of us have succumbed to one temptation or another, from anything ranging from breaking a news years resolution to jog every day to an some sort of infidelity. Knowing full well the power of simple earthly temptations, it is hard to imagine the strength of will required to resist an offer from the devil.

It is that very idea that the film The Last Temptation of Christ attempts to wrestle with. In some places, it succeeds wonderfully. In others it falls flat. Just to get the one thing that bothered me more than any other part of the film out of the way, I had a REALLY hard time accepting Willem Dafoe as Jesus. It isn't even so much that he did not act well in the movie (although I would challenge anyone to say that his performance was brilliant), but I just could not get over the fact that Klaus from The Life Aquatic was in any way divine, and for some reason I kept picturing him wearing a knit cap and talking with a German accent. I am, however, quite willing to concede that this is due to some failing on my part, and will not hold it against the movie (at least not too much).

On with the review. The movie does do an excellent job of showing real temptation that always almost succeeds in bring the Son of God down from his seat of purity. The first major temptation for Jesus is an opportunity to stay with the prostitute Mary Magdalene, though in the end he remains true to what he believes may be his true purpose and goes to monastic life. It seemed clear that his choice did much to cause further internal grief and self doubt within himself, something that had been building since he began making crosses for the Romans to crucify Jews on.

The next serious set of temptations comes in the form of the more famous (and Biblically accurate... sort of) forty days which Jesus spent in the desert. Here, he is tempted by the Devil, but each time is able to resist him.

The final (or should I say... "last"?) temptation of Christ happens as he is dying on the cross. At this juncture an "angel" appears to him , revealing to him that he is not the son of God, but rather a mortal whom God has now taken pity upon. Jesus is then taken away to be with is new wife Mary Magdalene, and he proceeds to have somewhat of a normal life. After Mary's death, Jesus begins a new relationship with the sisters of Lazarus (whom he has already saved). Towards the time of his death, however, Jesus is visited by his apostles, who finally convince him that he was wrong and that his "angel" was in fact Satan. Thus, Jesus's last temptation was an ordinary life. Something that, while possibly fairly obvious and predictable (at least by modern jaded movie goers like myself) it is at the same time profound. Although the Devil was unable to tempt Jesus with all sorts of auspicious promises and wealth, the one thing that almost ensnared the Messiah was the opportunity to have a "normal" life, free from duty and obligation.

In the end, which I personally objected to, Jesus acknowledges his destiny to die on the cross and his fate proceeds as if nothing ever happened. While I certainly understand the need to not make the film any more controversial, I felt that by leaving Jesus with his destiny unfulfilled would have made for a more complex narrative.

After all is said and done, the theme of temptation is played out very well in the movie, although the acting was a bit "meh" for my tastes. I would, however, recommend that people watch it, although only if they are able to keep an open mind and are not easily offended by religious subject matter.