Scorsese took 26 years to get his Jesus film onto the screen
Martin Scorsese was handed Nikos Kazantzakis's novel as a student in 1962, finally read it a decade later, and saw Paramount scrap his first attempt in 1983 amid budget worries and protest letters. When The Last Temptation of Christ arrived in 1988, made for $7 million in Morocco, the uproar was even bigger.
Scorsese had been fascinated by images of Jesus since childhood. After receiving further copies of the book during filming of Boxcar Bertha, he read it slowly between 1975 and 1978. Paul Schrader wrote a script in 1981 and 1982, which Scorsese and Jay Cocks reworked over eight months. Paramount began production in 1983 with Aidan Quinn as Jesus and Sting as Pilate, but uneasy executives cancelled it that December. Universal revived it in 1986 after Scorsese offered to shoot in 58 days on a small budget and promised a more commercial film later, which became Cape Fear.
Willem Dafoe, spotted in To Live and Die in L.A. and confirmed by Platoon, took the lead; David Bowie replaced Sting as Pilate. The Moroccan village of Oumnast doubled for Nazareth and Magdala, and Meknes for Jerusalem. Scorsese shunned pomp and reverence, even making the extras playing Roman soldiers roll in dirt. The crucifixion took three days and sixty camera setups, because Dafoe could only stay on the cross for two or three minutes at a time.
What enraged critics was the final act. On the cross, a girl claiming to be his guardian angel leads Jesus down to an ordinary life of marriage and children, until he learns she is Satan and begs to return to his purpose. The film carried a disclaimer saying it was a fictional exploration rather than a retelling of the Gospels, but Christian groups called it blasphemy and demanded boycotts. Blockbuster Video refused to stock it, and Franco Zeffirelli withdrew his own film from the Venice festival in protest.
Commercially it did modestly, grossing $33.8 million worldwide, and Scorsese earned an Oscar nomination for directing. Peter Gabriel's score, released as Passion, won a Grammy in 1990 and helped popularise world music, featuring artists such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Source: The Last Temptation of Christ (film)
