The Last Temptation of Christ

The film raises one of the most complex questions of Christianity — the question of the duality of Jesus: both God and man. The temptation to live the life of an ordinary mortal tears apart the character played by Willem Dafoe. The film is based not on the Gospel but on a creative interpretation of the ancient debate about the nature of Christ, which is as old as Christianity itself. The plot is mostly fictional, created by the filmmakers, and is only hinted at with minor details based on biblical texts.

Perhaps no other film about Jesus Christ has provoked such fierce debates. Its release was accompanied by protests; Christian activist Bill Bright began fundraising to buy the film's negative and destroy it, while director Franco Zeffirelli even withdrew his own film from the Venice Film Festival upon learning it would be shown alongside Scorsese's "heretical" work.

It should be noted that Scorsese is a deeply devout Catholic who, in his youth, even considered taking holy orders. He had been developing the idea for this film for 15 years. The first attempt failed: filming had to be canceled due to mass protests from Christian organizations, after which Scorsese nearly left filmmaking altogether, disillusioned with the industry. The second attempt succeeded only thanks to the intervention of a film company.