Director: Martin Scorsese
The Last Temptation of Christ could be one of the most ambitious films I've ever seen. A re-telling of the Gospels in a colloquial fashion, with some added 'facts' about Jesus scrawled in the margins of the film, it's no surprise that this film was controversial. It's amazing to me that it was even made.
It feels tasteless to say that Dafoe nailed this role, but his mixture of warmth, cool, joy, wrath, and mercy are perfect - he hits all of those notes when he has to. Harvey Keitel is also brutally effective as Judas Iscariot, who cares more about freedom than salvation. The film feels uneven - alternately rushing through the source material, then pausing for long stretches. I'm not sure if that comes from the novel or was Scorsese's choice - either way, the film feels like it should be either a half-hour longer or shorter. Still, I wouldn't hesitate to put this in a list of Scorsese masterpieces.
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