Of all the Jesus movies out there, this one is my personal favorite. Martin Scorsese's boldly innovative take on the Christ tale has the courage to treat him as a being who struggled between his destiny to fulfill God's purpose and his own desires to live his life as a man. Temptation explores Jesus' anguish and internal struggles through a great performance from Willem Dafoe and some wild directorial flourishes by Scorsese, especially whenever the devil is involved. To me, exploring the Christ figure for who he might have really been and wanted to be is infinitely more interesting than a straight biblical re-telling of the same story everyone's already familiar with, and leaves room for creativity that the other films often lack. And frankly, for all the controversy this movie garnered upon initial release, Scorsese for at least 2/3 of this film does stay fairly close to the biblical story, and as a devoted Catholic himself, treats Jesus with all the reverence he obviously feels. This is an exceptional film about the life of Jesus and every bit as profound, maybe more so, as any of the others ever made.
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