Maybe the times have changed - some would say decayed - to the point where unorthodox representation of Christ don't draw the controversy they once did. Television shows like "Family Guy" regularly and openly mock Christ and it doesn't make the evening news. The show's popularity continues unabated. But in the 1980's, two major motion pictures created worldwide controversy for daring to revisit the classic story with modern eyes and a new set of questions.
Jean-Luc Godard's Hail Mary
Godard burst onto the world cinema scene as the rogue provocateur of the French New Wave in 1960 with Breathless The next seven years were literally that, with Godard completing a string of fifteen classic films that fundamentally and permanently underscore his reputation even today. The famous, furious ending of his apocalyptic 1967 masterpiece Week-End declares "End of Film. End of Cinema."
Of course, cinema didn't really end with Godard's declaration. But in a very palpable way, Week-End represented the end of the cinema of Godard, at least insomuch as it had existed up to that time. He remained busy as ever, but his films devolved into busy political screeds, often inscrutably dense and highly personal.
Hail Mary comes from a period of approximately eight years that yielded seven feature films and represented a relative return to commercial film making for Godard during the 1980's. The film transposes the familiar biblical story of Mary to modern day France.
Much of the controversy surrounding the film came from Godard's reputation up to that time. People assumed it would have to be a certain thing simply because of who created it. The film also garnered controversy due to the heroine's frequent full nudity. However, Godard, rather than turning an exploitative, lascivious eye towards the naked flesh of his Mary, seems almost to marvel at the magic and mystery that, to a certain extent, is woman. In a film about the mysterious works of a mysterious God, perhaps there is no greater mystery than the marvel that is the human body.
When Godard screened the film at Cannes, an angry movie-goer threw a shaving cream pie in the director's face. This became international news. The film was also condemned by the Pope, who said it "deeply wounds the religious sentiments of believers." One wonders if he actually saw the film, or was merely reacting to hearsay.
Perhaps the most startling thing about Hail Mary is how conventional it really is - how reverential Godard is to the source material. I'm not as sensitive to the topic as some, but I couldn't imagine the film "deeply wounding" anyone's sentiments. If your sentiments are not stronger than flickering images on a screen, perhaps you need to reevaluate your convictions!
Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ
From an unconventional depiction of the gestation and birth of Jesus, to an unconventional depiction of his life, death, and resurrection, we move ahead three years to 1988's massively controversial The Last Temptation of Christ.
Rather than transposing a familiar story to a different time, the film is set in biblical times and is a fictitious adaptation of 1953's novel (also massively controversial) of the same name. In fact, as if to attempt (however impotently) to quell the all but guaranteed hordes of protesters, the film includes a disclaimer stating that it departs from the common depictions of Christ's life, and is not based on the Gospels.
The disclaimer didn't work, as scandalized Christians protested the film by bombing a theater in Paris with Molotov cocktails, severely injuring many film-goers and causing extensive damage to the theater itself. Other incidents included tear-gas canisters and stink bombs being set off, as well as physical assault committed against audience members. The net effect of these acts was successful - it gutted the film at the box office, and it remains controversial to this day. Again, one wonders if those most vehemently opposed to the film have actually seen it.
Regardless, (and perhaps realizing that scandal was a foregone conclusion) The Last Temptation boldly earns much of its scandal in ways that Hail Mary never does. The basic concept is that Jesus was a man, not divinely immune to the desires and temptations of life, but as susceptible to them as any other man. Thus, the purity of his life and his colossal faith in accepting an unfathomable fate are rendered all the more powerful. This jibes with my Sunday school understanding of the life of Jesus, but the film renders this Jesus perhaps too flesh-and-blood for its own good. Not as a work of art, but as a commercial enterprise.
Scorsese's Jesus (as portrayed by Willem Dafoe) constantly doubts and questions himself and his role. He is bleak and depressed. He doesn't want to die for the sins of man. It's not fair! Surely, there must be another way. Certainly the film's most controversial segment involves Jesus being rescued from the cross by an "angel" and being allowed to live out the remainder of his natural life. He settles down with Mary Magdalene and starts a family in the typical way (the sex scenes were/are particularly inflammatory) and on his death bed begins to understand the folly of his decision, only to realize it was, literally, the "last temptation," which he rejects and suddenly finds himself back on the cross, fulfilling his destiny.
I have discussed the film with the devout and with nonbelievers. The pious react to the film's ideas and questions with a shrug and a "but that's not how it was." Rather than be inflamed or insulted by unorthodox concepts, they merely discount the film outright for its departures from scripture. After all, it is just a movie, and faith is deeper than the moving image, right?
For nonbelievers, the film serves to strip away the (to paraphrase Roger Ebert) layers of garish emasculation that turn Jesus into an image from a religious postcard, and to very viscerally lay bare the idea that a man - not a god, but a MAN - endured and bore this colossal weight without collapsing under it. It serves as an introduction point - who was this Jesus? Did he really do all that it is said he did?
Perhaps that's a great way to sum up the importance of both Hail Mary and The Last Temptation of Christ - evangelical introductory points for the nonbeliever. Canonical stories have a way of becoming about a thousand degrees removed from the grind of daily life - a series of mechanical knee bends and automatic responses. And good biblical movies have a way of reminding us of the momentousness of the events that set the entire wheel in motion. Two billion people worldwide espouse to be Christian - a full third of the population of Earth. That so many people base their entire belief systems on the life and death of one man is staggering.
True belief comes not from blind acceptance of a stated norm, but by a constant process of questioning and exploring, of tearing down and building anew. Of looking for cracks in a foundation and trying to find ways of filling them. That's what Hail Mary and The Last Temptation of Christ are all about. They beg questions inside an audience - what if that were me? Would I be able to do that? The amount of resolve it would take to be willing to die for something you believe in - to simply be able to believe in something that passionately in the first place!
Neither Godard nor Scorsese died because of following through on the projects they believed in and felt so personally about (although, at least in the case of Scorsese's film, audience members could have died as a result of violent protests). Neither of their careers were even particularly harmed. Godard eventually retreated back into (prolific) obscurity, and Scorsese continues to scale ever-loftier heights of cinematic greatness. But they had to know that they were intentionally stirring up a nest of hornets by choosing the material they did. They had to know, deep down, that they were risking career, risking health, even risking life to follow through their artistic visions. To, in their own way, spread the story of Christ.
Grand, inspirational gestures from two consummate artists and two master film-makers.
Amen.
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