When looking at a film like this, it is important to take it as a piece of art, and not a historical document. For this movie this is especially necessary because a title card in the beginning explicitly says that this movie is not meant to be a historical document or an adaptation of the story of Jesus from the Bible. If it's not a Christian story of Jesus, then what is it? The Last Temptation of Christ is a film about the eternal spiritual struggle between the desires of the material world and the demands of the divine moralistic world. It uses Jesus by showing that even the most famous religious figure in the world struggled with the sacrifices one must make to fully commit to God.
I don't think I've seen many better films about spirituality than this one here. That is why it is a bit ironic that it got so much controversy from fundamentalist Christians. I'm sure that if they watched the film honestly (if they watched the film at all) they would also relate to the spiritual struggle depicted in the film. Martin Scorsese has said that if he wasn't a filmmaker he probably would have been either a gangster or a priest, because that's the type of culture he grew up in. He's known more for his movies about gangsters, but with this film he shows that he's equally skilled at making films about religion as well.
Grade: A
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