Siskel & Ebert Review Martin Scorsese's THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (1988)

Siskel & Ebert both loved Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ.

In his original review, Gene Siskel wrote: "Dafoe manages to draw us into the mystery, anguish and joy of the holy life. This is anything but another one of those boring biblical costume epics. There is genuine challenge and hope in this movie." He would later name it the best film of 1988.

In his review of the film, Roger Ebert, who gave the film four out of four stars, writes that Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader "paid Christ the compliment of taking him and his message seriously, and they have made a film that does not turn him into a garish, emasculated image from a religious postcard. Here he is flesh and blood, struggling, questioning, asking himself and his father which is the right way, and finally, after great suffering, earning the right to say, on the cross, 'It is accomplished.'" Ebert later included the film in his list of "Great Movies".