Russia probes Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ for extremism

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Published time: November 03, 2012 12:25
Edited time: November 04, 2012 22:24

Russia probes Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ for extremism (Image from kinopoisk.ru)

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Law, Movies, Religion, Russia

Martin Scorsese’s 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ has fallen under the suspicion of Russian prosecutors on the wave of recent global fuss over religious sentiment.

Russian Institute of Culturology checked the controversial movie for signs of extremism, but it found no evidence of anything illegal.

The film, which has caused massive dispute among religious activists worldwide after its release back in the 1980s, is now being examined for possible inflammatory sentiment in Russia.

The investigation was initiated at the request of Viktor Grin, deputy general prosecutor, who claims the film “insults the feeling of millions of [Christian] believers and has a negative impact on public morals.”

The Prosecutor’s Office “is currently conducting a psychological and linguistic probe of the film’s concepts,” RIA Novosti news agency quotes the spokesperson for the office as saying.

The leader of the watchdog For Human Rights, Lev Ponomarev, expressed his concern with the decision to probe Scorsese’s film.

“We are a secular state, and Prosecutor’s Office should not intervene in culture,” he said. “There may be a discussion in the society. There are many controversial films and public discussion will only be for good,” Ponomarev added.

Experts of the Russian Institute of Culturology engaged in probing the film for extremism say they haven’t found anything unlawful in it, RIA Novosti reports, quoting to the Institute's director, cinema critic and historian Kirill Razlogov.

“Our institute has come to the conclusion that such works should not be subjected to investigation, as this is a work of art and not a political statement,” he said. He added that despite the fact that the film mismatches Christian dogmas, it still contains nothing blameworthy.

The Culturology Institue’s position was supported by the president of the Film Experts and Film Critics Guild of the Cinematographers Union of Russia, Andrey Shemyakin, and Cannes winner, director Pavel Lungin.

The Last Temptation of Christ is based on a controversial 1953 novel by Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis. The film interprets the life story of Jesus Christ and offers a disclaimer, saying that the storyline is not based on the Gospels and thus differs from the commonly accepted view on Jesus’ life.

Both the book and later the film were accused of blasphemy and caused religious protests. The Last Temptation of Christ was temporary banned or censored in several states including Turkey, Mexico, Chile, Philippines and Argentina. The fuss around the movie secured the film Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.

The film stars Willem Dafoe as Jesus Christ, Harvey Keitel as Judas Iscariot, Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene, David Bowie as Pontius Pilate, and Harry Dean Stanton as Paul.

Russian NTV channel screened the film in 1997 amid protests.

Comments (10)

I (unregistered) 04.11.2012 19:36

@Just Saying......One of common mistakes each of us committing is that we judge rest of the world by ourself. You are obviously one of those with bright and independent mind who can make , more or less, your own conclusion without being affected by outside influence. However history proved that rest of population still did not achieve such level. Goebbels proved it. Germans, at that time were one of most cultured and educated people on planet earth but easily become pray of really stupid national-socialistic propaganda. When you read above "Gibau" post you can see typical example of western/enlighteners /deist propaganda that exist in western world since 17/18 century. Therefore West is not really Christian any more. Barack Obama joyously proclaimed that we are now in post-Christian era. There is very few strong individuals that can withstand constant media and educational blitz that suppose to "help" you to create your individual opinion. You probably know that line "power of reason can not overcome condition reflex". That is why in one US store they always repeat "You save big money in Menards" or something like that. Government is not opposite to the people isn't it. Government role is also to protect it's population from "bad things". Again, take example of US and their import from China that destroyed their manufacturing sector. You can say that people should be able to make decision and stop buying Chinese imports. But population is not doing that. After all who can resist Wall Mart. Only few individuals are able to get to that point. Only government can protect population jobs by imposing taxes on imports. That is what Japan government is doing to protect their population. Wall mart family is getting super rich but millions are losing their jobs simply because government did not protect interest of population but interest of minority. Same is with so called "art". Sergey Eisenstain soviet movie maker bestowed indirectly as much misery on Russian Christians as Felix Drezinovski founder of evil NKVD. But later he worked for Paramount Picture and Upton Sinclair. Please take no offense, but your view on this issue is somewhat naive and simplistic. Pleasure to have such civilized conversation with you Mr Just_Saying.

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gibau 04.11.2012 17:53

Separation of church and government requires that no one be prosecuted for defending or insulting any political or religious creed or ideology. The religious fanatics want to be able to go around insulting those who don't share or embrace their ridiculous doctrines and yet , when someone points out their stupidity, they get pushed out of shape and ready to send or dispatch 'someone to go meet the creator'. Then, we also have those fascist politicians conspiring with those very same religious fanatics to advance their fascist agenda and together the fascists and the religious fanatics go around brain washing the masses using lies to intimidate and wage psychological warfare.Christians are the worst violators of these principals and apparently the Muslims have learned well from them and are now doing likewise. Humanity needs to grow up and send all those religions where they came from; i;e; Hell.

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Just_Saying (unregistered) 04.11.2012 02:24

I (unregistered) wrote in #7 @just saying.......Russia should protect their Christian heritage from such offensive junk as above mentioned movie. Should Israel have right to ban movie that propagate fascist ideology. For obvious historical reason they should. Should Russia have right to censor anti-Christian material? Yes it should. Also for obvious historical reason. As Jewish people suffered from fascist ideology, Russians suffered from anti-Christian ideology in even grater number. Democracy also include protection of majority from dictatorship of minority even if it is cultural dictatorship. "Ministry of truth" based in Hollywood should not hide itself behind "artistic freedom" mantra. Especially when it is producing pure political and religious anti - Christian material. ................ .................... .Mr I, is your government protecting you, or telling you? You have a bright and active mind, why do you need the government to censor something that was made over 20 years ago? Any individual can "censor" something by choosing not to watch whatever you're talking about. I've never seen "The Last Temptation.." nor have I ever seen "The Innocence of Muslims", because I choose not to, not because my government chose for me. Governments are not here to choose for us, we are here to choose for the government. It's called a democracy.

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