Religion: Days Of Ire and Brimstone

A new film about Jesus Christ raises a storm of protest

Judas Iscariot as the most loyal of Christ's disciples. Mary Magdalene as the former girlfriend who still tempts the Saviour and haunts his fantasies. John the Baptist as the center of a hysterical cult. And Jesus himself as a reluctant leader, subject to paranoid visions, uncertain if he is heeding the call of God or Satan. These are the unorthodox interpretations to be found in The Last Temptation of Christ, a new film directed by Martin Scorsese and based on the 1955 Nikos Kazantzakis novel.

Though the movie is not scheduled for release by Universal Pictures until this fall, a storm...

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