49. Let It Be &...

Lyrics

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree
There will be an answer, let it be
For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

And when the night is cloudy there is still a light that shines on me
Shine until tomorrow, let it be
I wake up to the sound of music, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be


One of the better Beatles songs. I like this one quite a bit. The Beatles are actually the rare band whose 'sadder', calmer songs I like more than their happy, joyful ones. I didn't know much what to do with the lyrics, so I focused on the on the Mother Mary part and chose a movie about Jesus. 

The Movie: The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, 1988)

Watching The Last Temptation of Christ made me truly realize how important the idea of Jesus is for Scorsese. Of course I've often read about how his faith is one of the main keys to understanding his movies. But as an atheist I've never really watched his movies through the prism of his (catholic) faith and still have loved pretty much everything I've seen by him. In any case, while watching this movie I found it quite interesting that Scorsese followed this up with Goodfellas. In that movie Henry Hill was tempted to live a life of crime, believing that would bring him great fortunes and glory. He certainly did not want to live life as an ordinary family man. For a while his choice of crime, proved to be exactly what he wanted. At the end though all of it came crashing down and he was forced to live a normal family life in a witness protection program. In the the Last Temptation of Christ, it is exactly that kind of normal family life that Satan tempts Jesus with. While Jesus is on the cross Satan 'sends' him a hallucination, making Jesus see how life would be if he rejected God's plan for him and went on to live a normal life. It is only when Jesus rejects this hallucination that he dies on the cross and accomplishes his mission. 

And it is very much possible to see Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle as a sort of delusional messiah, who thinks it is his duty and calling to not only be Jodie Foster's savior, but of whole New York. In the end, he actually does this in sacrificial manner. Scorsese's Jesus here is basically the opposite of Bickle. Jesus is actually the messiah, but he himself has doubts whether it's surely God's voice he hears or whether he is delusional. And even if it is truly God's voice, Jesus has doubts whether following him is the right thing to do. Willem Dafoe who plays Jesus manages to show very well how confused and even surprised Jesus is by all the miracles he performs and the words God says through him. It is why the temptations of a normal life (can) bother him. He and Mary Magdalene love each other. He can abandon God's mission and form a family with Mary Magdalene and live a perfectly happy life as Satan shows him. 

Scorsese has been criticized by religious fundamentalists for not portraying Jesus as a saint. For portraying Jesus as someone who doubts his mission and his believes and contemplates living a life as a normal man, a life of sin in other words. Mostly Scorsese was criticized because during Jesus'hallucination on the cross, he is portrayed having sex with Mary Magdalene. This criticism misses the point in many ways. First of all Scorsese has written a title card at the beginning stating explicitly that this is not a story based on the gospels, but on a book by Nikos Kazantsakis. While we are shown many familiar episodes of Jesus' life ('He who is without sin may cast the first stone' for example) the story explicitly doesn't follow the Bible in many other cases. Judas remains Jesus best friend until the end here. He only 'betrays' him because Jesus asks him to. Secondly Scorsese tells this story of Jesus with great respect for his protagonist. This may be Scorsese's most restrained movie. The style is fully in the service of portraying Jesus' life as clearly and respectfully as possible. There is a cameo by David Bowie as Pontius Pilate and even he is restrained. 

But the most important reason why this criticism of Scorsese is so stupid is because it completely misunderstands that Scorsese, by not portraying Jesus as a saint, actually makes Jesus' (alleged) achievements greater.  As I've written in the first post on this blog, on Paradise Now, it is not courageous to do things for/in the name of God, if you are certain you'll be rewarded for it. The fact that Jesus did not have any certainty in what would happen to him if he committed to his mission, and the fact that he could have chosen to live another life just as easily, makes his achievements greater and shows even better the importance of him and his mission. By providing us with a doubting, questioning Jesus, Scorsese makes the case for engaging in serious debates on religion. People should be able to make up their own mind about how and whether they believe in anything. Only like that can religion be truly valuable for believers and non-believers.