Shooting Jesus

 

                                             Pope Francis and Martin Scorsese ( the pontiff is on the left)

Film-maker Martin Scorsese is an intriguing guy. He makes some pictures with explicit violence which borders on gratuitous. His most recent film is Killers of the Flower Moon and there are scenes which are not for the faint of heart. 

The octogenarian is still going strong and plans to make a movie about Jesus later this year. This is far from the first time he's delved into the realm of spirituality and religion. From a personal standpoint he is what some might consider a lapsed Catholic in that he doesn't attend church often yet religion has been an ongoing narrative theme through his life. His childhood memories of a parish priest and the nuns who taught him are positive and he considered becoming a priest himself, briefly attending seminary. 

Perhaps his most controversial film was from days of yore -- 1988 . The Last Temptation of Christ was banned in some countries because it imagined Jesus' humanity to include lust and doubt and depression. The last temptation is to die of old age, surreptiously being removed from the cross having been convinced by Satan to do so. While Scorsese said that the story was a thought experiment not based on the gospels, religious critics were not impressed, 

A few years ago Scorsese adapted the acclaimed novel Silence, (the second film based on this book)  about  17th century Jesuit priests in Japan who minister to the Christians driven underground and face martyrdom themselves. 

Now Scorsese will "shoot Jesus"this time an adaptation of A Life of Jesus, also written by  Shūsaku Endō who penned Silence. Apparently it is set largely in the present day and focuses on "Jesus’s core teachings in a way that explores the principles but doesn’t proselytise”. Scorsese says : “I’m trying to find a new way to make it more accessible and take away the negative onus of what has been associated with organised religion.”

We'll see where this goes, and I hope the film does provoke conversation about Jesus.