Vincent Canby's The Last Temptation Of Christ

Of course this 1970s setting was not popular for all critics. In a New York Times article by Vincent Canby in 1973, titled “The Gospel According to ‘Godspell’ Comes to Screen: The Cast,” Canby criticized the over emphasis of a hippie Jesus. He states, “‘Godspell’ pretty much reduces the story of Jesus to conform to a kind of flower-child paranoia that was probably more popular three or four years ago than it is today: the only way to survive in this world is to drop out of it, which, if you think about it, effectively reverses Jesus' instructions to the disciples.” Nonetheless, this artistic and cultural take of Jesus shows a discernable shift from Jesus films in the earlier 20th century such as The King of Kings and The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ. The emphasis of the Jesus story is no longer on the performance of the text as accurately as possible but perhaps the meaning behind the biblical texts. While wacky to some, Godspell does
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Nikos Kazantzakis which is in turn, Kazantzakis interpretation of the Gospels. The film opens with a quote from Kazantzakis stating “The dual substance of Christ—the yearning, so human, so superhuman, of man to attain God…has always been a deep inscrutable mystery to me. My principle anguish and source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh…and my soul is the arena where these two armies have clashed and met.” Thus it is clear that both the novel and the film adaption seek to find the humanity of Jesus, rather than the post-Christian vision of “Christ.” Due to this exploration and the controversy it inevitably caused, the film also begins with a disclaimer that this version of Jesus life is “not based on the Gospels” but instead Kazantzakis’s