The younger Obi Wan Kanobi has crossed over to the Dark Side.
In Last Days in the Desert, Ewan McGregor personifies Christ … and Satan, in a move that causes Variety to label it as one of the most controversial films that premiered at Sundance last month. Last Days is an imagined story of test Jesus experienced post-baptism while wandering the desert fasting and praying for 40 days, though it’s telling is anything but biblical.
“I was not doing the historical Jesus, I was not doing a divine Jesus. I was doing a parable,” Director Rodrigo Garcia says.
And in that “parable,” Satan is the alter-ego of the Son of God.
“It’s an extraordinary situation to be playing two roles in any film, and its quite daunting when one of them’s Jesus,” McGregor reportedly said after a screening. “I had to get over the idea I was playing Him … as soon as I could look at the man, it was easier. But when we started filming I’d realized I’d spent no time thinking about playing the devil. He seemed to be much easier to play!”
The film is being hailed by secular critics as an introspective look on Jesus’ relationship with Father God.
“The off-book exploration will, I think, be of value to believers, but that’s an issue for the film’s marketing department,” The Guardian‘s Jordan Hoffman writes.
What do you think? Will the film be of value to believers or will it distort the message of the gospel further?
