2023 was a banner year for movies. Filmmakers with personal, political, and unique views poured their souls into an array of films that broke formal conventions, turned the industry on its head, and proved that audiences still crave movies of substance and humanity. Unfortunately, the only thing people wanted to talk about was how movies are just too long. Well, all the people who found Martin Scorsese’s real-world account of human cruelty too long are finally getting what’s coming to them: An 80-minute movie about Jesus by 2023’s reigning king of long movies.
This is per a new interview for The L.A. Times. Scorsese says the film is a response to an appeal from none other than the pope, who compelled artists to make a movie about Jesus and get some butts in pews. The director says he based the screenplay on Silence author Shūsaku Endō’s book A Life Of Jesus and is “trying to find a new way to make [religion] more accessible” by focusing on the teachings of Jesus but doesn’t hit viewers over the head with them. He wants to “take away the negative onus of what has been associated with organized religion.” Namely, the assumption that services are just too long.
This wouldn’t be Scrosese’s first Jesus movie, but it would be his shortest. The Last Temptation Of Christ clocked in at a blader-bursting two hours and 44 minutes. Though Temptation is a masterpiece featuring spellbinding performances from Willem Dafoe and Harvey Keitel, it’s simply too long for people with dozens of episodes of Suits to watch. It’s nice to see Mr. Scorsese working to appeal to the modern moviegoer’s delicate disposition.