Martin Scorsese movies have been long for a long while now. Unlike some, we don’t mean that as a complaint. Pictures like The Wolf of Wall Street (three hours on the dot), The Irishman (just shy of 3 ½), and Killers of the Flower Moon (only three minutes shorter than that) all earn their butt-numbing lengths. What may prove to be his next film, though, will probably be one of his shortest.
In a new chat with The Los Angeles Times (in a bit caught by Variety), the legendary filmmaker talks up a film he announced semi-recently: He wants to make another film about Jesus Christ. The idea was partly inspired by his meeting with Pope Francis, but it won’t be a straight biopic, nor an epic like The Greatest Story Ever Told.
For one thing, it will be set mostly in the present day, because he wants the film to feel timeless. For another, it won’t cover his whole life — just his core teachings, focusing, as the L.A. Times puts it, “on Jesus’ core teachings in a way that explores the principles but doesn’t proselytize.”
Then there’s the bit that will appeal to those who complain about his films’ lack of (sanctioned) intermissions: It will only run about 80 minutes.
Not all Scorsese movies are long. His debut, 1968’s Who’s That Knocking At My Door, runs a scant 86 minutes. Taxi Driver’s under two hours, Raging Bull’s a couple hairs over two, and one of his finest, his 1985 dark comedy After Hours, is a lean, mean 97. Still, that was his last feature narrative that was under two hours (though Bringing Out the Dead is “only” 121 minutes).
But if the picture hits the 80-minute mark, it will be his shortest-ever feature narrative, maybe even shorter than his Fran Lebowitz HBO doc Public Speaking (82 minutes). It’s his attempt to make not only Jesus but religion itself more palatable to a wider audience.
“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 organized religion,” Scorsese explained. “Right now, ‘religion,’ you say that word and everyone is up in arms because it’s failed in so many ways.”
He continued:
“But that doesn’t mean necessarily that the initial impulse was wrong. Let’s get back. Let’s just think about it. You may reject it. But it might make a difference in how you live your life — even in rejecting it. Don’t dismiss it offhand. That’s all I’m talking about. And I’m saying that as a person who’s going to be 81 in a couple of days. You know what I’m saying?”
Should the film get off the ground like he says, it will be Scorsese’s second Jesus movie. The first got him in a lot of hot water. Back in 1988, the filmmaker became persona non grata with the Catholic Church, who condemned The Last Temptation of Christ, his loose reinterpretation of the Gospels featuring a self-doubting, self-hating son of God (Willem Dafoe), who struggles staying holy in a world full of human pleasures. Perhaps this time it will be stress-free.
(Via L.A. Times and Variety)