Theater Owners Reserve Decisions on ‘Temptation’

A controversy whipped up by evangelical Christians angry over “The Last Temptation of Christ” has made Orange County’s largest movie theater chain fearful of showing the Martin Scorsese film, tentatively scheduled for release in September.

“We’ve been getting a lot of calls,” Jim Edwards Jr., spokesman for Edwards Theatres, said Wednesday. “We haven’t had an opportunity to see the film, and there has been no discussion about booking dates. But I can assure you we will not show a film that intentionally denigrates the image of Christ.”

Edwards said company officials would have to see the movie to determine whether they would consider it unacceptable, but he added that chances are it will not be shown by the chain in any case. “We’re in the entertainment business,” he said. “We want to entertain people, not upset them.”

The Edwards chain has 80 screens in the county and 60 elsewhere in Southern California.

The Rev. Lloyd John Ogilvie, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, has termed the movie “blasphemous,” “historically incorrect and biblically distorted,” and “the most serious misuse of film craft in the history of movie making.”

Neither Ogilvie nor the group of protesting evangelicals have seen the movie. They based their opinion on a report from an unnamed source, who claimed to have seen it and on early versions of the script, which purportedly contain sexually explicit scenes involving Christ and Mary Magdalene.

Scorsese, who directed the movie, has said it differs from the script in significant places. Also, as reported today (see Page 1, Calendar), some mainstream Christians who were shown a preview of the movie came away favorably impressed.

At AMC Entertainment, which has 30 screens in the county, chief film buyer Noel Kendall said: “I have no idea whether we would book the movie or not. It depends on our feelings when we see it.”

Kendall said AMC had received calls from several religious organizations protesting the movie’s release, “but we told them the same thing we’re telling you.” He noted that Universal Pictures, which was reported to have set a tentative release date of Sept. 23, had yet to put the movie out for bid.

“I’ll tell you this,” Kendall added, “all this stuff in the press is great publicity for the picture, good or bad. People who never heard of it know something about it now.”

Spokesmen for United Artists and Mann Theaters, which also operate movie houses in the county, could not be reached for comment.