Evangelist Offers to Buy All Copies of Christ Movie

Culminating a week of intensified protests against the film, “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a prominent Southern California evangelical leader Friday offered to reimburse Universal Pictures its monetary investment--reportedly as high as $10 million--if the studio will turn over all copies of the movie so that they can be destroyed.

The offer to Lew Wasserman, chairman of Universal’s parent company, MCA, was from Bill Bright, founder-president of Campus Crusade for Christ, a worldwide evangelistic organization based in San Bernardino.

“I anticipate that the money will be provided by concerned individuals across America who will pool their resources in order to cover your costs,” wrote Bright in a letter delivered late Friday to the office of Tom Pollock, board chairman for Universal Pictures.

Quotes Pope John Paul II

Bright quoted words used by Pope John Paul II in addressing communications leaders last September at a meeting chaired by Wasserman: “Your profession subjects you to a great measure of accountability--accountability to God, to the community and before the witness of history.”

The amount of money spent by Universal has not been made public, although production costs have been reported to be about $10 million. Filmed last fall and set for late September release, the movie stars Willem Dafoe as Jesus and Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene.

There was no immediate comment by Wasserman’s office or Universal Pictures.

Evangelical leaders, including Bright, have called for Universal to abandon the movie because they say the portrayal of a wavering, self-deprecatory Jesus who dreams of making love and avoiding a messianic role distorts the traditional understanding of Jesus Christ and is an insult to Christians.

Religious broadcasters and evangelical leaders such as the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Assn. have threatened boycotts of theaters that schedule the movie and of any enterprise connected with Universal, including the studio tours.

Martin Scorsese, the film’s director, has promised that the motion picture would be an “affirmation of faith” for the Christian community. He reminded a group of generally liberal Christian church officials at the first private screening in New York on Tuesday that the movie is based on a novel (by Nikos Kazantzakis, who also wrote “Zorba the Greek”) and not on the Gospels.

Reactions tended to be favorable from the mainline church officials. Despite some reservations, many praised the emphasis on the human struggle of Jesus. None initially interviewed said they felt the movie was blasphemous or should be barred.

However, Joseph Reilly, national director of Morality in Media, said that two staff members of his pornography-fighting organization who attended the screening found it to be “sacrilegious.” His interfaith organization was the first generally conservative body to condemn the movie after seeing it, rather than basing criticisms on a surreptitiously circulated version of the film script. Members of the press were not admitted to the screening.

‘A Colossal Wimp’

Summarizing the analysis of his staff members, one Catholic and one Protestant, Reilly said the portrayal of Christ as “a colossal wimp” was at least as offensive as sexually suggestive scenes.

In the actual film, Mary Magdalene, who at one point is shown dimly behind a curtain plying her trade as a prostitute, is viewed late in the movie--during a dream by Jesus--making love with Jesus off in the distance, according to Reilly.

A liberal churchman who saw the movie, the Rev. Eugene Schneider of the United Church of Christ, did not object to thoses scenes but did to “frontal nudity” of some women at the baptism of Jesus, a scene in which all others were at least partially clad. Schneider said the nudity was “gratuitous,” and Reilly said his staff members agreed.

Otherwise, it was the alleged wimp image of Jesus that upset Morality in Media officials. Dialogue remembered by the staff members included Jesus saying things such as, “Forgive me; I’ve done too many bad things. . . . I am afraid of everything. . . . Lucifer is inside of me.”

Reilly said the “two strongest characters” are Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus, and a guardian angel who is in reality Satan. Jesus talks Judas into betraying him in the story. Meanwhile, Paul Verhoeven, another prominent film director, is working on plans for another Jesus movie and said it will be closer to the historical Jesus--though he admitted that it will also be controversial. He said in an interview that he was unsure whether the current controversy will help or hurt his venture.

Verhoeven has been attending sessions of the Jesus Seminar, a group of New Testament scholars voting on the authenticity of various sayings attributed to Jesus.

Verhoeven’s film project, tentatively titled “Christ the Man,” is being backed by Brooksfilm, headed by comic and movie maker Mel Brooks, and may not be shot until 1990 or 1991.

The director of violence-laden films such as “Robocop” and “Soldier of Orange” indicated that his film will try to follow research findings by the biblical scholars. Nevertheless, Verhoeven said, “My story will be situated against a panorama of tension between different ideas within the Jewish community during the Roman occupation.”