The
irreverent The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
provoked so many pickets that filmmakers have been reluctant
to pose religious hypotheticals, or so it seemed until a similarly
daring The Body was released one week after
Good Friday. The hypothetical posed in The Body,
from a novel of the same title by Richard Ben Sapir, is "What
would happen if an archeologist found the tomb of Jesus containing
his bones?" Would we then question the resurrection of the
body, thus undermining the claim that Jesus was divine? It
seems that a Palestinian hardware merchant (played by Makhram
J. Koury) wants a basement constructed under his shop in the
Arabic quarter of Jerusalem, requiring excavation. Dr. Sharon
Golban (played by Olivia Williams), an Israeli archaeologist
called to supervise the excavation, unexpectedly finds a tomb
containing a body. Only a rich man would have such a tomb,
but the body is that of a poor man who was crucified, and
artifacts date the tomb to the year 32AD. Sharon asks an archaeological
museum curator about her finding; he proves to be Father Lavelle
(played by Derek Jacobi), a Dominican, and informs the Vatican.
Cardinal Pesci (played by John Wood) in Rome then assigns
Father Matt Gutierrez (played by Antonio Banderas), a former
military intelligence officer now living in the United States,
to make sure that the body is not declared to be that of Jesus
Christ. Much of the film then dwells on a conflict involving
politics, religion, and science. Upon arrival in Jerusalem,
Gutierrez makes the acquaintance of Sharon, who wants the
chips to fall where they may, regardless of the political
or religious implications, but he patiently works to change
her attitude. Gutierrez also contacts Moshe Cohen (played
by John Schrapnel), an Israeli official, to convey the wishes
of the Vatican that no news about the possible identity of
the body should be allowed to leak out. Cohen, however, prefers
to use the discovery as leverage to force the Christian world
to support Israel’s claim to sovereignty over all Jerusalem.
Gutierrez even runs into Orthodox Jews, who are incensed that
a tomb is being desecrated by an archaeologist. Palestinian
terrorists also get involved, so that they can deny Israel
any advantage to be gained from the discovery. The most conflicted
person, Father Lavelle, ultimately commits suicide. In the
end, Palestinians kidnap Sharon’s two children, so she gives
them the bones as ransom, but Israelis arrive to attack the
Palestinians, and the bones are destroyed by the Israeli artillery.
Gutierrez, who has been struggling to keep his faith despite
apparently irrefutable evidence that the bones were those
of Jesus, returns to the Vatican, resigns his priesthood,
and writes a love letter to Sharon. Directed by Jonas McCord
with breathtaking cinematography of the city of Jerusalem,
The Body exposes the Vatican as more interested
in maintaining control over the beliefs of the faithful than
in objective truth, as are indeed the Israelis and the Palestinians
in the film. In short, politics trumps science using religion,
or perhaps religion trumps science using politics. The very
limited release of the movie after Easter speaks eloquently
of the fears of the distributors that picket lines might
form
after Easter Sunday homilies, since political and religious
bigotry is what the film is all about. When the film was
distributed in some European countries, the original content
was considered so blasphemous that in new film footage Matt
insists that the bones are those of a person known as David,
not Jesus. MH
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