Very much enjoyed the show, but wanted to point out a small (but consequential) error - Last Temptation was supposed to be made, but did not get made in 1983 not due to lack of financing (Faraci's point), but due to the same heated controversy that dogged the final production. The financing was in place, the production had started, and then it was cancelled, because the studio didn't want to take the heat. Costumes and some sets were used in King David, with Richard Gere. This is consequential, because the abandonment of this dream project nearly killed off Scorsese's enthusiasm for movies, with him returning in After Hours. How did they have such great sets on such a small budget? They had old pro Boris Leven, who'd also done production design for West Side Story and Sound of Music, and would work on various Scorsese movies. Those interested in the film's take on Judas (he is fulfilling his destiny, just as Jesus is fulfilling his own) might enjoy reading the Borges essay "Three Versions of Judas"; an earlier film version that fans of Temptation might like would be Nicholas Ray's King of Kings, which, despite some broad maudlin aspects we associate with old Hollywood (and clearly being shot in the U.S.), has incredible moments, with a Judas who wants Jesus martyred in order to help stage a political revolt against the Romans. I'll end by saying that I love this movie whatever its shortcomings (Leo Marks, screenwriter of Peeping Tom, and who does the voice of the devil, thought the devil's dialogue was terrible), and I'm sorry that Scorsese never got the chance to make another religious movie he wanted to do set in this period, an account of the first few centuries of Christianity under the Romans, ending with Constantine's conversion.
