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Scorsese, who was raised Roman Catholic and no longer practices that faith, had been wanting to make a film version of Jesus' life for many years. He first attempted to make one in the early 1980sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends, but the project had to be placed on hold. Finally in 1988, The Last Temptation of Christ was completed and released to theaters.

Protests against the movie from the religious community began before the film had even finished production. The studio was expecting a backlash due to the controversies revolving around any media treatment of Christ (see dramatic portrayals of Jesus Christ), but the protests accompanying Last Temptation were unprecedented. Major religious leaders in the United States blasted the film in fiery sermons, and condemned its subject matter as pornographic.

The movie adds a fictitious element to Jesus' life before his role as a preacher, taking liberties with the historical accounts of the Gospels (or what is believed to be historical fact) concerning Jesus' life. In the beginning of the movie Jesus is constructing crosses for the Romans and being tormented by the voice of God, though this is not listed in the Scriptures. (In addition, Judas does not commit suicide after his betrayal of Jesus.) However, the movie does include a disclaimer explaining that these departurers from the commonly-accepted historical portrayal of Jesus' life are a fictional creation, and the movie is not intended to be an exact recreation of the events of the Scriptures.

The main source of controversy stemmed from a scene near the end of the movie in which Jesus is portrayed marrying Magdalene instead of dying on the cross (see Crucifixion). A brief scene of the married couple making love is shown in the film, and this sparked the anger of many protesters.

What these controversial scenes portray is Satan’s tempting of Christ with the life of a normal man, a man with everyday desires and concerns, free from the burden of being crucified and being the salvation of mankind. In the guise of a beautiful angel, Satan deceptively brings Christ down from the cross and gives him the life he has desired.

Under Satan’s sham, Jesus marries and raises a family. However, as he is nearing the end of his life, his most devoted disciple, Judas Iscariot, awakens him to the truth of what is happening. As Judas calls him a traitor, Jesus finally realizes he has abandoned his duty: to be crucified and to be the salvation of mankind. Seeing this, that he has been tempted into living a man’s life and dying a peaceful death, Jesus crawls out into the streets of Jerusalem as it burns with the fires of the Jewish Rebellion, and begs God to return him to his crucifixion, finally rejecting Satan’s offering. At that point, he is returned to the cross as if he never left it. Jesus has now been tempted as a man, and having survived the real temptations of a man, Jesus says his dying words, “It is accomplished.”

The film has been supported by scholars, film critics, and some religious leaders. In his defense of the movie, noted critic (and friend of Scorsese) Roger Ebert wrote that Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader "paid Christ the compliment of taking him and his message seriously, and they have made a film that does not turn him into a garish, emasculated image from a religious postcard. Here he is flesh and blood, struggling, questioning, asking himself and his father which is the right way, and finally, after great suffering, earning the right to say, on the cross, 'It is accomplished.'"

The film's musical soundtrack was composed by Peter Gabriel and was released on CD with the title . The film's score itself has been widely acclaimed as a landmark in the popularization of world music.