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Scorsese/Hershey's Magdalene on Screen

[13]Frame by frame, Scorsese and Hershey reveal the implications of their complete disregard of Magdalene's being beyond the prostitute stock character. In The Last Temptation of Christ (LTC), Scorsese gives Magdalene more screen time than other biblical films, past or present. In fact, she and Judas function as main characters in the movie. Unfortunately, much like the fate of most female characters in Hollywood, LTC's Magdalene soon finds her place among the litany of Scorsese film women-wives, mothers or mistresses who mostly suffer in silence and provide temporary distractions for the male protagonists. In addition to historical inaccuracies, Magdalene's characterization on screen underscores how sexuality is represented differently for men and women, especially in Western Christianity. While Jesus (Man) can serve as universal signifier for humanity, his sexual drives the norm, women are not supposed to have sexual drives, the model for sexuality being the Virgin Mary (Woman), who remains unscathed by desire. Therefore, women associated with sexuality (Magdalene) must occupy the position of "fallen woman," a staple of Western patriarchal narratives. When Scorsese casts Magdalene within the discourse of "fallen woman," he renders her a symbol of men's temptation. Schaberg articulates the significance of this assignment: "Reduced to her sexuality, she is . . . blamed for provoking sexual desire . . ., often the target of male sexual aggression and hostility, moral outrage, and condemnation."40 Within this conceptual framework, Magdalene the prostitute is viewed as seductress, victim or entrepreneur, which not only greatly reduces the complexity surrounding prostitution but also the scholarly evidence about her apostolic authority. However, as Andrea Dworkin argues, even without demonizing prostitutes, most people are ambivalent and uncomfortable thinking about the nature of prostitution because of the realization that "male domination of the female body is the basic material reality of [all] women's lives."41 From this perspective, whatever agency Scorsese/Hershey may have envisioned for Magdalene as the world's most famous prostitute is quickly thwarted by the historical stigma she embodies in the popular imagination, making her an archetype of sin rather than spirituality and agency. Such a status not only diminishes Magdalene's significance and complexity, but also articulates far-reaching consequences for women trapped in the same one-dimensionality of being.

[14] Many third wave feminist scholars remind us that the concept of prostitute has meaning only within the patriarchal ideology in which such forms of work carry a stigma generated from double standards of sexual morality and negative attitudes to sex.42 Debra Satz, for example, argues that "if prostitution is wrong it is because of its effects on how men perceive women and on how women perceive themselves. In our society, prostitution represents women as the sexual servants of men."43 Satz conjectures that the negative image of women promoted by prostitution "shapes and influences the way women as a whole are seen"44 Satz's view is dramatized within the first five minutes of LTC when Magdalene's character is introduced. Magdalene appears as a marked body, immediately signifying the male gaze. A close-up of Magdalene's feet covered with henna tattoos transitions into a pan up her body into a close-up of her face as she spits in Jesus' face. The tattoos reinforce her inferior status and highlight how Jesus (and society) perceives her. Hershey used the tattoos as part of her backstory, explaining that Magdalene is trying to "make herself despicable because she's trying to be the lowest of the low."45The tattoos would give "a feeling of a woman marking herself. And yet, they were beautiful."46While one might read the tattoos as Magdalene's attempt to control her body under the most extreme circumstances, to express herself, mapping her rebellion onto a body bound by patriarchy, this interpretation ultimately disintegrates within the film's gendered environment.

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