What Scorsese film features Willem Dafoe as Jesus Christ?

The Scorsese film featuring Willem Dafoe as Jesus Christ is The Last Temptation of Christ.

Released in 1988, the film adapts Nikos Kazantzakis's controversial 1955 novel, which imagines Jesus as a fully human figure wrestling with fear, doubt, temptation, and the burden of his divine mission. Paul Schrader wrote the screenplay, with uncredited revisions by Scorsese and Jay Cocks.

Dafoe's performance became central to the film's unusual approach. Rather than presenting Jesus only as an unshakable religious icon, the story explores his inner conflict and imagined alternatives to crucifixion. Harvey Keitel plays Judas Iscariot, Barbara Hershey plays Mary Magdalene, and David Bowie appears as Pontius Pilate.

A common mix-up is confusing this film with The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's 2004 biblical drama. They are separate productions, and Dafoe does not play Jesus in Gibson's film. The Last Temptation of Christ also drew protests because its fictional ideas about Jesus were viewed by some Christian groups as blasphemous.