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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
The Last Supper
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  out of 4
 Review by Dragan Antulov 2½ stars out of 4
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Western diplomats and intellectuals like to explain savagery of
former Yugoslav conflicts with the poverty and ignorance of region's
population. But the real insight into the origin and course of the wars
would reveal that the most virulent chauvinism wasn't displayed by
illiterate, impoverished and unrefined mountain people. Some of the
worst atrocities were, directly or indirectly, committed by refined and
prominent intellectuals, many of them enjoying reputation of
enlightened liberals, humanists and progressives before the war. The
author of this review had plenty of opportunity to witness such
phenomenon, so the basic concept of THE LAST SUPPER, 1995 black
comedy directed by Stacy Litle, isn't something unexpected.
The plot deals with five Iowa graduate students, people who share
apartment, noble leftist ideals and the custom of inviting guests to
Sunday dinners in order to have enlightened discussions of politics,
culture and similar issues. One night invitation to the dinner is given
to Zack (played by Bill Paxton), truck driver and Gulf War veteran
who quickly reveals both extreme neo-Nazi views and violent
temper. Resulting altercation ends with Zack being accidentally
killed. Luke (played by Coutrney B. Vance), political science student
and unofficial leader of the group, argues that it would be stupid to
rot in jail for something that is actually a service to the world. So,
instead of reporting the incident to police, five students bury slain
neo-Nazi in the garden, and soon afterwards they come to the logical
conclusion - if killing one dangerous right-winger was greater
service to the world, than it should be repeated. So, students start
inviting to dinner various people with problematic worldviews -
homophobic priests, anti-enviromentalists, male chauvinists, bigoted
librarians etc. - and serve them with poisoned drink.
In 1990s Hollywood films often treated right-wing segments of
American society with such venom that this relatively obscure film
serves as a nice antidote. Stacy Litle and her scriptwriter Dan Rosen
don't go in the obvious, safe direction and show American right-
wingers as nice people; they show that the bigotry, ignorance and
idiocy is not their monopoly and that dangerous characters exist on
the opposing side of political spectrum. THE LAST SUPPER clearly
shows that the noble principles are of little use when people can't
overcome their lack of common sense. In particularly nasty set of
circumstances, even the most enlightened set of beliefs could serve as
justification for the worst atrocities - teachings of Christ thus once led
to Crusades and Inquisition; the dream of more social justice in the
world later turned into nightmare of gulags, Cultural Revolution and
Cambodian killing fields. Similar process is witnessed in this film,
with Rosen and Litle being prepared to break many taboos of
"political correctness" and having a black man as the most vicious
among the "enlightened" fanatics.
That point, however, seems lost in the middle of the film, when the
poisonings of right-wingers start to look somewhat repetitive. The
subplot involving lawwoman (played by Nora Dunn) trying to locate
missing movie wasn't particularly necessary. However, at the end
THE LAST SUPPER acquits itself with an incredibly effective and
intelligent ending that might not satisfy people of all political
persuasions, but it would definitely make them think. And this is
something we usually don't see in Hollywood these days.
Copyright © 2003 Dragan Antulov
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