The Last Supper (1995 film)

''The Last Supper'' is a 1995 American spoof political satire black comedy film directed by Stacy Title. It stars Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard, Annabeth Gish, Jonathan Penner and Courtney B. Vance as five liberal graduate school students who invite a string of extreme conservatives to dinner in order to murder them. The film premiered at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival.

Plot

The film centers on five graduate school students in Iowa who live together in a rustic home: Jude, Pete, Paulie, Marc, and Luke.

After Zack, a Desert Storm veteran, helps move Pete's car, the group invite him to have dinner at their home. However, Zack turns out to be a racist and Holocaust denier who praises Adolf Hitler, leading to a tense political debate with the liberal students.

The evening takes a turn for the worse when the veteran snaps and holds a knife to Marc's throat, threatening to kill him and rape Paulie. Zack releases Marc, then Pete holds a knife to his throat, but he easily incapacitates Pete and breaks his arm. Marc fatally stabs Zack in the back to defend his friend, and the group decides to cover up the murder. Paulie regrets that Zack is dead even though he threatened her and Marc.

After a long discussion led by Luke, the students decide to follow up this event by inviting other conservatives for dinner to murder them, reasoning this would "make the world a better place". They lay down a procedure for each murder. The guest will be given every opportunity to change his/her mind and recant his/her beliefs. If the guest fails to change his/her ways by dessert, the guest is offered poisoned white wine from a blue decanter and raises a toast. The bodies are buried in the vegetable garden.

Guests include a homophobic protestant reverend; a misogynistic, chauvinistic rape apologist; a Neo-Nazi; an anti-environmentalist; a racist, anti-Semitic Nation of Islam fundamentalist; an anti-abortion activist; a censorship advocate; a man who beats homeless people (the only dinner guest who momentarily considers recanting his beliefs); and critics of gay rights, all of whom are murdered.

After ten murders, misgivings begin to surface within the group as a few grow indecisive regarding the justification of their actions. Infighting and guilt compel them to spare a teenage opponent of mandatory sex education, despite the protests of Luke and Pete.

Sheriff Alice Stanley, investigating the whereabouts of missing girl Jenny Tyler, comes upon the group. By coincidence, the main suspect in the case is Zack, their first victim, also a convicted sex offender. The sheriff grows suspicious of the students’ behavior, questioning Pete, Marc and Paulie at their home. Finding Stanley trespassing in their back yard, Luke—increasingly unhinged—kills Stanley unbeknownst to the rest.

During a school break, Luke and Pete meet famous conservative pundit Norman Arbuthnot, inviting him to dinner. (Throughout the film, brief segments of radical statements made by him had been appearing on TV.) During dinner, Norman stymies them with his moderate and persuasive arguments, all of which the usually argumentative group have difficulty debunking. He even admits that he says more radically conservative things mostly for attention.

The frustrated students all suspiciously excuse themselves to the kitchen to determine Norman's fate. Jude warns him that the wine in the blue bottle, "It was left out too long and has gone bad." After a brief discussion, only Luke still wishes to kill Norman, calling him Hitler. After a tense altercation, where he aims a gun at Jude, Luke is dissuaded and breaks down into tears.

Meanwhile, Norman examines the home and pieces together their murderous activities. When they return to the table, Norman presents them with glasses of wine and offers them a toast but does not drink himself, with the excuse that he has to fly his private plane. He puffs on a huge cigar and says, "Don't worry, I didn't pour any of the bad wine."

A closing shot of a painting portrays all five students collapsed on the floor, with Norman standing next to the blue bottle and smoking his cigar. The film ends with audio of Norman speculating about his possible presidential bid to a cheering crowd, pledging to do the people's will and describing himself as the people's "humble, humble servant." In the closing voice-over, Norman explains his reluctance to accept his fans' urging to take on the responsibility of "the highest office in the land" by saying, "I already have."

Cast

* Cameron Diaz as Jude
* Ron Eldard as Pete
* Annabeth Gish as Paulie
* Jonathan Penner as Marc
* Courtney B. Vance as Luke
* Bill Paxton as Zachary Cody
* Nora Dunn as Sheriff Alice Stanley
* Ron Perlman as Norman Arbuthnot
* Charles Durning as Reverend Gerald Hutchens
* Mark Harmon as Dominant Male
* Jason Alexander as Anti-Environmentalist
* Nicholas Sadler as Homeless Basher
* Frederick Lawrence as Skin Head

The main characters' victims are played by Bill Paxton, Charles Durning, Mark Harmon and Jason Alexander, among others.

Production

The character of Norman Arbuthnot was loosely based on real-life pundit Rush Limbaugh. Beau Bridges was originally asked to play the role, but turned it down. Ron Perlman was so enthusiastic after reading the script that he threatened to break his friendship with director Stacy Title if he did not get the role. One of the producers has a cameo as the man getting his book signed by Arbuthnot. The screenplay's author, Dan Rosen, also had a small role as Deputy Hartford.

Director Stacy Title is the sister of co-star Jason Alexander's wife, Dena E. Title, and is married to the actor playing Marc, Jonathan Penner.

Shonen Knife's cover of The Carpenters' " Top of the World" plays during the closing credits.

The film's American premiere was at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival.

Response

Critical response

''The Last Supper'' has a 62% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 37 reviews. Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film three out of four stars, writing that although it is too long and repetitive, he appreciated its lack of partisanship. He described the film as "a brave effort in a timid time, a Swiftian attempt to slap us all in the face and get us to admit that our own freedoms depend precisely on those of our neighbors, our opponents and, yes, our enemies." Janet Maslin, reviewing the film in ''The New York Times'', was far more critical of the storyline, criticising it for its "lumbering obviousness and sophomoric political debate", and "conventional and unsurprising" plot. In a review for ''The Washington Post'', Rita Kempley described it as "sour, repetitive fare", and "glib, morally muddy, overly schematic".

Box office

As a small film, it grossed $459,749 at the domestic box office.

References

External links

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The Last Supper review

{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Supper (film), The
1990s crime comedy films
1995 films
1995 comedy films
American black comedy films
Films directed by Stacy Title
Films scored by Mark Mothersbaugh
Films set in Iowa
1990s English-language films
1990s American films