The Last Supper (1996)

Painted in mile-wide strokes of black satirical comedy, The Last Supper turns intolerance into a parlor trick, then repeats it ad nauseam in case we missed the joke. Still, redundancy can be fun when applied to the premeditated murder of right-wing extremists by self-righteous left-wing zealots; director Stacy Title is an equal-opportunity offender, never taking sides. The grisly high jinks commence when a truck-driving, child-molesting, Hitler-loving ex-Marine (Bill Paxton, acing the role) is accidentally killed while dining with a clutch of snobby liberal grad students, played with uniform excellence by Cameron Diaz (showing early promise), Ron Eldard, Courtney B. Vance, Annabeth Gish, and coproducer Jonathan Penner. Having acquired a taste for blood, the wine-poisoning liberals stage "last suppers" with hand-picked targets (Charles Durning, Mark Harmon, Jason Alexander, and ultimately Ron Perlman), eventually attracting a suspicious sheriff (fine work by SNL alumnus Nora Dunn). It's got all the subtlety of a pile-driver, but The Last Supper craftily defends free speech by exposing its most vicious violations. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Who is more dangerous?

If you could go back in time and kill Hitler before his rise to power, would you do it? A group of left-wing graduate students put this theory into practice, after a chance meeting with a right-wing truck driver leads them down the path of murder and to the realization that some people deserve to die.

"The Last Supper" is one of my all-time favourite movies and has maintained its place in my top 20 film list, ever since I saw it for the first time on late-night television about 5 years ago. Although, as far as I can ascertain, the script of this film was written specifically for the screen, it actually plays out more like a stage play than a movie. Normally that would bother me, but in this case it doesn't, as this whole film is essentially a philosophical debate between left-wing and right-wing extremists, and it is for the dialogue that this film is of interest, not the action. One of the best things about this film is that, ultimately, the writer, Dan Rosen (who also wrote the equally excellent "The Curve"), does not come down in favour of one side or the other in his debate. It is left to the audience to decide who they believe is right.

I can imagine that "The Last Supper" might not be to everyone's tastes. In my family, alone, my father and I love it (after out most recent viewing, we spent several days discussing whether Rosen himself was on the side of the left or the right), but my mother hates it (she considers it to be too dark). However, if you have a black sense of humour and are interested in an entertaining debate on the topics that I mentioned above, then you definitely give this film a go.
August 25, 2008

Black humor at it's best...

I love the whole idea of the story (which is completely unrealistic) but found the story end wanting for something... Good nonetheless. January 7, 2008

liberals decide death

The title, The Last Supper, is why I decided to buy it after reading the reviews. Dark humor has bleeding-heart save-the-whales liberals decide that the opposite would help society. Relevant to what we have in the news today: who would take the chance to change history using deadly force, believing that it would never be known: Arsenic and Old Lace amongst friends, who disagree, watch each other's actions with surprise, and find that it's within each as to what choices are made. Buy both to watch the dark humor of 1944 compared to 1996. December 7, 2007

Quite possbily the dumbest, most unrealistic movie ever made.

Hard to watch since you could drive a semi through the plot holes, and the ending should have been so obvious to the main characters.

Plus, NO ONE ever told their friends where they were going for dinner?

Just a terrible movie through and through. June 25, 2007

The Last Supper

Excellent movie with a wonderful reversal at the end. Good for its sociopolitical rammifications March 10, 2007

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