The Last Supper (1995 film)

Infobox Film | name = The Last Supper


caption = Theatrical poster for The Last Supper
director = Stacy Title
producer = Matt Cooper
Larry Wienberg
writer = Dan Rosen
starring = Cameron Diaz
Ron Eldard
Annabeth Gish
Jonathan Penner
Courtney B. Vance
music = Mark Mothersbaugh
editing = Luis Colina
distributor = Sony Pictures Releasing
released = 1995
runtime = 92 min.
language = English
amg_id = 1:154322
imdb_id = 0113613

"The Last Supper" is a 1995 drama 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 conservatives to dinner in order to murder them.

ynopsis

The film centers on five liberal Iowan graduate students, Jude, Pete, Paulie, Marc and Luke, who live together in a rustic home. The group has dinner with war hero Zack, but the evening becomes violent after the group ridicules Zack for his conservative views. Marc kills Zack and the group resolves to cover up the murder. After a long discussion, the students decide to continue killing people with extreme conservative views in order to make the world a better place.

The students lay down a procedure for each murder. The guest will be given every opportunity to change their mind and recant their beliefs. If the guests fail to change their ways, the group offers them wine from a blue decanter and raises a toast. The bodies are buried in the group's vegetable garden. Guests include a Neo-Nazi, a book censorship advocate, and opponents of gay rights, all of whom are murdered. After ten murders, rifts form within the group as some students grow withdrawn or begin to doubt the justice of their actions. Infighting and guilt cause the group to spare a teenage opponent of mandatory sex education.

A local sheriff begins investigating the students, but Luke kills her unbeknownst to the rest of the group. During a school break, Luke and Pete meet Norman Arbuthnot, a famous conservative pundit, and invite him to dinner. During the dinner, Norman stymies the group with his moderate and persuasive arguments. All five students then excuse themselves to the kitchen to determine Norman's fate. Only Luke wishes to kill Norman, but after a tense altercation he is talked down. Meanwhile, Norman examines the group's home and pieces together their murderous activities. He presents the group with glasses of wine and offers them a toast, but does not drink himself. A closing shot of a painting portrays all five students collapsed on the floor, with Norman standing and smoking a cigar.

Principal cast

Trivia

*Immediately after shooting was completed, the house that was used in the movie burned to the ground.
*One of the producers has a cameo as the man getting his book signed by Ron Perlman.
*Beau Bridges was originally asked to play Norman Arbuthnot, but he turned the role down.
*The character of Norman Arbuthnot was loosely based on real-life Conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh.
*The film was shown at the 1995 Toronto Film Festival.
*Jonathan Penner, an actor in the movie, appeared on .
*The music playing over the credits is Shonen Knife's cover of The Carpenters' "Top of the World".

Critical reaction

When it premiered, the film received a lukewarm critical response. It has garnered a 65% rating on the Tomatometer scale. Here are some sample reviews, both positive and negative:

"This low-budgeter that "came out of nowhere" is a fresh, pungent tale about Right and Left--and Right and Left--in contempo American politics, well-acted by a gifted ensemble, including the young Cameron Diaz."

- Emanuel Levy

"All the courses are here and so are the nutrients, but The Last Supper, nevertheless, is a less-than-satisfying meal. The problem is not that things don't gel or aren't tasty; the problem resides more with its failure to froth."

- Marjorie Baumgarten

Box office

The film did not do well at the box office, garnering a mere $459,749 total domestic gross.

External links

*imdb title|id=0113613|title=The Last Supper