The Last Supper Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Last Supper Blu-ray Movie Review

Social Justice Warriors.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 29, 2018

When The Last Supper released in 1995, Rush Limbaugh was (and still is) king of the airwaves. Bill Clinton held the highest office in the land. The Internet was only just starting to reach its digital tentacles into everyday lives. Certainly in the years since political discord and strife, verbal vitriol and vanishing values, and a political division that may have never run so deep since the 1860s has ensnared the nation, and much of the world, no doubt spurred on, in part, by the Internet, social media, and the 24 hour “news” cycle, altogether an assault of access to opinions across the entire spectrum and absolute freedom to fall anywhere along the political divide, and make sure everyone knows it, too. Much of it is just hot air; words, not sticks and stones; but acts of political violence are still, sadly, fairly commonplace. But they usually don't take place in the home. There are no headlines to be won in the home, no points to be scored in the home, no statement to the made to the world in the home. If political violence did take place in the home, it would almost certainly stem from deeply and very sincerely held values, an uncontrollable urge to set things right within one's own political prism, from a genuine desire to "make the world a better place" even if violence is rarely the best way to go about it. Director Stacy Title and Writer Dan Rosen take a darkly humorous but deadly serious look at political divide and one group of friend's decision to do something about their political opposites in The Last Supper, a film about politics and murder and whatever soul searching comes before, during, and after.

Social Justice Killers.

Five graduate school students -- Marc (Jonathan Penner), Paulie (Annabeth Gish), Luke (Courtney B. Vance), Jude (Cameron Diaz), and Pete (Ron Eldard) -- share a house and share left-wing opinions about how they live their lives and how the world should work. Their world is upended when a supposedly kindly trucker named Zack (Bill Paxton) brings Pete home after his car breaks down in a pouring rainstorm. Zack is invited to stay for a lasagna dinner -- it's the least they can do to repay him for his generosity -- but the friends quickly learn that their guest, a former Marine who served in the Gulf War, is not exactly on the same political page or even the same political planet. He is aghast that the five do not say grace, which only leads to more divisive dialogue. When the discussion turns more political, Zack's true beliefs come out. He denies the holocaust, refuses to label Hitler as a monster, and voices his displeasure with lazy "damn liberals" like his hosts who only talk and never take action in the name of their beliefs. When things get rowdy and Zack pulls a knife on Marc, the evening takes a turn for the frightening, and the bizarre, when Pete steps in and Marc steps back, grabs a knife, and shoves it in Zack's back.

Panic ensues, but Luke, the supposed voice of reason in the group, decides it would best for them to sweep the incident under the rug and sweep the dead body under the earth in the back yard. Besides, who would want to go to prison for murdering a "fascist?" The group ultimately finds the thrill in the kill and purpose in Zack's death; he's one less "not one of them" in the world. They decide to continue on with their plan to rid the world of their own brand of undesirables, including a priest who speaks against homosexuals and in favor of AIDS and a man who doesn't buy the story behind the supposed environmental crisis threatening the world. How many can they kill? Will a nosy sheriff (Nora Dunn) find them out? Can they withstand any crisis of conscience? Will they ever get the chance to take out the big kahuna, a Rush Limbaugh-like talk show host named Norman Arbuthnot (Ron Perlman)?

The movie would not work without just the right establishing tone in its first act, never mind its first minutes. The friends seem cordial, the group chemistry-laden, and while affixed to their values probably never once considered taking extreme measures to ensure that their personal and political philosophies become worldwide doctrine. The lead-in quickly gains intensity with a wonderful Bill Paxton embracing every wild-eyed conspiracy and grossly extreme far-right position the movie can cram into his head and exit from his mouth over the course of several very vigorous minutes. The Last Supper plays it down the middle on the surface but finds a darkly humorous bend through extreme stereotyping of both sides, Zack immediately and the friends as the film builds. On one side are the smug, holier-than-thou college liberals and on the other is the gruff truck driver and war veteran who holds every racist thought in the book and stands against everything the friends hold dear. As the friends start luring victims to the table, each reciting a fairly pointed political, moral, or philosophical (or all three) position that is opposite of that or those the friends hold dear, they unwittingly drink from the tainted wine and become another statistic, another foundational brick in the new world of life-in-their-image the friends wish to erect from death. The real drama, beyond the shock and novelty, is how long they can remain bonded in their bloodlust for people they considered bullheaded.

There's an interesting juxtaposition that runs throughout the movie, as the five supposedly enlightened friends ask one another, and some of their guests, if they would kill, in cold blood, a young Adolph Hitler and change the course of history, saving millions of lives, lives lost in fighting and those lost in the Holocaust. Hitler, of course, oversaw the murder of millions of Jews as the head of the Nazi party during World War II, people he considered "undesirables" within his vision for society. Ironically, as the five friends hate on Hitler and fantasize about killing him, they begin to take on some of the same characteristics, willfully, and even gleefully, at first, killing their own "undesirables," anyone with a strong opinion that differs from their own. Of course they don't really piece it together, at least not right away, but the movie does a masterful job of paralleling their obsession with Hitler as they essentially turn into a mini collective Hitler, in a way.

The cast is all-in. Each is tasked with not only reciting, but embracing, radical viewpoints and/or espousing murder. They do so with a straight face (most of the time) as they engage in fiery political and philosophical debates, which grow increasingly complex amongst themselves and their victims, beginning with Bill Paxton's Zack, who is a walking stereotype, to much more complicated characters whom the group must decide if they will kill or allow to live, as their opinions are not necessarily swayed but as they come to see that there's more complexity to "the other side" than they might have otherwise believed had they merely continued to merrily exist within their own bubble. It's interesting to see who becomes the "voice of reason" that ultimately splits the group and may even bring an end to the killing spree, one way or another.

The Last Supper Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Last Supper's delicious 1080p transfer should satiate any and all viewers. The Blu-ray effectively, and complexly, presents all of the odds and ends and furnishings around the house with firm, film-like effectiveness. The same is true of characters and clothing. Facial textures are revealing, clothing lines and details tight, and close-ups are particularly effective in shaping the image's best qualities. Light grain is retained for the duration, yielding a pleasing filmic texture. A few softer shots are scattered throughout the film but there's no sign of major print wear or encode anomalies. Colors are fairly warm, usually, within house interiors and around the table in particular, where most of the movie plays out, usually at some level of slightly to moderately low light. Some outdoor shots appear more evenly saturated and bright, with special emphasis on bold red tomatoes that are critical objects throughout the film. Black levels aren't too wobbly and skin tones appear fairly true to actor complexion.

The Last Supper Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The included DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack presents the film's relatively basic material about as well as can be expected within the limited speaker configuration. Opening title music is lively, offering solid instrumental and lyrical clarity in addition to decent front-end width. Atmospherics are generally limited to cracking thunder and falling rain that punctuate several key moments throughout the film. Dialogue is the main course, of course, and plays without hitch, imaging to the middle so effectively it's a wonder it's not coming out of the center channel. No problems with vocal clarity or prioritization are apparent, either.

The Last Supper Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Last Supper contains no special features. No DVD or digital copies are included, and it does not ship with a slipcover.

The Last Supper Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Last Supper is off-the-wall weird yet weirdly magnetic. It's vile in every way but in every way the near perfect dark comedy. It deals in the fringes of violent human nature, extreme political partisanship, and sets it against an interesting historical juxtaposition. The movie makes everyone a bad guy, ultimately, and in this political climate, that rings fairly true. At least in the real world everyone's not killing everyone else (yet). Sony's Blu-ray delivers highly agreeable 1080p video and a quality two-channel lossless soundtrack. Unfortunately, no extra content is included. Highly recommended.