Blank Check with Griffin & David: The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie

Published 2026-10-11; 2:22:52 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David” and the episode “The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: Jamelle Bouie.

Subject films: The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

On the transcript: Speaker identity is hard because there are three to four voices (Griffin, David, Jamelle, Ben); ad reads at 0:30:04-0:31:27, 1:08:29-1:10:43 and 1:10:43-1:11:19 are noise. Several ASR garbles around the Collider list and Spielberg swap.

Films that came up

Claims (48)

people (actor persona): The Last Temptation of Christ → Spider-Man. Dafoe's cursed-villain/old-coot career is the through-line from Norman Osborn to Jesus.
“Wilm Defoe gets used so much now the last 25 years as a villain and or an old coot.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:02:53 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (casting): Willem Dafoe → Platoon. Scorsese saw Dafoe's sensitive, spiritual-yet-scary Platoon role and thought of Jesus.
“My understanding is that Scorsese had seen him in Platoon, where he plays a very sensitive...”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:03:48 · Jamelle Bouie (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): The Last Temptation of Christ → The Passion of the Christ. A host prefers Scorsese's humble Jesus-at-work to Gibson's solemn first-chair invention.
“I prefer to the Mel Gibson passion of the Christ thing where Jesus makes, it seems like, is it the 1st chair in existence?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:06:02 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (controversy): The Last Temptation of Christ → Kundun. Kundun, via Chinese government anger, is offered as a rival for Scorsese's most controversial film.
“If you're going by pure numbers, I guess you could go for Kundu”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:13:16 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (controversy): The Last Temptation of Christ → Benedetta. Protest against Benedetta was six nuns, showing religious outrage has faded since Last Temptation.
“it kind of shows that they just can't be bothered anymore.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:13:56 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (persona): Willem Dafoe → Spider-Man. Dafoe's mania under a calm surface links Norman Osborn and his Jesus.
“There is a little mania inside that guy.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:42:24 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (origin of project): Boxcar Bertha → David Carradine. Carradine gave Scorsese the Kazantzakis novel on the set of Boxcar Bertha.
“David Carradine gave it to him on the set of Boxcar Bertha in 72.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:42:52 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (origin of project): Barbara Hershey → The Last Temptation of Christ. Hershey also planted the book in Scorsese's head and told him to let her audition as Mary Magdalene.
“But it's planted in his head by her.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:44:30 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (influence): The Last Temptation of Christ → The Robe. The Robe is the first Christ movie Scorsese remembers seeing.
“The 1st Christ movie he remembers seeing is the robe.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:45:07 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
people (recurring actor): Verna Bloom → After Hours. Verna Bloom, who plays Mary here, was in After Hours and is J. Cox's wife.
“Verna Bloom in this, who's married to J. Cox.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:46:49 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (resemblance): Verna Bloom → Barbara Hershey. The two actresses resemble each other and are styled similarly.
“Her and Barbara Hershey do have similar faces, and they are styled somewhat similar in this movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:47:05 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career strategy): The Last Temptation of Christ → After Hours. After Hours was Scorsese proving he could make movies quickly and responsibly.
“he makes after hours, which is a great movie, but is obviously him being like, see, I can make movies quick.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:51:12 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career strategy): The Last Temptation of Christ → The Color of Money. The Color of Money was Scorsese showing he could work with stars and studios to make a hit.
“And then he makes color of money to be like, I can work with stars.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:51:14 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (genre contrast): The Last Temptation of Christ → Ben-Hur. Biblical epics already existed in public mind in the 60s, so a Last Temptation would have drawn less ire then than in the 80s.
“Precisely because the biblical epic already existed in like the public mind.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:53:23 · Jamelle Bouie (0.70 sure it was them)
industry (dealmaker): Tom Pollock → George Lucas. Pollock as lawyer got Lucas the Star Wars sequel and merchandising rights.
“he is the one who got George Lucas the Star Wars deal.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:54:22 · Jamelle Bouie (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (production method): The Last Temptation of Christ → Boxcar Bertha. Scorsese's Corman-style Boxcar Bertha experience let him storyboard and time every shot to make Last Temptation cheaply.
“I never would have been able to make this movie if I didn't have my Corman background and experience a boxcar Bertha specifically”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:54:52 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (casting): Willem Dafoe → To Live and Die in L.A.. Platoon and To Live and Die in L.A. are what Scorsese knew Dafoe from.
“He's also the villain to live and die in LA, which he's incredible in.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:56:44 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (structural): The Last Temptation of Christ → New York, New York. Both run long stretches of repeated set pieces around a central pairing, then a final act turning inward, ending in a tragic blow; Last Temptation reads as a corrective.
“I think this movie is fascinatingly, structurally so similar to New York, New York.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:00:52 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (casting): Harvey Keitel → New York, New York. Keitel's Judas is a better version of what De Niro's Jimmy Doyle is trying to be, without charm.
“Keitel's presence in this feels like a better version of what Jimmy Doyle is trying to be without trying to make him charming.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:02:01 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (language debate): The Last Temptation of Christ → The Odyssey. Modern vernacular dialogue in antiquity draws the same complaints as it did for Nolan's Odyssey.
“Nolan had this happen this year with the Odyssey where people are like, well, I don't understand.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:02:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (accent convention): The Last Temptation of Christ → Ben-Hur. Scorsese made the Romans British, as in Ben-Hur, with everyone else American.
“He said the big thing was to give let the Romans be British.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:02:57 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (aesthetic): The Last Temptation of Christ → Robert Eggers. Its depiction of the past as truly alien feels like Eggers's work.
“Feels very like Robert Iggers to me these days of like trying to take seriously the fact that the past is truly different”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:05:21 · Jamelle Bouie (0.70 sure it was them)
people (collaboration): Michael Ballhaus → After Hours. Ballhaus shot After Hours with Scorsese and found the 'poor movie' look fit the subject.
“who'd already done after hours with them, obviously”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:06:20 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (shared locations): The Last Temptation of Christ → Ishtar. Per Miriam Bale, it shares many Moroccan locations with Ishtar, shot around the same time.
“Yes, it shares a lot of locations with Ishtar, which was made around the same time.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:07:01 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (name tie): The Magic Roundabout / Le Manège enchanté → Zebedee. The Magic Roundabout's Zebedee is the host's only link to the biblical Zebedee.
“And so that's where I learned the word Zebedee, who, of course, is the father of James and John, right?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:17:56 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (teacher): Irvin Kershner → George Lucas. Kershner (Zebedee here) taught Lucas at USC and is cited as good with actors.
“He was George Lucas's, yes, like teacher at USC.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:18:10 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (same use of actor): David Bowie → The Prestige. Bowie's one-scene authority role as Pilate mirrors his Tesla in The Prestige.
“And it's the same use of him in prestige.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:34:20 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (casting): David Bowie → The Man Who Fell to Earth. Bowie's alien quality was perfect for Pilate, as his Man Who Fell to Earth showed.
“you watch the man who fell to earth and you're like, well, of course, he's great at this.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:35:14 · Jamelle Bouie (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (plot parallel): The Last Temptation of Christ → Star Trek: The Next Generation, 'The Inner Light'. Jesus lives a whole accelerated lifetime in a vision, like Picard living 50 years on a village.
“You can't not think of the inner light, the most famous episode of this of that show.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:43:14 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (creepy-child trope): The Last Temptation of Christ → X2. Judas recognizing the child angel as Satan is jokingly tied to creepy-girl villains in Resident Evil and X2's White Queen.
“Have you ever seen Resident Evil?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:49:12 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (scene echo): The Last Temptation of Christ → It's a Wonderful Life. Jesus dragging himself back to the cross after seeing the life he wasn't given plays like the wonderful-life reversal.
“also a very kind of like it's a wonderful life scene.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:50:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): The Last Temptation of Christ → Stan Brakhage. A cameraman exposing the magazine too early burned the crucifixion-ending image into abstract flashing light, which a host likens to Brakhage.
“And that was because, and a cameraman exposed the magazine too early. Oh yeah. And it fucked up, you know, the film. But it's like Stan Brackett shit almost.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:50:46 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
lineage (influence): Peter Gabriel → The Last Temptation of Christ. Gabriel's score is claimed to shape how every Middle East-set film sounds.
“But like every movie set in the Middle East now sounds like this because of this score.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:52:21 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (music/cultural moment): The Last Temptation of Christ → Graceland (album). Gabriel's score and Paul Simon's Graceland are late-80s world music breakthroughs.
“Yeah, I mean, along with like Graceland, right?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:53:12 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (money): The Last Temptation of Christ → Gangs of New York. Last Temptation put Scorsese in debt until Cape Fear; Gangs put him back and The Departed got him out.
“He says the movie put him in debt and like he didn't come out of it until he made Cape Fear.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:59:52 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (swap): Schindler's List → Cape Fear. Scorsese gave up Schindler's List to Spielberg, who gave him Cape Fear.
“which turns into the swap that lands with uh, Spielberg giving him Cape Fear.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:00:30 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (business deal): The Last Temptation of Christ → Cape Fear. Universal's deal to make Last Temptation obliged a bigger film later, resulting in the Spielberg swap and Cape Fear.
“it gets fear is a direct result of his deal with Universal for this month.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:00:50 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (trilogy): The Last Temptation of Christ → Kundun. Together with Silence, Kundun and Last Temptation form a loose trilogy about faith.
“he has this kind of loose trilogy about faith that is really funny.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:01:54 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (trilogy): The Last Temptation of Christ → Silence. Silence completes the faith trilogy with Kundun.
“Because of course, because he makes Kundun in silence, he has this kind of loose trilogy about faith”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:01:54 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (Oscar oddity list): The Last Temptation of Christ → Satyricon. Collider's list of films with a lone director nomination includes Satyricon and Last Temptation.
“Collider says there are 7 movies.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:02:07 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (Oscar oddity): The Last Temptation of Christ → Blue Velvet. Like Blue Velvet, it got just a director nomination and no picture nomination; list also includes Mulholland Drive and Short Cuts.
“Well, Blue velvet was the same thing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:03:06 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (follow-up): The Last Temptation of Christ → Goodfellas. Goodfellas was Scorsese's next film and likely overshadows Last Temptation.
“His follow-up is good, which is like, which probably just overshadows us as well”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:03:16 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (same box office week): The Last Temptation of Christ → Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Roger Rabbit, Die Hard, Cocktail and others filled the box office the week Last Temptation opened at #13.
“The movie comes out August 12, 1988.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:03:26 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (Tom Cruise career): Cocktail → The Color of Money. Cruise should do a Color of Money legacy sequel instead of Days of Thunder or more racing movies.
“Do fucking color of money with a Kaylee Spainey or some shit.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:07:16 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
programming (passion-project pairing): Tucker: The Man and His Dream → The Last Temptation of Christ. Scorsese and Coppola released passion projects the same weekend.
“Just interesting that Marty and Francis on the same weekend released like passion projects”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:14:40 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (director's cut): Big → Penny Marshall. A 30-minute Marshall cut restores the father and more Elizabeth Perkins.
“There's a penny marshall cut that's 30 minutes longer that mostly adds in more Elizabeth Perkins”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:16:32 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career thread): The Last Temptation of Christ → Mean Streets. The Jesus figure runs through Scorsese's whole filmography back to Mean Streets.
“But what's like this Jesus is as central of this guy's entire filmography as anything?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:18:50 · Jamelle Bouie (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (recut): The X-Files → The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Chris Carter recut the second X-Files film; a host mocks it as Frankenstein-ing a corpse.
“Can I recut the 2nd movie and call it, I want to believe Vach Frankenstein?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:24:34 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items (31)

fun, about Willem Dafoe: Opening bit: the podcast says 'If I was a woodcutter, I'd cut' (the Norman Osborn line), prompting an old-Willem versus young-Willem riff.
“I'm something of a woodcutter myself.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:00:41 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Spider-Man: Church fight praised: no fight in the movie lasts over 90 seconds, which keeps it brutal and real.
“It's just brutal and direct. bang, bang.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:02:04 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about The Last Temptation of Christ: Jesus building a crude cross opens the film; hosts riff on the chair-inventing scene in Gibson's film and the invention of chairs.
“The guy who made us his chair got crucified.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:06:24 · David Sims (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about The Last Temptation of Christ: Watched the film then the Criterion vintage commentary, intercut among Cox, Schrader, Scorsese and Defoe, recorded as multiple interviews edited together.
“And it's intercutting between Cox, Schrader, Scorsese, and Defoe.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:06:51 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Martin Scorsese: Jamelle watched every Scorsese film in a year around 2017 and came away more convinced he is great, comparing it to a Duke Ellington binge.
“I just watched every Marty movie and came away.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:22:30 · Jamelle Bouie (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Pontius Pilate (David Bowie): Bowie plays Pilate as an exasperated, tired bureaucrat taking one side-room meeting; it reframed the villain for a churchgoing viewer.
“Bowie's just, it's exasperated, tired bureaucrat.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:38:56 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Last Temptation of Christ: Novel history: Kazantzakis published 1955, Orthodox Church tried to excommunicate him; Scorsese first heard of it as an NYU student and only read it around 1972-79.
“The novel, presented Deeply Human Christ, contemplating a normal life spent with Mary Magdalene”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:42:45 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Schrader: Schrader's first draft had Jesus taking his heart out and a literal Last Supper of eating flesh; his big contribution was outlining 300-400 scenes from the book.
“Paul's 1st version, apparently, he has Jesus taking his heart out.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:46:13 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Casting Jesus: Candidates for Jesus included Aidan Quinn, Eric Roberts, De Niro (who said he can't wear a robe) and Walken; Sting was to be Pilate in the first Paramount attempt.
“De Niro's response was, I don't think I can wear a robe.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:49:13 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Martin Scorsese: Scorsese joked with Katzenberg he'd direct Flashdance 2 if he could make Last Temptation; hosts would watch it.
“Flashdance 2, if you let me make Last Temptation of Christ.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:50:04 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Martin Scorsese: After Scarface flopped with Hollywood audiences, De Palma asked Scorsese if they would become teachers; Scorsese says he couldn't do anything else.
“I don't have anything else I can do.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:50:45 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Tom Pollock: The Universal head who greenlit Last Temptation started as the lawyer who won George Lucas the Star Wars sequel and merchandising deal.
“The greatest entertainment deal of all time.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:54:44 · Jamelle Bouie (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Martin Scorsese: Scorsese storyboarded every shot and timed how long each could take, a Corman discipline, because the budget left no room to fail.
“he drew out every single storyboard, every shot of this movie”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:55:08 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Willem Dafoe: Dafoe first declined; at a second meeting Scorsese's explanation within minutes convinced him he was the only person who could play Jesus.
“I think I'm the only person who can play Jesus”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:57:50 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Harvey Keitel: Keitel's Brooklyn-accented, red-haired Judas earned a Razzie nomination, which hosts defend; Scorsese wanted him to embody violence and anger.
“I wanted him to embody like violence and anger.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:59:12 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Victor Argo: Argo plays Peter like a Red Hook stevedore, smoking a cigar until the camera rolled.
“he plays Peter as essentially like a fucking stevedore from like Red Hook.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:04:26 · Jamelle Bouie (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about The Last Temptation of Christ: With only five centurions, Scorsese whip-panned among them to suggest twenty-five without ever showing them in one frame.
“And he reuses 5 centurions to make them 25 centurions.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:06:13 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Martin Scorsese: Scorsese loved Pee-wee Herman and had PAL tapes of the show sent every week.
“he was so into Pee-Wee Herman, that they would send him like pal tapes of like that week's show.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:06:49 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Irvin Kershner: Empire Strikes Back director plays Zebedee; hosts digress to the Magic Roundabout's Zebedee and spot the call-out of 'Judith' from the background.
“Yes, is Irving Kirschner, director of Empire Strikes Back.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:16:58 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about The Last Temptation of Christ: Jesus' trick of raising a cup became a meme; the water-into-wine scene shifts into Scorsese's Mean Streets rhythm of two guys needling each other.
“It is so funny that it's the one scene where Marty goes into like Shinebox rhythm, right?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:24:07 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Lazarus scene: No money to dress the tomb as disgusting, so every actor just pretends it smells terrible while the boulder rolls away.
“Every actor just needs to be like, ooh, pee, you.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:25:40 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Parables: The mustard-seed parable gets a riff on two thousand years of scholarly debate and Jesus hating ketchup.
“2000 years of scholarly debate to be like, what is that fucking one about?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:27:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Rock-star actors: Bowie named best rock-star actor, with Tom Waits the only challenger; DMX praised as someone you cannot look away from.
“Tom Waits might be the guy who challenges David Bowie in my mind.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:39:10 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Star Trek TNG 'The Inner Light': Picard living fifty years in a village in minutes is the lens for Jesus' long dream life, ending with the creepy-girl Satan reveal.
“The whole episode is him living an entire episode.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:43:32 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Last Temptation of Christ: The final crucifixion film burn: a cameraman exposed the magazine too early, ruining film in the final shot, and the flashing light damage was kept.
“a cameraman exposed the magazine too early.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:50:46 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Peter Gabriel: Gabriel did the score nearly free, mixing voices from around the world; it was released as Passion and is credited as breakthrough for world music in America.
“He did the movie basically for free.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:52:06 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Last Temptation of Christ: Jamelle's Letterboxd line: fundamentalists hating it makes sense because Christ as all-encompassing love opposes the in-vogue Christ of vengeance.
“Christ as emissary of total and all encompassing love is in direct tension with the quote unquote Christ of vengeance and domination”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:58:34 · Jamelle Bouie (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about The Last Temptation of Christ: Box office: opened August 12, 1988, number 13, about $8M domestic and around $30M worldwide; one Oscar nomination (Scorsese for director), Hershey and score got Globe nods.
“The movie comes out August 12, 1988.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:02:50 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Cocktail: Griffin's verdict: the stupidest movie Tom Cruise ever made, a film about a bartender who does 'the crazy thing'.
“I mean, the stupidest movie he ever made.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:06:00 · Jamelle Bouie (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Big: A 30-minute Penny Marshall cut restores a father character she cut out in the theatrical version.
“makes her seem far less demented, but also at the same time, adds back in the father.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:16:40 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Willem Dafoe: Sign-off bit: a long run of alternative 'Willem de ...' names (Redeemer, Bread of Life, Carpenter) ending in a Trinity joke.
“Willem de Redeemer, Willem de Bread of Life, Willem DeLord, Willem de Son of the Living God.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:25:23 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Calls Last Temptation his college-era favorite Scorsese; loves Scorsese's smaller 80s and the film's closing transcendence and Gabriel score. Cannot stand fundamentalist outrage at it. A sucker for casting trivia and Tom Cruise-silliness.
David Sims (host): Prepares history: novel, casting, budgets, box office. Reveres the film and thinks it reads as a normal ground-level story. A sucker for Hollywood deal backstory and box office game.
Jamelle Bouie (guest): Raised churchgoing in the South, studied religious history, and loves how the film captures the strangeness of the ancient Near East and the humanizing of Judas and Pilate. Dislikes fundamentalist readings; a sucker for Scorsese, Duke Ellington and weird snacks.
Ben Hosley (host): Producer who occasionally talks; admits no religious background, has a Catholic mother's family, and cannot see the Bible as part of culture.

The show's recurring bits

The box office game: Guessing the film's opening weekend and what it was up against.
The sung theme: "Blank Check with Griffin and David", sung; the transcriber garbles it.

Names the transcriber got wrong

'Jamel Bowie', 'Jamal Bowie' = Jamelle Bouie
'Defoe/Dafone/De Foe' = Willem Dafoe
'Trader/Traders' = Paul Schrader
'Cazen Sakis' = Kazantzakis
'J. Cox/J-Cox' = Jay Cocks
'Robert's Blossom' = Robert Blossom (also 'Robert Bloom' in my people list)
'Irving Kirschner' = Irvin Kershner
'Ben Hossley' = Ben Hosley; 'Marie Barti Salinas' = Marie Barty-Salinas?
'Mikeovitz/Ovid' = Michael Ovitz
'William Hinckley' = John Hinckley Jr.
'Hidden Quinnin' = Aidan Quinn
'Robert Iggers' = Robert Eggers
'Wilm/Willem Norman talk' = Willem/Norman Osborn
'Lame Montgomery' = Lame Montgomery? (theme composer credit)
'Rain Man year' fine; 'Barry Robinson' = Barry Levinson
'The end of the 6 Happiness in 1958' = probably 'The End of the Day' list entry; unclear

Blank Check with Griffin & David: The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

subject (1)

passing (72)

compared (13)

anecdote (14)

Claims (48)

Fun items (31)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong