The Last Supper (1995 film)

The Last Supper
Theatrical poster for The Last Supper
Directed by	Stacy Title
Written by	Dan Rosen
Produced by	Matt Cooper Larry Wienberg
Starring	Cameron Diaz Ron Eldard Annabeth Gish Jonathan Penner Courtney B. Vance Ron Perlman
Edited by	Luis Colina
Music by	Mark Mothersbaugh
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date	April 5, 1995
Running time	92 min.
Language	English

The Last Supper is a 1995 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 right-wing extremists whose political views they disagree with to dinner in order to murder them.

Synopsis

The film centers on five liberal graduate school students in Iowa who live together in a rustic home: Jude (played by Cameron Diaz), Pete (played by Ron Eldard), Paulie (played by Annabeth Gish), Marc (played by Jonathan Penner), and Luke (played by Courtney B. Vance). The group invites Zack, played by Bill Paxton, to have dinner with them after he helps move Pete's car, but Zack turns out to be a racist, anti-Semitic Desert Storm veteran who supports Nazism. Haunted by his possible post traumatic stress disorder, and after a tense political debate that includes Zack making statements such as "Adolf Hitler had the right idea" and "The Holocaust can't be proven," the evening takes a turn for the worse, with Zack threatening the group, putting a knife to Marc's throat and breaking Pete's arm after Pete tries to threaten him. Marc kills Zack by stabbing him in the back, and the group decides to cover up the murder. After a long discussion led by Luke, the students decide to continue killing people with 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 by dessert, the group offers them poisoned white wine from a blue decanter and raises a toast. The bodies are buried in the group's vegetable garden. Guests include a homophobic reverend (played by Charles Durning), a misogynistic chauvinist (played by Mark Harmon), a Neo-Nazi (played by Rick Lawrence), an anti-environmentalist (played by Jason Alexander), a Pro-life extremist (played by Rachel Chagall), a book censorship advocate (played by Pamela Gien), a hobo assailant (played by Nicholas Sadler), and opponents of gay rights, all of whom are murdered. After ten murders, misgivings begin to surface within the group as a couple of them grow indecisive regarding the justification of their actions. Infighting and guilt compel Jude, Pete, Marc, and Paulie, in an almost unanimous decision with only the dissent of Luke, to spare a teenage opponent of mandatory sex education (Bryn Erin). A local sheriff, played by Nora Dunn, who investigates the whereabouts of a missing girl named Jenny Tyler (Elisabeth Moss) comes upon the group. By coincidence, the main suspect in the case is Zac, the first victim, which was also a convicted sex offender. The policewoman grows suspicious on the students’ behavior and interrogates Pete, then Marc and Paulie at their home -- while Luke kills a book-banning guest who refuses alcohol. After finding the sheriff prying around the back yard, Luke kills the sheriff unbeknownst to the rest of the group.

During a school break, Luke and Pete meet famous conservative pundit Norman Arbuthnot, played by Ron Perlman, and invite him to dinner. (Throughout the movie, brief segments of radical statements made by Arbuthnot had been appearing on the TV that the group had been watching in their home.) During the dinner, Norman stymies the group 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. Out of pure frustration, all five students suspiciously excuse themselves to the kitchen to determine Norman's fate. Jude warns him not to drink the wine in the blue bottle by saying, "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 the gun he planned to use on Norman at Jude, Luke is dissuaded and breaks down into tears. Meanwhile, Norman examines the group's home and pieces together their murderous activities. When the students return to the table. Arbuthnot presents the group with glasses of wine and offers them a toast but does not drink himself, with the excuse that he doesn't want to be too intoxicated 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.

Principal cast

Actor	Role
Cameron Diaz	Jude
Ron Eldard	Pete
Annabeth Gish	Paulie
Jonathan Penner	Marc
Courtney B. Vance	Luke
Bill Paxton	Zachary Cody
Nora Dunn	Sheriff Alice Stanley
Ron Perlman	Norman Arbuthnot

Among actors playing victims are Bill Paxton, Charles Durning, and Jason Alexander.

Development and 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 he turned the role down. 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 married to the actor playing Marc, Jonathan Penner.

Immediately after shooting was completed, the house that was used in the movie burned to the ground.

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

Critical reaction

The film 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

• The Last Supper at IMDb
• The Last Supper at AllMovie