The actor who would go on to play the Green Goblin in
Spider-Man first died on the cross in the dramatic final scene of this 1988 spectacle. While it was Martin Scorsese who was nominated Oscar that year for Best Director, Defoe's performance was also widely acclaimed. “Willem Dafoe has such a gleaming intensity in this role, so much quiet authority, that the film's images of Jesus are overwhelming even when the thoughts attributed to him are not,”
wrote The New York Times.