Apostle Peter and the Last Supper is about the elderly titular character imprisoned by the Romans. Peter has two Roman guards: one seemingly indifferent to the prisoner and the other who begs for stories about Peter’s time with Jesus. Peter recounts, and Apostle Peter and the Last Supper depicts Peter’s last evening with Jesus. Robert Loggia does an amazing job playing Peter. Bruce Marchiano, every one’s favorite Jesus, resumes his role as the pre-crucified, human Jesus. Side note: Marchiano is possibly the only actor who has played Jesus numerous times.
I thought Apostle Peter and the Last Supper was emotionally resonant and faithful to the story in spirit. I could not completely devote my entire attention on Apostle Peter and the Last Supper because I was really distracted by several aspects of the story. First, I am fairly certain that Pilate was the exception to the rule, and the average Roman soldier was not allowed to bring his wife on deployment. I could be wrong about this fact since I am not an ancient historian. Second, the Bible depicts the last supper in several books in the New Testament, but I think that Apostle Peter and the Last Supper changed the order in which the events unfold. I would need to rewatch it with the Bible open to examine the exact shift in events to determine the significance of the reordering if there was one. It starts with Jesus telling Peter that Peter would betray him. Then Jesus washes the apostles’ feet. Jesus announces to everyone that one of the apostles would betray him. Usually it is the meal, the general announcement, and the specific announcement directed at Peter. Only John describes the foot washing before the meal. (I am not giving a spoiler alert for the Bible.)
Finally, if you don’t understand what white supremacy is, Apostle Peter and the Last Supper is a perfect illustration of that. As viewers, we expect our Romans to be played by British actors and our Semitic Middle Eastern characters to be played by Italians. Movies literally shift the way that the world actually works more than several degrees north. I am not trying to detract from both Loggia and Marchiano’s performances, which put the younger British actors work to shame, but if you think about for any amount of time, it is kind of ridiculous.
Apostle Peter and the Last Supper did an excellent job of exploring the inner thoughts of each of the apostles after Jesus announces that one of them will betray him. This aspect of the story does not cohere with the idea that Peter is telling the story. How would he know what everyone thought? He is not Jesus, but it works so I will sign a waiver for this narrative inconsistency….for now!
If you like Bible stories on film, Apostle Peter and the Last Supper is a fairly solid one, but far from the best in terms of historicity or production quality. Apostle Peter and the Last Supper is definitely told to proselytize to the unconverted viewer, but will probably be preferred by the already converted.