AllMovie

In his 1999 work Messiah, notorious underground photographer and experimental filmmaker William Klein (Broadway by Light) uses as his foundation George Frideric Handel's Messiah - the classic oratorio, with its sacred tale of Christ's birth, crucifixion, and ascension - as performed by numerous international choruses including the Lavender Light Gay and Lesbian Interracial Choir and the Dallas Police Choir. He overlays atop it a series of wildly disturbing and potentially offensive images including hole-in-the-wall, dimestore evangelism; tattoos of Biblical scenes and iconography; and the commercial exploitation of American pop-culture and institutions. Shocking and searing - profane in the eyes of some viewers, transcendant for others - Klein's film is not to be missed - a conversation piece that stirred tremendous debate during its European preview around Christmas 1999 and will generate additional discussion from its initial home video release, on the Koch Lorber label.