Jesus Christ Superstar (film)

A theatrical troupe travel by bus to the Negev Desert to perform a modern-day re-enactment of the Passion of Christ told through song. Carl Anderson, already in character as Judas Iscariot, wanders away from the group as they prepare their props and costumes and dance to the overture. Judas, a member of a humanitarian movement, is worried its leader, Jesus, has lost sight of their cause and he now preaches about being the son of God instead of speaking out on social injustices. He clashes with Jesus over his association with Mary Magdalene (historically accused of being a prostitute) and how he allows her to purchase expensive ointments for him instead of instructing her to help the poor. Jesus defends Mary and tells Judas the poor will always be there, but he will not. Meanwhile, temple priests led by Caiaphas and Annas, afraid that Jesus' popularity will undermine their authority and lead to conflict with their Roman occupiers, resolve to have Jesus executed. As crowds greet Jesus upon his arrival in Jerusalem for Passover, Jesus rejects both Caiaphas' order to disperse them and his follower Simon's suggestion to lead them into an uprising against Rome. While in Jerusalem, Jesus furiously forces out money lenders and merchants from the temple and encounters a leper colony in the outskirts, where Mary Magdalane contemplates her complex feelings for him. Meanwhile, Judas expresses his concerns about Jesus to the priests, but resists betraying him until the priests offer him money, suggesting he could use it for charitable means, in return for helping them to arrest Jesus. Jesus shares the Passover meal with his followers in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he doubts their loyalties, predicting that Peter will deny knowing him and Judas will betray him. An argument between Jesus and Judas ensues, with Judas angrily accusing Jesus of letting his ideals become corrupted. When the rest of his followers fall asleep, Jesus questions God's intention for him, ultimately deciding to accept what happens as being part of his plan. Judas fulfills his betrayal by leading Roman guards to Jesus, who allows himself to be arrested and he is brought to Caiaphas and Annas, who accuse him of blasphemy. The populace accuse Peter of following Jesus, which he denies, leading him, Mary Magdalane and the other followers to question if Jesus's predictions have come true. Jesus is brought to Pontius Pilate, who does not deal with Jews and sends him to Herod instead, who urges Jesus to perform miracles for him and dismisses him as a fraud when he does not. Judas becomes overwhelmed with grief, regret and confusion over his actions and, blaming God for making him the betrayer, hangs himself. Jesus is tried by Pilate, who believes him to be delusional but has committed no crime, yet he is pressured by crowds to condemn Jesus to death. Confused and enraged at Jesus' inexplicable resignation and refusal to defend himself, and unable to quell the crowds even after having Jesus flogged, Pilate is left with no option but to order Jesus' execution. While Judas' spirit questions the significance of Jesus' death, Jesus is led away to Golgotha and crucified. After he dies on the cross, the cast, no longer in character, board their bus and leave, with Barry Dennen, Yvonne Elliman and Carl Anderson the only ones who seem to notice that the actor who played Jesus is missing. == Cast ==

Development During filming of Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Barry Dennen, who had a minor role in the film, provided a concept album by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to Norman Jewison, Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), where Dennen voiced Pilate. At that time, the LP, despite its title song being a hit single, was "met with a massive dose of British indifference, even condescension", recalled Webber, and was thought of by Fiddler on the Roof producer Patrick Palmer as an "obscure album from England" when Jewison first obtained it. Summarized Bragg, "all the good bits were what [I] worked on", although Bragg did provide input to Jewison about what he perceived to be the director's overuse of crowds in shots. The cast consisted mostly of actors from the Broadway show, with Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson starring as Jesus and Judas respectively. Neeley had played a reporter and a leper in the Broadway version, and understudied the role of Jesus. Anderson also understudied Judas, but took over the role on Broadway and Los Angeles when Ben Vereen fell ill. Along with Dennen, Yvonne Elliman (Mary Magdalene), and Bob Bingham (Caiaphas) reprised their Broadway roles in the film. (Elliman, like Dennen, had also appeared on the original concept album.) Philip Toubus appeared in both the Broadway production and in the touring production. According to casting notes Jewison wrote on stationery paper at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he considered Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Barry Gibb, Robert Plant, and Ian Gillan for the titular character. Then, in 1971, Jewison drove from Palm Springs, California to Los Angeles to view Neeley on stage in a musical adaptation of The Who's Tommy (1969), after an invitation from Neeley's agent. He was swiftly replaced by veteran cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, whose work on the film was nominated for a BAFTA Award. For most of the actors, who were secular hippies, filming the musical submerged them in the religious setting. During breaks, they played the concept album loudly, read Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ (1908), and had volleyball matches with teams named "Judas" and "Jesus". The 46-year-old Jewison, when not filming, rarely interacted with the cast members. Neeley wrote that, during filming of the crucifixion, the cast felt like they were walking on the path Christ took, and cried at Neeley's performance on the cross. Alterations Like the stage show, the film gave rise to controversy even with changes made to the script. Some of the lyrics were changed for the film. The reprise of "Everything's Alright", sung before the song "I Don't Know How to Love Him" by Mary to Jesus, was abridged, leaving only the closing lyric "Close your eyes, close your eyes and relax, think of nothing tonight" intact, while the previous lyrics were omitted, including Jesus' "And I think I shall sleep well tonight." In a scene where a group of beggars and lepers overwhelms Jesus, "Heal yourselves!" was changed to "Leave me alone!" Caiaphas' line "What you have done will be the saving of Israel" in the song In "Judas' Death", was changed to: "What you have done will be the saving of everyone." The lyrics of "Trial Before Pilate" contain some notable alterations and additions. Jesus' line "There may be a kingdom for me somewhere, if I only knew" is changed to "if you only knew." The film version also gives Pilate more lines (first used in the original Broadway production) in which he addresses the mob with contempt when they invoke the name of Caesar: "What is this new/Respect for Caesar?/Till now this has been noticeably lacking!/Who is this Jesus? Why is he different?/You Jews produce messiahs by the sackful!" and "Behold a man/Behold your shattered king/You hypocrites!/You hate us more than him!" These lines for Pilate have since been in every production of the show. The soundtrack contains two songs that are not on the original concept album. "Then We Are Decided", in which the troubles and fears of Annas and Caiaphas regarding Jesus are better developed, is original to the film. The soundtrack also retains the song "Could We Start Again Please?" which had been added to the Broadway show and to stage productions. Most of the other changes have not been espoused by later productions and recordings, although most productions tend to retain the expanded version of "Trial Before Pilate". == Reception ==

Context 1972–1973 was a period of purportedly declining interest in religion worldwide, but also filled with movies with religious themes, such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus, The Holy Mountain, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Siddhartha, ''Greaser's Palace, Marjoe, and The Exorcist''. Ellis Nassour and Richard Broderick, writing a book on the musical's history published the year of the film's release, declared 1973 to be "a year of Jesus films" not shot in Hollywood, such as the New York City-filmed Godspell, the Tunisia-shot The Rebel Jesus, and the Holy Land-filmed Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus. Nassour and Broderick noted Gospel Road, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Godspell in particular, deviated from the Cecil B. DeMille drama style typical of earlier mainstream religious films. Box office Jesus Christ Superstar grossed $24.5 million ($161.3 million in 2022) at the box office against an estimated production budget of $3.5 million. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Jesus Christ Superstar has too much spunk to fall into sacrilege, but miscasting and tonal monotony halts this musical's groove." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "a bright and sometimes breathtaking retelling" of the source material. He praised it as an improved version of the "commercial shlock" of the source material, "being light instead of turgid" and "outward-looking instead of narcissistic". He applauded the portrayal of Jesus as "human, strong and reachable", only achieved elsewhere by The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote that the film "in a paradoxical way is both very good and very disappointing at the same time. The abstract film concept ... veers from elegantly simple through forced metaphor to outright synthetic in dramatic impact." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and called the music "more than fine," but found the character of Jesus "so confused, so shapeless, the film cannot succeed in any meaningful way." Siskel also agreed with the accusations of the film being anti-Semitic. Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The faults are relative, the costs of an admirable seeking after excellence, and the many strong scenes, visually and dramatically, in 'Superstar' have remarkable impact: the chaos of the temple, the clawing lepers, the rubrics of the crucifixion itself." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post panned the film as "a work of kitsch" that "does nothing for Christianity except to commercialize it." Response from religious groups praised the film and suggested it would bring more people to Christianity. Jewison was able to show the film to Pope Paul VI. Ted Neeley later remembered that the pope "openly loved what he saw. He said, 'Mr. Jewison, not only do I appreciate your beautiful rock opera film, I believe it will bring more people around the world to Christianity than anything ever has before.'" Nevertheless, the film as well as the musical were criticized by some religious groups. A few days before the film version's release, the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council described it as an "insidious work" that was "worse than the stage play" in dramatizing "the old falsehood of the Jews' collective responsibility for the death of Jesus", and said it would revive "religious sources of anti-Semitism". Jewison argued in response that the film "never was meant to be, or claimed to be an authentic or deep theological work". Tim Rice said Jesus was seen through Judas' eyes as a mere human being. Some Christians found this remark, as well as the fact that the musical did not show the resurrection, to be blasphemous. While the actual resurrection was not shown, the closing scene of the movie subtly alludes to the resurrection (though, according to Jewison's commentary on the DVD release, the scene was not planned this way). Biblical purists pointed out a small number of deviations from biblical text as additional concerns; for example, Pilate himself having the dream instead of his wife, and Catholics argue the line "for all you care, this bread could be my body" is too Protestant in theology, although Jesus does say in the next lines, "This is my blood you drink. This is my body you eat." Accolades In the 1980 book The Golden Turkey Awards by Michael Medved and Harry Medved, Neeley was given "an award" for "The Worst Performance by an Actor as Jesus Christ". Neeley went on to reprise the role in numerous national tours of the show. Years later the film was still popular, winning a 2012 Huffington Post competition for "Best Jesus Movie." == Soundtrack ==

The film's soundtrack was released on vinyl by MCA Records in 1973. It was re-released on CD in 1993 and reissued in 1998 for its 25th anniversary. The soundtrack for the film is a new recording, different from the 1970 album, despite sharing some performers. Side one • "Overture" – 5:26 • "Heaven on Their Minds" – 4:22 • "What's the Buzz" – 2:36 • "Strange Thing Mystifying" – 1:52 • "Then We Are Decided" – 2:32 • "Everything's Alright" – 3:36 • "This Jesus Must Die" – 3:45 Side two • "Hosanna" – 2:55 • "Simon Zealotes" – 4:52 • "Poor Jerusalem" – 1:38 • "Pilate's Dream" – 1:45 • "The Temple" – 5:26 • "I Don't Know How to Love Him" – 3:55 • "Damned for All Time/Blood Money" – 4:37 Side three • "The Last Supper" – 7:12 • "Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)" – 5:39 • "The Arrest" – 3:15 • "Peter's Denial" – 1:26 • "Pilate and Christ" – 2:57 • "King Herod's Song" – 3:13 Side four • "Could We Start Again, Please?" – 2:44 • "Judas' Death" – 4:38 • "Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes)" – 6:47 • "Superstar" – 3:56 • "The Crucifixion" – 2:40 • "John Nineteen Forty-One" – 2:20 Charts == Legacy ==

Hyupsung University's Dr. Jayhoon Yang said that "Jewison and Bragg's Jesus Christ Superstar has its own creativity, bringing the Jesus film business a fresh inspiration and a new break-through." Atom Egoyan, an Armenian-Canadian director most known for The Sweet Hereafter (1997), repeatedly viewed Jesus Christ Superstar at the Haida Cinema in Victoria, British Columbia. As he explained, its cinematography and production design was a learning experience for him: "The way the camera is moving, the way it moves in time to the music, the way the film is cut, the production design, the framing device … it was just brilliantly conceived as this pageant within a film." Jesus Christ Superstar is a passion narrative that follows most closely the Gospel of Mark's portrayal of the story. In addition to the introduction reflecting 1:4 of the Gospel of Mark in terms of foreshadowing the crucifixion, the screenplay encompasses many themes of Mark, such as "way (Greek: ὁδός, hodos)", "blindness of the disciples", "servanthood" and "thinking the things of God". A highlight for critics and scholars is the human presentation of the biblical figures, particularly Jesus. Another major theme is religious authorities colluding with the government for greed. There is tension created in the film's implication that social issues prevalent in the era of Jesus are still important in the present. The opening depicts the cast riding a bus, with Arabic and Hebrew language on it alluding to the Six-Day War, and excitedly carrying the cross out of the bus. The market in "The Temple" has ancient goods such as birds and sheep sold alongside mirrors, weapons, grenades, guns, and drugs, as well as prostitutes performing modern dance moves in contemporary 70s dress. Although interpreting biblical scripture to comment on contemporaneous political social issues is a common aspect of religious films, Jesus Christ Superstar is one of few to encompass several subjects at once. There is an anti-war and Vietnam War sentiment, with machine-gun-armed soldiers in military uniform, thieves trading grenades, machine guns and drugs, and Judas encountering tanks and fighter jets. The Israeli locations were interpreted by Paul V. M. Flesher and Robert Torry as referencing the Mideast conflict. The use of a black actor for Judas adds a civil rights movement component, most displayed in his suicide where he hangs himself with a rope on a tree, reminiscent of the lynchings associated with the era. Clark-Soles analyzed race as playing "a crucial, if ambiguous, role in the film", as a white actor and a black actor portray figures who, in the first century, were of the same Jewish race. In "Heaven On Their Minds", Judas asks Jesus, "Do you care for your race?" == Remakes and related productions ==

In a 2008 interview with Variety magazine, film producer Marc Platt stated that he was in discussions with several filmmakers for a remake of Jesus Christ Superstar. In 2013, a Blu-ray "40th Anniversary" edition of the film was released, featuring commentary from the director and Ted Neeley, an interview with Tim Rice, a photo gallery and a clip of the original trailer. In 2015, Neeley announced the upcoming release of a documentary entitled ''Superstars: The Making of and Reunion of the film 'Jesus Christ Superstar''' about the production of the film. ==See also==