Review of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) by Caesar M — 02 Aug 2012

Well I can't say I expected a serious drama from something called Jesus Christ Superstar, but a musical on Jesus story is really something I would have never imagine on seeing. With such an odd combination of music and Jesus it's strangely a blast to watch.

The movie first problem is that there is no dialogue; it's just constant singing throughout the whole movie. With nonstop singing this means you have to be told everything in musical numbers. Which means no acting, rare moments of silence, and you having some knowledge about the story since it's really easy to miss the plot in song form. Despite some obvious problems with a movie only consisting of musical numbers, it's fun to watch. Think about it, how often are musical revolving around Jesus are made? Not that many and this has it fair shares of good moments, like seeing Jesus briefly holding a gun and destroying things is something you won't see anywhere else. In case you're wondering about the accuracy it's really off. We have tanks, airplanes, pants, machine guns, a van and many other modern items in this Jesus musical. To be fair on the movie it's a more enjoyable take of the familiar story and actually tells it in an original way. Often time movies about Jesus are way too serious and too familiar to enjoy as we have literally seen the story told in nearly every serious way possible. The song themselves are truly strange with some of the most bizarre lyrics. How can you take Jesus followers seriously when they sing songs with lyrics "What the buzz? Tell me what is happening?", you simply can't. Though not all the songs are good, once you've finished hearing a exciting song it'll go to a slow song which makes the movie loose momentum. The editing is not always good as songs sometimes end abruptly. You still got to this, it's insane to see Jesus sing a rock song, strange fading dancing, and the songs unlike anything you'll see in any other adaptation with Bible verses. There are literally no words to explain how odd the existence of this musical is and it's even stranger to see it yourself.

Jesus Christ Superstar is an oddity in the musical genre with a fresh approach to a familiar religious story and bizarrely fun songs to listen to. It's strange piece of cinema that should witness, there's literally nothing else like it.