Review of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) by Jonathan B — 17 Jul 2012

So the movie opens with a bunch of Village People and Pan's People rejects arriving at a desert in an old bus to re-enact the story of the crucifixion of Christ. From there we get a variety of rather amateurish and horribly dated set pieces set to some fairly excruciating vocals.

You can almost smell the pot and Afghan coats of this hippy-dippy musical and it really is a jarring and uneven viewing experience. I grew up to the sounds of this Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical as my dad was a bit of a fan but quite what happened during the move from stage to screen is beyond me.

There are some good, even mesmerising performances. Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene steals every scene she is in and handles the big show stopping song "I don't know how to love him" with genuine passion and tenderness.

There's a very memorable King Herod in the form of Josh Mostel and Carl Anderson as Judas is suitably edgy and tortured but these three are the pearls in a rather large herd of swine. Ted Neeley as Jesus is unbelievably bad.

In fact within the 20 minutes of the start of the film, I could willingly have volunteered to hammer a few nails into him myself just to shut him up and get him off the screen. The high priest Caiaphas as played by Bob Bingham is utterly ludicrous with his bejewelled bathroom tile slung around his neck, a giant pumpkin on his head and a voice so deep it is like a subterranean geological event.

The crowd scenes are just not crowded enough and the the settings, whilst interesting are just not utilised effectively. What we end up with is something that feels like a sixth form production put together on a shoe string by a very stressed drama teacher.

There are some stand out scenes such as the scene where Judas is pursued by a group of tanks over the sand dunes but as musicals go, this is not one that has aged well nor is it a particularly good example of the genre.