Review of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) by Marilyn Z — 26 Jul 2009

Regardless of what you believe about the musical, this film is amazingly shot. Jewison does a great job working with the minimalistic set and the framing of the shots is great in helping propel the story.

The problem with Jesus Christ Superstar is that about only 50% of the song work and the other half are sometimes kind of painful to listen to. The film feels dated, but it feels a little more intentional than other musicals and appears that the filmmakers were going for an over-the-top look/feel by having a very stylized shot (the Simon's Zealots scene is a great example).

Carl Anderson as Judas is great and Yvonne Elliman is good as Mary Magdalene which is another problem withthe muscial is that they are the most interesting characters and a stronger cast Jesus (with better songs more like Gethsemane) would have helped.