Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
Directed by Norman Jewison
As played out by a theatre troupe, the last days of Jesus Christ are depicted from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, his betrayer. As Jesus' following increases, Judas begins to worry that Jesus is falling for his own hype, forgetting the principles of his teachings and growing too close to the prostitute Mary Magdalene.
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What critics compared Jesus Christ Superstar to
Yet I have to admit that I was probably more moved by the lashing depicted with suggested intensity in Norman Jewison’s Jesus Christ Superstar than I was by Gibson’s graphic presentation.
This movie is no more anti-Jewish than Jesus Of Nazareth, or King Of Kings, or Jesus Christ Superstar, or The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Ashman and composer Alan Menken did all the songs for "Beauty and the Beast," but half the lyrics for "Aladdin" ended up being written by Tim Rice, responsible for "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita."
Half the film's lyrics are by Tim Rice ("Evita" and "Jesus Christ Superstar"), whose style is so much more conventional than Mr. Ashman's that the difference is instantly apparent.
The singing and dancing reminded me of “Jesus Christ Superstar” more than anything else.
Despite being pursued by seeker types in chrome-plated Lotus sports cars (the Souls are apparently dazzled by anything shiny), our heroine makes it to her Uncle Jeb’s (William Hurt) last outpost of humanity — a kind of hippie commune inside a disused volcano that appears to contain sets left over from Norman Jewison’s film of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973).
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Hoffman physically works the role, playing exuberantly bad basketball, shuffling out of a room ('I just sharted' - a new word is coined, for better or worse), taking over the lead role of a Hell's Kitchen Community Theater production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" or making just lolling about funny with perfect placement of limbs.
Philip Seymour Hoffman does what he can in the best-friend role as a has-been actor so conceited that he insists on playing Judas and Jesus in a community production of "Jesus Christ Superstar."
(Put me down for liking Jesus Christ Superstar and really liking the ersatz-Puccini of Phantom.)
The element that separates this production from earlier, lesser movie versions of Lloyd Webber's rock operas ("Jesus Christ Superstar," "Evita") is the controlling hand of Sir Andrew himself.
For starters, Foster looks as though he came to the set straight from a touring production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” stopping just long enough to snag one of Charlize Theron’s feathered “Snow White and the Huntsman” capes on eBay.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show was born out of a 1973 London stage musical composed and written by Richard O’Brien, a struggling actor who had performed in rock musicals such as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar.
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And most of those Easter movies have some obvious and relevant religious overtones to them, such as “The Passion of the Christ,” “King of Kings” and even “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
Those talents are a new-to-the-screen writer, John Patrick Shanley, a first-generation Irish-American playwright from the Bronx, and veteran Norman Jewison, a Canadian director who has made loftier films ("Agnes of God," "Jesus Christ Superstar," "A Soldier's Story") but never a niftier one.
Stylistically at his best in his two famous 1960's quasi-realist thrillers, "In the Heat of the Night" and "The Thomas Crown Affair," he had more difficulty on two engaging but awkward 1970s musicals, "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Fiddler on the Roof."