The "Jesus Christ Superstar" double LP soundtrack album with astounding photo stills from the 1973 film production was one of my fondest memories from the 1970's, and it was the first major musical I adored and revisited and listened to over and over. The film itself always seemed more obscure than the album to me and, when I saw the film during that period, it struck me with its electric energy and even more energetic songs that pulsated and rocked with such verve that their lyrics never quite escaped me. 2023 will be the 50th anniversary of this film and, though I can't say I remember the Tim Rice lyrics with the same clarity I once did, I still was put in that ethereal groove I felt back then watching yet again.
I am not sure it is the best musical ever made but it is the most emotionally sound, heartbreakingly memorable musical I've ever seen. It is so memorable that I can't imagine this fervent rock opera working in any other way other than being sung yet it strangely never feels like the heartfelt lyrics are being sung, rather they are being performed with the soulful purpose of reaching out to the most jaded person and making it a spirited spiritual experience the likes of which I have not seen since. The atmosphere of its Israeli surroundings with its rocky formations, mountainous regions, outside temples with just a few barren columns and cave dwellings with a single shaft of light makes everything breathe cinematically - there are no fabricated stages with sunlit or sunset backgrounds colored in. Everything in this film feels real and in the spur of the moment as if we just happened to catch these Biblical figures in action while the story of Christ unfolds.
Sure, there may be minute flaws. Perhaps Ted Neely as a passive, shouting Messiah is not everyone's cup of tea though his anger at the money changers in the temple is understandable. The modern day trappings of Roman guards with machine guns aimed at the Apostles, who look like hippies wandering in from Woodstock, may strike some as anachronistic though levelling such a charge at the film is silly when you see they are all actors arriving by bus from the start and putting on a helluva show. There is also a comical showstopper that teeters on the edge of burlesque with Josh Mostel's flamboyant King Herod. But these are such trivialities because the whole film is a towering spiritual experience that will likely make you appreciate Jesus Christ so much more. Between Carl Anderson's Judas as the betrayer with a far sympathetic soul than we have seen before to Yvonne Elliman's amazingly transformative Mary Magdalene whose very voice carries such beauty and becalming power to Barry Dennen's somewhat sympathetic yet vicious Pontius Pilate, "Jesus Christ Superstar" also frames director Norman Jewison as one of our best directors of musicals as well having previously directed the rousing "Fiddler on the Roof." It is a shatteringly emotional and deeply electrifying experience and renews one's faith in the power of music as soul-enriching, leaving heaven on one's mind.
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