What a beautiful movie!

It is a performances centric movie

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

I actually managed to see this movie as an actual play and while the play version is better, this is still very nice. I admit that it can be really weird at times. They try to make it into this movie about hippies with an actual 70's era van appearing and people with modern clothing popping out. The van eventually leaves at the end. Okay, that was quite strange, but I don't think it was blasphemous in any way. The songs are of course what makes this so good. The most memorable one for me is "The great Jesus Christ". I specifically remember that from the play! The pacing is another strong point. I thought it would go into more detail about Jesus being crucified. I guess I'm pretty glad it didn't. As someone who's seen a lot of Jesus movies, this seems to be as authentic to the Bible as any other. It is weird to think of a musical based on well, an extremely painful death, but it's still delivered well. I didn't know Andrew Lloyd Webber made the play, but I certainly recognize his name. You don't know what zany song will pop up next. I guess this is the least controversial Jesus movie ever made. With so many films of that kind with him on it, it's nice to have one more heartfelt, I suppose. ***

Jesus Christ Superstar is one of my favorite stage productions, it's a great musical take on the story of Jesus, but it's first and foremost a rock/opera and because of that takes its own liberties with the story.The story is about Jesus' last few weeks before his crucifixion. However, instead of being told from Jesus' point-of-view, it's told from Judas' point-of-view. Because of this, instead of Jesus being seen as an all-powerful figure, we see Jesus as just a normal man; a man that is losing control of the thing he started. From there we see Judas' betrayal and Jesus trial with Pilate and his crucifixion. There is no spoken dialogue in the film. Like the stage show, every part of the story is told in song.The film is very much what the stage show was, with a few minor changes to help turn it into a movie. Some lyrics are changed and a couple songs were added in to make for a more detailed story than the one that was in the original Broadway show (Then We Are Decided and Could We Start Again? The latter being featured in many later productions). The film is shot entirely on location in Israel, which makes for a beautiful looking movie and all of the performance are wonderful, with Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson being the two that really steal the show.One of the things that I really like about this movie is an element that some people criticize and that's the vocal recordings. Norman Jewison goes for a more live and real rendition of the songs, instead of a professional, operatic sound that most musicals go for. Because of this, there are certain notes that are sung a bit off and some notes are changed completely to accommodate the performances of the actors and the attitudes they are trying to convey. I personally like the vocals being this way because it makes for a more realistic musical from a vocal standpoint.If I had to nitpick towards anything with this production, it would be some of its filming style and some of the extras in the film. The film obviously was restricted by time and being in another country obviously meant re-shoots would be, from a budget standpoint, impossible. There are shots in the movie where extras are clearly laughing or chatting during shots and some of the camera shots and angles are shaky due to the shaky weather of the environment.So overall, the 1973 version of Jesus Christ Superstar is a near perfect musical. If you've never had the honor of seeing the stage show, you should definitely check this movie out.

Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in the early 1970s, and this is a movie version. I saw the original London run of the show, as a child, and it made a huge impression on me. Some reviewers have questioned why Jesus is portrayed as human, but the point of this opera is to examine the "superstar" status of Jesus in his time, and the effect that this had upon his followers, the Jewish priests and the Romans. It deals with the phenomenon of Jesus from every angle, and it works. Musically, it stands up just as well as it did in the 70s, and it still packs a punch. It shows the reality of how the political threat posed by the Jesus movement was dealt with, and suggests a reason for the Crucifixion. There are many historical accounts of Jesus's life, based upon the Bible. This libretto and screenplay are brave enough to look at it from a human angle, and it spoke to me as a child. I understood for the first time the reality of Jesus's life as a man and how he suffered, as a man. It's value is its originality. Probably one of the best things Lloyd Webber has ever done, and the wit and wisdom of Tim Rice is always valuable. Give it a chance, even if you are a Christian.

When I first heard about this film, I was honestly scratching my head. A musical about Jesus? Rather an odd concept but I was willing to give it a try. As a Christian myself, I didn't know how to feel about the movie. It feels like they are showing Jesus just as a normal guy that for some reason has to die and also Judas was portrayed as being way too sympathetic and I saw that as unrealistic entirely. I did like the music and some of the numbers though and that it was willing to at least try new things. Over all, I didn't like it and I didn't hate it. I realize some Christians got really up in arms about this film but I didn't feel offended but I did feel like they got it wrong.