Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)

Two Geeks and a GIT Classic Movie Reviews

The second film in our pairing of musical versions of the story of Jesus Christ came out only three months after "Godspell," but tells the story in a very different way. Presented as a rock opera, with only sung lines throughout, director Normal Jewison's "Jesus Christ Superstar" is also set in modern times, but seems to shift back and forth, with a more period-telling interspersed with objects and themes from present-day throughout. This time, the same basic elements from the first film are, instead, told from the point-of-view of Judas Iscariot (Carl Anderson), one of the followers of Jesus Christ (Ted Neely), who believes that Jesus has begun to believe his own hype to the detriment of those who follow him, those who believe in him, and those who he should be helping more than he is. Judas questions Jesus' attachment to Mary Magdalene (Yvonne Elliman), while the other disciples continue to defend Jesus. The film also stars Barry Dennenn as Pontius Pilate, Larry Marshall as Simon Zealotes, Josh Mostel as King Herod, Bob Bingham as Caiaphas, and Paul Thomas as Peter. Plus, the gents disclose which two Christmas classics, which they've somehow missed until this year, make up the 2023 Christmas Movie pairing!