Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)

A theatre group rides a bus into the desert to stage a reenactment of the final days of Christ.  They spill out, laughing and chatting as they done their costumes.  About ninety minutes later, the performance is over.  They all clamber back onto the bus and drive off, with only three of them seeming aware that the actor who played Jesus is no longer with them.

The "ninety minutes" that I just skipped over is, of course, the actual Jesus Christ Superstar part of Jesus Christ Superstar.  Getting some fundamentals out of the way first, the musical on which this is based as has been accused of a lot of things, including antisemitism and blasphemy (the former rather more plausibly than the latter, in my opinion).  If you have fundamental issues with the musical, nothing about this version will change your mind.  In fact, if your charge is antisemitism, you may find more to complain about than you ever did before, due to a new song written specifically for the film.

Setting those issues aside (which as a non-religious gentile is obviously a lot easier for me than for those who feel attacked by the work), how is the film?  Well frankly, it's an odd duck.  The original musical has a lot of modern slang and anachronistic references in it (for instance, it has Judas mention Muhammad, who lived about 600 years after Christ), and like many productions, it leans into that by weaving modern issues and themes into the story and setting.  The Vietnam War and the counter-culture that it provoked clearly loom large, here.  The decision to make the musical a stage performance within the film is an interesting one, perhaps intended to help explain the anachronisms.  It certainly helps justify the non-realist sets and costumes, which are quite at odd with normal movie sensibilities.  Mind you, Lindsay Ellis makes a pretty cogent argument that normal movie sensibilities and big stage musicals are not a good mix.

This 'show within a film' concept is a bit unevenly implemented, however, such as the scenes where real jet fighters and tanks rumble across the screen.  Perhaps this is itself another deliberate anachronism.

There is definitely some catchy music in the show, and the performances here are generally good, but I suspect the content matter will shape most people's reaction to the film.  For myself, as a relatively non-impacted outsider, I love the film's camp rendition of Herod's Song a little too much to be too down on it.