Jesus Christ Superstar

[Carlo Borromeo]

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A couple of nights ago, I watched Jesus Christ Superstar with the wife. This was the third time since Christmas that we did. Superstar is slowly inching its way into my pantheon of “comfort movies.” You know, the DVD you play when there’s nothing good on cable. My current list includes The Godfather 1 & 2, Star Wars 5: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars 6:Return of the Jedi, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (I’ve got all three but
Towers is my favorite), Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction.

Each of the films I listed means something to me on a personal level. Star Wars, Raiders and Back to the Future, because they were movies that take me back to my childhood. Back then, going to movie theaters was more than entertainment. These were out of body experiences for me. Imagine being an 8-year old, hitching a ride in a Delorian that can take you to the past or future, or a busted-up spaceship seeing wondrous places and fighting strange creatures in a galaxy far, far away.

I am a lot harder to please days. But some films still impress. The works of Peter Jackson and Quentin Tarantino come to mind. Like me, these are fanboys all grown up, making love letters to the movies that THEY loved as kids. Peter Jackson pays homage to David Lean, to Tolkien and effects master Ray Harryhausen. Tarantino’s schoolboy love for Bruce Lee, Jacky Chan and Sonny Chiba gave birth to one of the most memorable action films since The Matrix. In a different universe, I might be making the same kinds of movies.

Jesus Christ Superstar is getting there. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling every time I watch it. Kind of like the feeling I get when I eat my mom's lasagna, or a Shakey's Special.

I love Jesus Christ Superstar because it appeals to my love of both film and music. The film lover in me appreciates Norman Jewison’s irreverent reverence to the material. From the very start, the director wants the audience to take it easy and to not take things too seriously. The cast arrive in a van, with various costumes and props, cobbled up from things they found along the way. He is not trying to tell the historical story of Christ; he is trying to tell us that this is how he wants it told. Ever try explaining *** to an 8 year old? That’s kind of how his approach is.

The cast is marvelous. Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson are excellent as Jesus and Judas respectively, but it is Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene who really blows me away when she sings of her complicated love for Jesus with I Don't Know How To Love Him, This is one of several insidious touches of the film. Way before Dan Brown’s overrated Da Vinci Code, Superstar was in-your-face about a suspected love affair between Mary and Jesus. The clincher of the song is when Mary asks, “what if he loves me back?” meaning, what if Jesus just decides to drop everything and decides to be a regular guy, marries her and raises a family?

But even on its own, I Don't Know How To Love Him, works in a way that the other songs in the opera can’t. It is as perfect a song about forbidden as I have ever heard. That it is dedicated to the most important character in the Bible only adds to its melancholy.

And the film has even more treasures for you to discover. There is the outstanding musical arrangement, which for me is the best that Andrew Lloyd Webber ever made, the great supporting characters, and of course, the message, which achieves a grandeur and directness that no other format could have achieved.

In a way, the film is an antithesis to Mel Gibson’s The Passion. With that film, you come out feeling guilty that Christ endured so much for your sins. With Superstar, you come out feeling happy and grateful that He did.

More at: http://sinister_6.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/

[Cardinal Bunal]

The Passion can make one view SIN as really ugly which might give one potential to realize that God is serious about punishing it, that is on the premise of one adhering to Christian theology....

Mel may have had a title card of Isaiah 53, but it seems evident to me that because of the influence of classical heterodox in the gospel according to Rome, there isn't much optimism and joy regarding what Catholic theology would define as Jesus's paschal mystery instead, emphasis is on HURTING and HURTING. (But it's interesting to note that Gibson's movie surprisingly appealed to a lot of Evangelicals as well)

I don't know what version of Christianity the makers of SUPERSTAR profess and I haven't even seen this since I was a gradeschool student, so my judgment in this post may not necessarily apply. But I'm sure both movies have a lot that can be appreciated, in their stand as cinematic pieces of art.

[darkwing]

yup nicer ang Jesus Christ Superstar