Jesus Christ SuperStar - 1973, Jewison
In the film, Jesus Christ Superstar, there were interesting aspects that emphasized the life of Jesus Christ. For example, during the entirety of the film everyone sang their lines. The upbeat and sentimental melodies caused the audience to focus on the vocalists, which exposed viewers to a subliminal religious message about Jesus giving his life to allow people to reach a blessed afterlife.
However, there was a fair amount of discrepancies in the film. For example, the Pharisees’s attire was not consistent with history but more so with the counter-culture. In the historical context, the Pharisees were people designated to uphold the oral law and all of its traditions. These people chose to get rid of Jesus to prevent any distortion to Judaic way of life (Mandell). Nevertheless, the clothing choices was a clear demonstration that movie was meant to attract viewers who were possibly opposed in joining Christianity. Another discrepancy that was extremely disturbing was the setting of the film. Since the film was meant to emphasis the life of Jesus, it seems that the director made a deliberate choice to place the storyline in the desert. The film relied excessively on the location to bring forth characteristics of Jesus into a modern/ ancient time frame. For example, during the scene where Jesus destroys all the merchandise from the so-called Temple, there was weaponry of the 1970’s that was destroyed. This depiction of Jesus pushing out these war elements demonstrated that Jesus was opposing all aspects that didn’t come into relation with peace.
Placing all discrepancies aside, the film had a very radical introduction and ending compared to the plot. Originally, there was no notion was what was going to happen. It’s until a cross is placed on the screen where the audience begins to inference what the story may be about. The ambiguity factor placed in the beginning can also be transposed to certain scenes of the film. For example, there were particular times where Maria’s and Jesus’s interactions/ intensions were vague. The love that they demonstrated to each other went beyond a brotherhood/ sisterhood link, but it was never seen as a martial love.
Nevertheless, the story of Jesus Christ was portrayed to attract an audience that was not interested in religion at that time.
Mandell, Alice “Ancient Near East 10W – Jerusalem: Holy City” University of California, Los Angeles. 11 April 2016.
