We held the usual family gathering after Easter Mass and once the food had been put away, I settled in with my youngest to watch Jesus Christ Superstar.
I own the soundtrack, but hadn’t seen the film in at least 20 years. Just as with watching Smokey and the Bandit, the rewatch was quite interest.
The first thing that is apparent is how skinny everyone was. I recall thinking the guy who played King Herod was really fat, but by today’s standards he’d be regarded as normal, a “dad body” if he were just a little older. It is really striking how effortlessly skinny everyone was. I’m really coming to believe that food additives are a major culprit, particularly in childhood obesity.
The other thing that stood out was the fact that the film was chock full of trendy heresies, and while the cast is understandably limited, the complete omission of the Blessed Virgin Mary was jarring.
Also, it pushes the idea that Judas really was doing Christ a favor by betraying him, and that his suicide really wasn’t his fault or sinful. It’s a bunch of evil nonsense, and I didn’t much care for it. The ending is of course very bleak.
During the 1990s, Ted Neely and Carl Anderson (Jesus and Judas, respectively) did a revival that tweaked the story a bit, and the ending was completely different. After Jesus died, there was complete stillness for a few beats, and then Neely made a huge inhalation, the lights came up, and soaring music filled the theater as he rose from the cross in triumph. He is risen! He is risen indeed!
It was pretty cool. I should mention that Anderson was sick at the performance I attended, but the understudy was quite good.
All in all, it’s not my favorite religious film, but it does get people thinking about the Passion, and it gives a reasonable take on the politics involved, and at a distance, the whole “the Apostles were really hippies” thing loses its relevance. Jesus Freaks are now old news.
It’s also the case that Catholics have been much more outspoken about their beliefs through various forms of media and aggressively defending doctrine in a way not seen before. Yes, the soon to be canonized Bishop Fulton Sheen was quite popular, but that was well before my time. In the wake of Vatican II, the Church was really pushing ecumenicalism, whereas there is an increasing realization that Protestants really aren’t that interested in creating a common communion. Indeed, the fragmentation of the movement has accelerated, with just about every Mainline denomination now splitting into at least two warring factions. As I’ve written many times, “nice Christianity” is dead.
In that light, the film is an interesting look back at what liberal Christians thought in the late 1960s, how weird their fashions were, and it is still a useful starting point for learning the true version of events.
Happy Easter!
Chateau Lloyd 
Leave a comment