Jesus Christ Superstar (Special Edition)

This was the BEST depiction of the Jesus story I have ever seen. The music is phenominal, the cast of characters are perfect for their parts -anointed even. The lyrics cut to the bone.
My children, 4, 5, and 8 all LOVE it as much as my husband and I do. You will not be sorry! It's fascinating.

Have admired Andrew Lloyd Webber's music for years and purchased the CD of Superstar when it first came out. Having seen the movie in the 1970's plus the stage performance twice over the years, I wanted to add it to my DVD library. The music never became dated and the movie's keen direction is indicitive of the genius of Norman Jewison. The story is beautifully told in a manner that does not offend those of faith and should be rated as one of the world's rock/musical classics.

I came across this on cable HD on demand and chose it out of curiosity. At first, the elements that are dated (and there are some) had me smiling (and sometimes cringing), but the music kept me watching and listening. It had been years since I'd listened to any performance at all, and I had never seen the film and had never listened to the movie soundtrack. I was familiar with the original London studio recording, but that was it. Three or four songs into the movie, I was hooked and watched it straight through. In spite of what one reviewer here called the film's "hippy dippy" traits, I ended up enjoying it enough to watch it again...and then proceeded to watch it many more times.

Overall, I think it's extremely faithful to the original studio concept performance (as all fans of "Jesus Christ Superstar" know, it appeared as a studio recording before it ever appeared on stage or screen). Several of the performers from the studio version appear in the film, most notably Yvonne Elliman and Barry Dennen. Ted Neeley plays Jesus, and reviewers tend to either love his performance or hate it. I ended up really liking him in this role. He looks the role, at least based on the visual images of Jesus that many of us grew up with, and he uses his voice to show the change from a rather naive character to one who feels the supreme disappointment and anger of betrayal, not just by Judas but by his own God. I'm not discussing the accuracy of any of this from a theological or Biblical standpoint, but strictly from a dramatic perspective of what makes sense theatrically.

The soundtrack (on the DVD, not the CD recording) sounds great. The remastering is very clear and well balanced. This is based on my HD cable reception, but I found that for a 2-channel stereo soundtrack, it was surprisingly dimensional and realistic. I have downloaded the audio CD and there is a huge difference between the audio quality of that and the sound you'll hear on the DVD, with the DVD being much better. The video image is excellent for a movie that was filmed in 1973 (again, based on my HD cable signal). I expect that the DVD itself is probably even better.

There are some elements of the film that date it, and the first time you watch the movie, they can be distracting, annoying, or even laughable. But it's worth watching a second time, because they tend to fade into the background and are overpowered by the other elements that have aged very well. The first time I watched, I was put off by the opening and ending with the entire cast showing up on a bus, unpacking their gear, and going into rehearsal mode. But the music is so beautiful that this contrived set-up becomes not only acceptable but you can even see why the director chose to start and end this way. Some of the costumes do look "hippy dippy", but I came to overlook that, too. There are several brief scenes with fighter jets and tanks....again, just listen to the music and forget about the visual imagery.

You can see that the filmmaker tried to keep the setting as authentic as possible, in spite of the jets, tanks, and some other modernisms. There are some stunningly beautiful scenes, others that are good but not great, and still others that fall flat, but overall, it's successful.

As anyone who has read about the various versions of "Jesus Christ Superstar" will have already discovered, people have very strong opinions about the wide variety of performances that are available. I have grown to appreciate and enjoy this movie in a way that I would never have guessed the first time I saw it, which was just a couple of weeks ago. Not only that, the movie has re-ignited my interest in the music, which I find that I am listening to over and over again. For those reasons, I highly recommend this film.

This is a classic! My mother had the album back in the 70's when I was a kid.. I started hearing Ted's beautiful voice at a very young age. I hadn't actually seen the movie until I was an adult, but it was like magic. You either love it or hate it, but those that love this will be obsessed with it.

My first (real) introduction to Superstar was when our local theater did a production of it. Both of my brothers were in it, and my father and uncle were part of the band (my dad and uncle were both in a band when younger and played around the local area, so they could do rock and roll). It intrigued me enough to pick up the album version of JCS. So, I compare all vocals to the album (which may or may not be fair). The movie adaptation is very well done. I like how they approached it. I thought Jesus was a bit weak as a vocalist, but I am used to the album. I thought Judas was a tad "different". Not really weak, but his timing seemed different. Yes, I realize they both played the same parts in the Broadway production, but I guess it is my familiarity with the album's singers that makes me a tad biased. Having said all this, they are not bad by any means. The main thing is, if you're only exposure is the originally released album, you may be slightly disappointed by some of the singing, but all in all it is a good adaptation. Sit back and enjoy.