Eleven or twelve years ago I discovered through some friends the musical — or “rock opera” — Jesus Christ Superstar (“The Brown Album”). The music was so good and the performances so powerful, it’s still to this day one of my most favorite works of music. Last weekend I picked up the relatively new Special Edition DVD of the movie based on that musical. Back to that in a moment.
In high school, my friends and I had grandiose plans to record the music and film our version of the musical in local locations. I had every scene mapped out on two sides of a yellow piece of legal-sized, lined paper. Think, “Last Supper at McDonalds on Route 130.” Of course that never came to fruition. But one day we were wandering around a movie rental place, possibly pre-Blockbuster, and we came across a VHS version of the musical. Since we were all in love with the music (the Brown Album version, of course) at that time, and had been for maybe a year, we decided we had to rent it.
We had no idea what we were in for. Rather than a stage musical, it was an early-70s orgiastic hour-and-a-half-long rock video. Filmed completely on location in Israel, it bordered on biblical with a little bit of modern artillery, scaffolding, chrome helmets, ammunition, and pot. (And what was up with those random tanks?)
Well now I know. The DVD’s commentary with the director, Norman Jewison (who isn’t Jewish although one might think he is), and the fellow who played (and still to this day plays) Jesus, Ted Neeley, puts the movie in a completely new light. This DVD, with commentary, is required viewing for people who love the musical and were taken aback by the movie, like I was.
Come to think of it, I had one of the first unofficial websites dedicated to the musical, in which I had entered — or planned to enter — all of the lyrics, among some other random writing about the show. That was a long time ago, now…
I still have nightmares containing Neeley singing “Get out! GEEEEET OUUUUUUUUUT!”
Let me just add that equally required viewing is the Mr. Show parody of the movie version of JCS, “Jeepers Creepers”, featuring Jack Black.
Is this the special edition DVD with audio commentary from Jesus himself? I could probably take this joke farther, but I’ve never seen JCS.
I don’t think I’ve watched that movie in one sitting–it freaks me out. But maybe I’ll tack it on to the Netflix queue and check it out with commentary. I do know that ALW hated it.
…of course, this IS the same man who brought us “People on Rollerskates Pretending to be Trains”…er…”Starlight Express” and the bane of my existance, the “Joseph” megamix.
Valid point, but when he criticized the JCS movie, he was still pointing out quality shows (Evita).
Swell. Now I have the megamix in my head.