Monday, February 6, 2012

Jesus Christ Super Star Review


Rafaelo Infante
8B
                                                                                                           February 1, 2012

Movie Review on Jesus Christ Super Star

Jesus Christ Super Star, was directed by Norman Jewison, and got a rating of 6.5 out of 10, according to IMDb, an internet database that rates movies based upon its thousands of registered users .  In my opinion, these thousands of registered voters are out of their minds.  This movie should be given a 3 out of ten, at most.  I will tell you in my review why I think this.

Norman Jewison directed Jesus Christ Superstar, and dozens of others.  The main actors in Jesus Christ Super star were Ted Neeley as Jesus Christ, Carl Anderson as Judas, and Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene.  Jesus Christ Super Star was produced in 1973 in the US.  Jewison directed dozens of films including the Oscar award winning In the Heat of the Night, and Fiddler on a Roof.  Late in his career he won the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement.  Despite these successes I think that the rating for this movie should at most be a 3 out 10.  Why? Because the movie didn’t make any sense.   It’s like the movie had no plot, and the songs that were sung didn’t go with what the setting was. Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera that was filmed in Jerusalem. The genre of the movie is a drama, history and musical.  The rock didn’t rock, the history was totally unclear and “the fat lady didn’t sing.”

Let me give you a short summary of the movie -- there is a man called, “Jesus”, a man who called himself the son of god.  He went around teaching the word of God, but the Jewish religious leaders didn’t support him, they thought he was a threat to their power and authority. However, the villagers supported Jesus and marketed him wildly to other people around Jerusalem.  After Jesus became popular and was beginning to get more power, the Jewish religious leaders got really scared and began to formulate a plan to catch and kill Jesus.  But they didn’t know where he was or what he looked liked.  One of Jesus’ old friends, Judas, didn’t like what Jesus was doing either so he went to the Jews and told them that Jesus would be having a dinner in the Garden of Gethsemane with his twelve apostles.   Judas betrayed Jesus in exchange for 30 silver coins.

I really liked the way they filmed the movie Jesus Christ Superstar even if I didn’t like the story, the way it was directed or acted.  The three was earned because of the filming and the way that they zoomed In on characters’ faces before starting the scene.  There were two scenes that were absolutely spectacular.  One of them was where Judas (Carl Anderson) was singing a song in the country.  It started out with him in one spot on a mountain, and then he started running and singing across the landscape.  The way they filmed him doing this was remarkable. They followed him, I think they did this with a rail.  Another great scene was when there was some kind of a Greek monument, which was almost fully destroyed. The camera was going in a circle around the middle of the structure. There were many columns, and then out of the blue, these people show up in the middle of the ruins. They are dancing. Then all these people run to the middle where Jesus is standing. While they are running, they also jump off boulders and walls.  When they jump the editor slowed the movie down so that it took longer for the people to hit the ground. It was a really cool effect to put in because it looked as if they were the ultimate parkour maniacs.  Then, when Jesus’ followers get to the middle they all dance differently.  Like ballet and hip-hop. While they are performing the camera men take  screen shots, so that the movie stops -- it gives the effect that the movie is on pause.

Even though the filming was remarkable in parts, Jesus Christ Superstar is not a movie I would recommend. People who are most likely to enjoy this movie would be ages 60 and up.  Any kids or grown ups would not like this movie unless they are super religious, and want to see if this movie accurately describes Jesus’ life or not.  If you don’t know anything about Jesus Christ, then this movie would be the worst movie to explain to you about how he died and how he tried to stick to his beliefs.  This movie misses some of the most important things that Jesus did, like his curing the sick, freeing the slaves, and other miracles.  In conclusion: this movie is one of the worst I have ever seen.  The fat lady never even made it to the theater. 

Bibliography
1. Imdb. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http:// http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070239/ >.

2. Wiki page. Wikipedia . N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio >.

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