First let me talk about "Jesus Christ Superstar."
I was first introduced to the music of this film 13 or so years ago by my friend Brad, and I love the music. The first song in the opening sequence with Judas is awesome.
Despite the controversy of the play, I am continually struck by the creativity of it. I mentioned to my wife that modern evangelicalism could probably never put something so creative as this together (even if it were theologically accurate). At least with this spin. It's too unsafe.
There's some scenes where dirty hippies are dancing around to the music, and though alot of the women are dressed like "hoochie-mamas" I am still impressed that elements of the story of Jesus were powerful enough to inspire a couple of probable unbelievers to put a good bunch of it to music.
The controversial elements don't bother me as much for this reason: This Jesus is straw. The movie puts an interesting twist on the whole narrative. The story begins with a disgruntled Judas-probably the best voice in the movie and bounces back and forth between Jesus and his fan base and Judas's growing disapproval of what Jesus has started in contrast to what Judas thinks he should be doing with the movement.
Concerning Jesus, there's a subtle insinuation that Jesus and Mary Magdalene may be more than teacher and student.But more than that, this Jesus isn't sure why he's here, or who he is. This Jesus has a bit of an identity crisis. He seems to be stoked that he's a super star, and that so many people dig him, and he certainly like Mary, but at the end of the day, he's worried that people might not remember him, and seems to not know why he's about to die...the movement seems to get off track, or is misunderstood, religious leaders are jealous of his stardom and so must conspire to put Jesus out of commission. Not only that, but Jesus can't take the psychological pressure of all these people, lepers, dirty hippies, who want his time and attention.
The cleansing of the temple scene was pretty rad though, and I found the film's rotund, hedonistic depiction of Herod quite interesting.
Sure this Jesus gets a couple things right, tells his followers not to worry about tomorrow, etc. But there was no "good news" attached to this Jesus. He was pretty much a skinny guy in a white robe and bad beard. He was pretty marketable humanistic Jesus.
he was a superstar Jesus.
Interesting, Judas is presented at the end in white in a song and dance number, this being after he commits suicide. I assume they are making the point that Judas wasn't all that bad of guy after all that somehow he made it to a decent afterlife.
The ending leaves it ambiguous to the viewer as to whether or not Christ rose from the dead. You see a faint silhouette of a figure walking past a sunrise, likely leaving it up to the reader to decide...did Jesus really bodily rise from the dead, or can we say that his teachings live on in some way, something like that?
Contrast this with "The Passion of the Christ."
This Jesus would be much less marketable in real life. The Jesus in this movie you can best sum up with one word...
"death"
Jesus came to die for sinners...the whole movie from the opening in the garden to his death on the cross and the darkening skies were the story of his death.
The film not only speaks of Christ's death per se, but other elements of death, his promise to the thief on the cross that he would be with him that day in paradise for instance and even the component of dying to self to follow him.
I was struck by one scene in this movie, during the flashback to the last supper, where Jesus warned his disciples of the forthcoming persecutions: "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If the head of the house has been called 'Beelzebub' how much more the members of his household?"
In another scene there is a flashback to Christ's youth, where a young Jeshua bar Joseph takes a tumble and his mother runs to his aid immediately. Oh how his mother wishes to come to her son's aid now. When Mary finally catches up with Jesus on his death march, Jesus falls beneath the weight of the cross, his mother comes to him, Jesus in agony says, "Behold Mother, I make all things new," (a quotation from Christ in the book of Revelation I believe-interesting that Gibson placed in in this passion narrative) he then embraces his cross and moves forward to finish his goal...dying.
Dying for sinners.
The differences between the two films are night and day. Both have artistic merit. They were both set out for a different artistic purpose and differing methods of bringing that to the audience. Gibson's film definitely shows a much clearer portrait of the Jesus found in the pages of the New Testament. Superstar is a troubled fellow.
