Jesus Christ Superstar

A busload of actors gets out in the desert, puts on costumes and stages the last days of Jesus. When it ends they get back on the bus. Norman Jewison uses that frame to build the film as scripture and rehearsal at the same time. It was shot in Israel, using real locations including Herodium in the West Bank. The budget was about 3.5 million dollars, with partial support from the Israeli government. Ted Neeley plays Jesus, Carl Anderson plays Judas and Yvonne Elliman plays Mary Magdalene, all three nominated for Golden Globes in 1974. The film's strongest move is putting Judas at the centre. The antisemitism argument started on release. The National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council called it an insidious work that perpetuated the old falsehood of Jewish collective responsibility for the death of Jesus. Jewison responded that the film was never meant to be an authentic or deep theological work. Reviews split while the box office held: 24.5 million dollars made it the highest-grossing musical of 1973 in the United States and Canada. Who it is for: viewers who like rock opera and the formal nerve of the seventies. Who it is not for: anyone wanting fidelity to scripture. The film makes no such claim, and that is where the argument came from.