Word: jesus
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...musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice arrived on screen a few months after "Godspell." The first rock opera transferred to the stage, it was calcified in the made-in-Israel film version by Norman Jewison - who, if you're wondering, is not Jewish. Blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus (Ted Neely) faces off against a black Judas (Carl Anderson). The show had two hit songs, the anthem "Superstar" and the ballad "I Don't Know How to Love Him," but its theatricality got lost out there in the desert...
...Passion here consumes about 45 minutes. Jesus undergoes a torrent of taunting from Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas and the mob. "We turn to Rome to sentence Nazareth, We have no law to put a man to death," the high priest beseeches Pilate. And the crowd hollers, "We need him crucified, It's all you have to do." Pilate accedes, singing to Jesus: "Don't let me stop your great self-destruction, Die if you want to, you misguided martyr." (Does that rhyme in Aramaic?) Except for Gibson's "Passion," this is the Jesus film that goes heaviest on the torture...
...year for Jesus musicals, 1973 also saw the emergence in the Bible belt of a family production: "Gospel Road," produced in Israel by June and Johnny Cash. The Man in Black, who had recently embraced Christ, ambles through the Holy Land while quoting Scripture and telling a story of Jesus' life and sacrifice. As Cash intones the words, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased," it's easy to imagine that God just must have a Southern accent. The pauper-budgeted simplicity and naivete of "Gospel Road" - its irrefutable good intentions - overwhelm the weirdness...
...Cash, who also wrote the script with Larry Murray, gives his record and stage-show fans a treat: eight fine Christian songs, written by himself, John Denver, Larry Gatlin, Kris Kristofferson, Joe South and other top country singer-composers. But he also lays out the plot to discredit Jesus: "He's to be followed and spied on by the Scribes and Pharisees throughout His ministry." As Gibson's film does, Cash's puts the blame on a corrupt segment of the religious hierarchy. And in the last 20 minutes, "Gospel Road" gets around to the Passion. Jesus is lashed, kicked...
...JESUS OF NAZARETH...