Jesus Christ Superstar

Finally ‘Superstar’ blares forth with the shallow impact of an inferior imitation of Isaac Hayes.

If it weren't for Lost Horizon, this would have gone down in history as the Worst Musical of 1973.

The music quickly becomes monotonous, and the operatic dialogue is silly right from the start.

Despite the 'impressive' desert locations and an array of tanks (to represent the ills of modern militarism), it's still staged like a student revue.

To this viewer, a gaudy rock rhinestone has now shriveled so transparently that by contrast it makes the Greatest Story seem greater than ever.

Jewison, a director of large talent, has taken a piece of commercial shlock and turned it into a Biblical movie with dignity.

…should not be taken as gospel. This good old-fashioned funkadelic religious -themed musical offers a decidedly 1970’s hippy-dippy slant on the story of Christ, and those who find the rock-opera concept offensive should return to their unfiltered text…

"Superstar" would be fairly innocuous except that its appeal is so calculated to blitz the audience with pure, dumb sensation. The emphasis on brute scale and shrill volume is oppressive, and at times even frightening.

Carl Anderson's conflicted Judas Iscariot makes the greatest dramatic impact, while Yvonne Elliman, as Mary Magdalene, has the affecting vocal power to give the production its emotional heart

The supreme failure is the director's own for trying to fill in the vacuity of the material with desperate stratagems of montage and camera trickery, and by feverishly latching on to bits of contemporary relevance that no other cat would have dragged in.