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| Images courtesy of MVD Entertainment Group |
When Norman Jewison was making Fiddler on the Roof which
was released in 1971, character actor Barry Dennen who had a bit part in the
film (and later appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining) gave Norman
Jewison a copy of the rock opera album Jesus Christ Superstar which
featured Dennen on the soundtrack as Pontius Pilate and was produced and
co-written with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice.
The story of the Passion of Jesus Christ told
from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, while having initially failed to garner
interest in it as a stage production, Rice and Webber instead chose to release
it as an album and its reputation grew from there. Banned by the BBC as ‘sacrilegious’ but going
on to become a stage production by Robert Stigwood who also co-produced the
film as well as Ken Russell’s Tommy, the album caught the ear of Jewison
who recalled he stayed up all night listening to it before envisioning it as a
stripped down minimalist film production shot and set in Israel.
Though a war was going on at the time of filming with
military and tanks all around, some of which were integrated into the film
itself, and the budget was tight with extreme burning hot weather in the hundreds
of degrees, the cast and crew comprised largely of first-time performers who
had never been in a film before guided by Jewison’s visionary filmmaking
nevertheless prevailed. A number of
changes were made from the album to stage to screen productions and there was
considerable controversy over the casting of Carl Anderson as Judas though
Jewison insisted Anderson tested the best and that he wouldn’t be able to live
with himself if he didn’t cast him because of the color of his skin.
Opening in the summer of 1973, critical
reception was mixed but it became a box office success amassing $24 million
against a $3 million budget. However, in
the many years since, thanks to the efforts of fans and the dedication of
actor/singer Ted Neeley who played Jesus and kept the dream alive for decades,
it is now regarded as a modern classic that changed the lives of everyone
associated with the making of it.
Which brings us to documentary filmmaker Frank Munoz’s
homegrown labor of love Superstars which not only chronicles the making
of the film but also functions as a sort of cast and crew reunion including a Q&A
with everyone following a screening of the film. Originally made in 2015 as a 51 minute short
film before being expanded in 2021 to a 90 minute feature documentary, it
combines behind-the-scenes footage, press kit footage of Jewison and the cast
and crew on set, newly filmed interviews and theatrical meet-and-greets to give
a sense of how the film came to be and how it has been accepted into the
pantheon of all time great rock movies.
Featuring interviews with Bob Bingham, Larry Marshall and Kurt
Yahjian, the sense of how the project was made into a film was that of a
homegrown family unit labor of love including footage of the cast playing
football together. There’s also an
archival interview with Carl Anderson on the set of the film as he had passed
away years prior.
A good supplemental analogue to the film with a number of
tidbits of trivia sprinkled throughout including how Barry Dennen almost fell
from the perch of rock he was on top of to the legendary story of how a
shepherd with some cattle wanders into the closing shot of the film, Superstars
though a bit talky and sometimes lengthy it speaks volumes not only to the
ongoing popularity of the film and musical rock opera album but serves as a
testament to the work of Norman Jewison who has done just about every genre and
has mostly succeeded admirably at it.
Interestingly,
the Robert Stigwood connection with Yvonne Elliman carried over into the
soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever a few years later and though it
proved to be a hit single for the singer, Elliman herself still points to Jesus
Christ Superstar as the production that not only put her on the audiovisual
map but changed and moved her life in ways not everyone is able to articulate
without getting tearful. All in all, a
nice documentary extension of the film’s legacy and particularly the life of
Barry Dennen who can be credited with getting the album realized into a film in
the first place.
--Andrew Kotwicki
