After reading the last portions of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in The Gospels and after watching Jesus Christ, Superstar, I realized that several parts of the movie were not exactly as I had imagined while reading the bible. Some of the differences were: the importance of Mary Magdalene, the point of view in which the movie is portrayed, and the end of the movie. .
First, Mary Magdalene appeared a lot in the movie, but was not mentioned as much in the bible. In The Gospels, Magdalene was proclaimed as simply being a woman that bathed Jesus' feet at the Last Supper with expensive perfume. There was not much else mentioned about her. In fact, her name is not even mentioned. But in the movie, she is Jesus' woman. She follows him around and is portrayed as his lover. She has a major role in the movie, and is seen in almost every scene. One might ask: why is she hardly mentioned in the bible? I believe that because early Catholicism does not portray women as having power or importance, she was disregarded and taken out of the New Testament. She was believed to be the leader of the apostles, but the New Testament contradicts that. Since men had the power in Catholicism and were superior to women, Magdalene was portrayed as having no importance or power in the bible. Also, in old stories, Magdalene is viewed as a whore, and it is contradictory to have the woman chosen by Jesus be a sinner.
Second, the movie is directed from Judas' point of view. Judas is the one who betrays Jesus for money. After reading the Gospels, Judas is viewed as a sinner, and horrible unfaithful man, but after watching the movie, I did not have such a bad opinion of Judas. In my opinion, the director of the movie chose Judas' point of view for publicity. If he would have chosen any other point of view, the movie would not have been such a controversy. Also, Judas is played by a black actor, which in 1973, was very unusual.
