# The End of Godspell (the 70's movie) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 29, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-godspell-the-70s-movie/590752 "2011-07-29T17:38:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-godspell-the-70s-movie/590752/21 "2011-08-04T14:41:09Z")
I always liked Godspell, both the movie and the various stage versions I’ve seen. And from what I’ve read here, I got something different from the ending, related to how the movie begins. It starts out with people coming together from different situations all over the city, leaving their mundane and/or frustrating lives behind looking for something different. As a group, they join under a leader/teacher who opens their eyes and minds, maybe brings them out of their tedious lives. Then they lose him, but in their mourning, they come together and, literally, carry him back into their lives. He disappears into the crowd, but he is there… I don’t know if that was the intent of that last scene, but that’s how I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-godspell-the-70s-movie/590752/22 "2011-08-05T03:14:14Z")
To each his own. I loved Godspell when I saw it years ago, love it now, and will love it in the future, if I ever see it again. It’s one of the handful of movies I’ve ever seen that somehow made a deep, lasting impression. I don’t know how to explain it. JCSS - I liked it well enough, but I don’t love it the way I do Godspell. And I think the songs are just wonderful. I’m a little surprised the actors for the most part didn’t go on to a bigger career, I know Victor Garber did of course, and the black girl had a TV role. The guy who played John the Baptist struck me as ‘perfect boyfriend’ material, for the time! ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-godspell-the-70s-movie/590752/23 "2011-08-05T19:15:24Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > I’m a little surprised the actors for the most part didn’t go on to a bigger career, I know Victor Garber did of course, and the black girl had a TV role. The guy who played John the Baptist struck me as ‘perfect boyfriend’ material, for the time! The black girl was [Lynne Thigpen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynne_Thigpen), whose career included roles in film (including _Lean on Me_ with Morgan Freeman and _Bicentennial Man_ with Robin Williams); television (all the _Carmen Sandiego_ shows), and theatre–in fact, she won a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play: _An American Daughter_, in 1997. [David Haskell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Haskell) (John the Baptist/Judas) kept busy with live theatre in the 70s, and did a number of guest appearances on TV up to the 1990s. He did have a career, but nothing like Garber’s or Thigpen’s. As for the others, I got curious too. A little searching turned up “The Original Women of “Godspell” Are Still All Mighty!!” ([link here](http://themartinreport.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/the-original-women-of-godspell-are-still-all-mighty/)), which tells a little about the men, too. Generally speaking, most stayed in show business–some for a long while, such as Victor Garber and Lynne Thigpen; while others stuck with it for a bit before moving on to other careers–for example, Robin Lamont, who sang “Day by Day” in the film, went on to become a lawyer and is now a novelist. And, sadly, four of the film cast have now passed away. Anyway, it’s an interesting, if long, read. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-godspell-the-70s-movie/590752/24 "2011-08-06T04:13:57Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell were both produts of the 1960’s, which was a whole nother planet. > > I think Superstar holds up surprisingly well. The idea was to show the human side of Jesus (he’s a man, he’s just a man), something the gospels tend to ignore. I’ve not actually seen it but I have read about an Italian film from the early '60s called The Gospel of Matthew. The director is an atheist. He concentrates on the teachings of Christ (be nicer to poor, or else!) and is considered to be one of the best films about Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-godspell-the-70s-movie/590752/25 "2011-08-06T04:35:48Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > I’ve not actually seen it but I have read about an Italian film from the early '60s called The Gospel of Matthew. The director is an atheist. He concentrates on the teachings of Christ (be nicer to poor, or else!) and is considered to be one of the best films about Jesus. Tht’s P{ier Paolo Pasolini’s film. I’ve seen it, and it’s by far the best Life of Christ, mainly because it doesn’t sentimentalize the topic – yet it takes the Gospel of Matthew very literally, and depicts the miracles as described. Jesus also looks like a rebellious young man with a rather short beard, rather than the long forked one of all those paintings. Pasolini also used his own mother to depict Mary at the end. (I’ve noticed that treatments of religious figures by atheists and agfnostics tend to be very powerful and very well done. I recommend Robert Bolt’s _A Man for All Seasons_ (about Sir Thomas More) and George Bernard Shaw’s _St. Joan_ (Joan of Arc)) As for **Jesus Christ Superstar** , while I liked the original album, and saw the Broadway production by Tom O’Horgan and liked its weird imagery, I thought the film was a joke. I’ll take the film of _Godspell_ over it any day. And Godspell isn’t a cheap attempt to turn a buck – but it’s a very different Beast than JC Superstar. Interesting sidenote: When I saw _Jesus Christ Superstar_ on Broadway, Jesus was played by Jeff Fenholt. Many years later, Fenholt became a born-again Christian, and spoke at length about playing Jesus Christ. As he told it, he was often drugged out. A friend who was a Fundamentalist loaned me a copy of one of Fenholt’s videotaped performances/ testimonies. Very weird career arc. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-godspell-the-70s-movie/590752/26 "2011-08-07T00:30:57Z")
Spoons - thanks for that information on the cast. I didn’t look that hard to see what became of them. Four of them have died?? ☹ Well, it was quite a while ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-godspell-the-70s-movie/590752.md?page=1)