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.
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!
The black girl was 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 (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), 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.
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.
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.
Well, it was quite a while ago.