[It's] almost impossible to suggest the imaginative impoverishment, the sheer stupefying banality, of … [the] version of the last days of Christ [in the movie Jesus Christ Superstar]…. In another respect, however, I underestimated the work; I had expected the alleged anti-Semitism of the film to be no more than the random fallout of its pandering to the anti-establishment sentiments of its audience, to be, in that sense, unintentional. But though the villainy of the Jews "works," all right, so, too, would the villainy of the Romans, who, if anything, could have been a good deal more easily made standins for cops or American imperialists than can the Jewish priesthood be equated with any of the usual bêtes noires of the counter-culture. Yet the Romans are so thoroughly exculpated by the film of any responsibility for Christ's crucifixion as to become virtual instruments of the Jewish priests, who bring Jesus to a reluctant Pilate with the demand "We need him crucified!" And though the Romans are hardly made attractive … Pilate is at least given an introductory speech in which, reflecting on a dream, he worries about his prospective involvement in Christ's death and how the future will judge him: "Then I saw thousands of millions / Crying for this man / And then I heard them mentioning my name / And leaving me the blame."

This speech, whatever it may lack in scriptural grounding, is at least consistent with the obsession that almost all the characters at one time or another manifest with respect to their standing with posterity, their image…. And even Jesus himself, foreseeing his death, inquires of God, "Will I be more noticed than I was before?" and, later, cries out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forgotten me?"—though possibly this last is less a case of meaningful textual emendation than of simple indifference to meaning, as is, presumably, Christ's elsewhere wanting to know that he won't "be killed in vain."

In fact, I'd be tempted to say that this preoccupation with public relations is the only thing that gives any thematic consistency to the work. For the rest, though Judas starts by raising some pseudo-serious objections to Christ's billing ("You've begun to matter more than the things you say"), which, being in line with the work's title, were perhaps pursued in earlier versions, this is quickly seen to amount to nothing. (pp. 76-7)

But there is one thing more in which the film also maintains a stubborn consistency, and that is its anti-Semitism: having this film in general release is a bit like having a performance of a with-it version of the Oberammergau Passion Play down every block. Though it's hard to believe the work's portrayal of Jesus, cast in the effete plaster-saint mold of previous Hollywood Jesuses …, could fail to give offense to any Christian audience, I think one must distinguish here between trivialization or vulgarization and active animus. Not only is all culpability in Christ's death passed on to a malignant Jewish priesthood and blood-thirsty Jewish mob; the priests are also portrayed in a way that is clearly indebted to classically vilifying stereotypes…. Judas, who is depicted as the tool of Jewish interests, is played by a black actor, and images of his being menaced by tanks and jet fighters, though not out of keeping with the movie's other deliberate anachronisms, cannot fail to suggest the notion of Third World victimization by the warlike might of Israel….

I'm quite willing to believe that Jesus Christ Superstar was created by people who sincerely believe themselves to be free of any animus toward the Jews; in some ways, this makes only more disturbing the fact that the film is shot through with anti-Semitic feeling. Doubtless conceived in a spirit of unalloyed commerce, the work, like most other books, records, plays, and movies, clearly has as its muse the jackass. But the jackal's mark is unmistakably on it. (p. 77)