Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)

[TheBoss062]

Going to watch this as part of an Andrew Lloyd Webber marathon in preparation for Cats.

[Duke_45]

You’re going to watch a superior musical in preparation for a horrendous one? I’d actually reverse that. This way you’ll feel so much better after all is said and done

[ArnoldLayne56]

Originally Posted by ArnoldLayne56

Judas is excellent, John Legend as Jesus- well, he has range, but his characterization is quite weak. Even though Ted has spoiled the role for anyone else, I would much rather have had seen a seasoned stage actor than a crooner. The music is great, but I wouldn't watch this version again... so glad we have the movie- and please give us a new transfer for Christmas...

Ted repeatedly mentions a restored Blu-ray and how great it looks. The only newer issue of this film I could find is a 2017 French release from Elephant Films (?). It's a Collector's Edition that includes a DVD and booklet.
I got it recently and discovered it is just an AVC recode of the original BD. And to offset AVC's increased efficiency, the bit rate is much lower than the original's VC-1 !! So it's a wash and I'm disappointed.
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Jesus...9109/#Overview

[TheBoss062]

Originally Posted by Duke_45

You’re going to watch a superior musical in preparation for a horrendous one? I’d actually reverse that. This way you’ll feel so much better after all is said and done

Cats is the greatest movie ever made.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by paulisdead

This makes sense to me.

I’ve just finished watching the 2.0 BluRay via Dolby Pro Logic II (Movie Mode). While not an exact replacement for 1970’s matrixed Dolby Stereo, the parts that “jumped out” of the surrounds made sense. It also balanced the overall uneven mix out a little. So I would say Pro Logic is the way to go for the BluRay over straight 2.0 stereo. Not perfect, but a little smoother going.

The mix of this film is more like a traditional Hollywood musical than a “rock opera”. The drums and guitars are way down in the mix and the vocals far too forward for rock. I’d assume this was also done to accommodate those cinemas with less than ideal speakers (heck - in 2019, most multiplexs still can’t get sound right).

Hearing some of the rough sounding fades of the musical tracks when a vocal comes on, makes me believe that this is how it would have sounded like back in 1973. This film is desperately needs a modern 5.1 remix.

2.0 is not 2 channel stereo though. Here the 4-channel mix was downmixed to 2.0 to be replicated back via ProLogic to it's intended original design: left, center, right, mono surround. Originally the mix at it's most grandiose was five front channels / mono surround (6-track for it's 70mm mix). You can actually hear the delineation of the directionalized dialogue/voices to great effect in the song "Could We Start Again, Please?" on the DVD edition [in 5.0 with the center channel being a discrete channel], its less refined on the bluray. Maybe for the stage musical's 50th anniversary next year, Universal could produce a better transfer/encode for a 4K UHD edition, using those audio stems that Neeley has been advocating the studio to use for quite some time now.

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

2.0 is not 2 channel stereo though. Here the 4-channel mix was downmixed to 2.0 to be replicated back via ProLogic to it's intended original design: left, center, right, mono surround. Originally the mix at it's most grandiose was five front channels / mono surround (6-track for it's 70mm mix). You can actually hear the delineation of the directionalized dialogue/voices to great effect in the song "Could We Start Again, Please?" on the DVD edition [in 5.0 with the center channel being a discrete channel], its less refined on the bluray. Maybe for the stage musical's 50th anniversary next year, Universal could produce a better transfer/encode for a 4K UHD edition, using those audio stems that Neeley has been advocating the studio to use for quite some time now.

Do you think they'll do it? Personally I don't think so. It probably wouldn't sell enough in numbers to justify the effort and cost of putting on UHD Blu-ray.

[libertine90]

So hey…just checking back in to this thread to see if anyone might happen to have some inside info or hints about a 4K UHD release for the film’s 50th anniversary this year?

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by libertine90

So hey…just checking back in to this thread to see if anyone might happen to have some inside info or hints about a 4K UHD release for the film’s 50th anniversary this year?

It would need a lot of work, time and money to bring this title back from the dead. Long story short, it would take a miracle!

[libertine90]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

It would need a lot of work, time and money to bring this title back from the dead. Long story short, it would take a miracle!

Well then…let us pray.