There’s times when you just have to do something to be able to go on with your life, one of those was yesterday when I researched The Eerie Horror Midnight Show and found out that the leading lady of that movie, Stella Carnacina, six years later starred in a disco musical retelling of the life of Christ. Yeah.
A DISCO MUSICAL RETELLING OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. Holy Motherfucking Son of God!.
Make no mistake here, I’m not religious - or hardly even spiritual (but I try to keep an open mind), but I just can’t stay away from something like this. I even kinda like musicals, if the dare to be different. like Jesus Christ Superstar, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Cannibal! The Musical and of course Brian De Palma’s masterpiece Phantom of the Paradise. And White Pop Jesus is for sure different.
Jesus (the amazingly sleazy Awana Gana) decides to wander the earth (or Rome, I guess) after escaping from heaven - or is it a asylum, constantly having dialogues with his heavenly father. He meets Lattuga Pop (Stella Carnacina), the sister of the always unlucky Commissioner Vito (Gianni Magni), who instantly falls in love with him. Together the start gathering followers, disciples, to spread the message of love of God to the sinful population of Italy - with the help of DISCO MUSIC! But somewhere around the corner is the mafia, always up to some shenanigans! Will Jesus stop them...or will the police stop him first?!
Oh boy, what the hell was this? It’s a musical with some weird hippie/anti-hippie, disco-esque christian message with some slapstick, sex jokes and lots of extremely catchy tunes by the always excellent team of Franco Bixio and Vince Tempera. To be fair, the songs are good and dancing isn’t bad either, I’ve seen worse! Just don’t expect Jesus Christ Superstar here, this is much, much, much sillier. The songs, and the scenes with Jesus are surprisingly serious, but there’s several stories on the side which is packed with the traditional wacky not-so-funny Italian humor!
It’s hard to tell what White Pop Jesus want to say actually, does it want to spread the message of Christianity or does it want to be a satire of the stupidity of mankind? Sometimes it feels like a morality tale, telling how dangerous it is with drugs - exemplified a dance number where a woman is transformed into a giant syringe whenever she feels for it. Is Jesus really Jesus or just an escaped patient from an asylum? The answer is ambiguous and the ending makes no sense whatsoever.
I sense the filmmakers wanted to reach out to a very wide audience: the disco crowd, the christians, those who like comedy, the families and the potheads. Everything at once. Is it good? I honestly don’t know. I can’t tell if this was a good or successful movie, it’s just so plain bizarre and absurd.
But I know one thing; the moment some fool releases it on DVD or blu-ray I will be the first one to buy it. Why? Just check the trailer below. You won’t believe your eyes.
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