10 Religious Movies That Atheists Can Enjoy

8. Jesus Christ Superstar

It's hard to think of an interpretation of the New Testament that goes from goofy to incredibly touching in 30 seconds flat more than this one. Jesus Christ Superstar was originally just a concept album released by Andrew Lloyd Weber back in 1970, which then went to Broadway as a rock opera a year later, and finally became a film in 1973. The humanity of Jesus Christ is stressed more than anything, along with his troubled relationship with Judas Iscariot. For his part, Judas is presented as a tragic figure which, interestingly enough, falls in line with the Book of Judas found in recent decades and whose significance is still being debated. The film tells the story of Jesus's life and eventual death with unbridled panache, as is only fitting of both Andrew Lloyd Weber and the early 1970s. Sequences like King Herod's Song and Simon Zealotes are jovial in an almost unseemly manner given the subject material, but the film also features moving songs such as Gethsemane, where Jesus is questioning God's will in sacrificing himself.