The Passion of the Christ

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Even months before its release, The Passion of the Christ or Mel Gibson's insane passion to make a movie of Jesus' last hours was completely being bombarded by critics, fellow Christians and religious groups in the hope of it being never released to the general public. Quite frankly, this is unheard of, and hearing the positive and the negative criticism follow each other as quick as rain is what makes it for normal movie going public very hard to rate it before you eventually see the finished product. The pope's right hands accepted and heralded the picture first, having even the honor to bestow upon Jesus actor Jim Caviezel, a religious person on itself. Other churches or religious groups saw the attack literally upon them when the actual enemies were presented in the movie, being not the Romans but the Jews. And quite frankly, the mentioning of people having heart attacks when seeing the crucifixion is in the end unheard of for a motion picture. I'm not the most religious person but I do trust there is a God, and there was a Jesus. But I'm just interested in the main reason of the film, and that is to witness and literally try to imagine the horror of the final hours of Jesus. This having in the end violence and perhaps exaggerated blood or action scenes true or not true, is then for the real die hard Christians who believe the story of the bible is the one and only. And of course after the bandwagon of controversy was first James Horner, then Lisa Gerrard and finally in a bold move, Mel Gibson hired John Debney, the man of such sweet comedies as Cats & Dogs or massive action scores as Cutthroat Island. In the end, the move was as controversial for score lovers as the initial movie was for people, but we seem to forget that John Debney is simply a great composer, and The Passion of the Christ may give him the first Oscar (nomination) in his life, something he truly deserves by now for his entire career. And that career got new meaning with this score for that movie.

The soundtrack released by Sony Music is then of course a bestseller and was charted long as the number one hit selling CD, crossing the Gold album limit and seeing the composer appearing in talk shows, performing his music for the entire nation. Quite unheard of for a motion picture score, or it has to be Titanic, The Lion King or The Last of the Mohicans. But the fact is, those movies were seen and loved by many people, and whether hate or love the movie, the music made impact and tried to pore emotion into the cruelty of the pictures on screen. And that is solely Debney's doing. That The Passion of the Christ is not directly Debney sounding is a compliment and therefore the reason the music succeeded to take away all the preconceptions about this score. Ethnic true and correct, the score has a somber but in the end not too depressing mood that makes it bearable to hear from time to time. Its not like Schindler's List and therefore I'm glad about one thing this score presents. But of course, the music on itself is extremely powerful and strong. 'Bearing the Cross' sets a dramatic slow moving choir to the steps of Jesus and carries its weight, or so to speak off. 'Crucifixion' is 7 minutes of emotion and mixes the growing orchestra and choir into one part, while strings and cellos guide the other part. The first minute of 'Raising the Cross' must work dynamite in the film and is very powerful in a non depressing mood while the final track 'Resurrection' presents the most stunning music, the trailer music without Lisa Gerrard's voice over it, and the choir is powerful, emotionally big and in the end perfect for the movie, something I can only envision after hearing it on the trailer. These tracks are the big choral and orchestral cues that carry the weight and drama of the most important scenes of the film. And Debney doesn't overblow them but he doesn't forget them either, giving them the right weight for everyone to bear.

But that doesn't mean that the rest stays unnoticed. True, many tracks are more background material but they have a certain meaning with them, and more in the ethnic word so to speak off. 'The Olive Garden' uses the duduk and solo vocal, 'Jesus Arrested' even more dissonance with percussion to choral accompaniment while 'Simon is Dismissed' uses harsher ethnic tones, followed only by 'Flagellation / Dark Choir / Disciples', 6 minutes of soft meandering stuff. But true beauties are 'Peter Denies Jesus' which uses the trailer music without choir and is very emotional while strings sore into an explosion of emotional choir and giving 'Mary Goes to Jesus' a true mesmerizing haunting feel. People even have gotten the opportunity to hear a special suite of Debney's music (presenting the trailer music with male and female choir) which many consider to be an excellent addition to the music, something I can only agree with. In the end, The Passion of the Christ is a score that does the movie or basically the final hours of Jesus justice, and it shows that John Debney really understood and felt the right connection when he was hired for Gibson's in the end box office phenomenon. He really gave the movie the emotion and heavy burden while the movie gave us the cruelty and the horror. To give success to a man's grieving is perhaps the most sick thing of all, but I know it is the only way to give us once more a smack in the face of what we don't realize. Jesus died for us, he sacrificed himself and bared our pains, and we simply don't remember that but add gasoline to a flame by having wars, killing people and letting people starve, just because we think of me and not us. I'm not the perfect person, but sometimes movies such as these need to show the reality. And Debney and Gibson gave us that reality with a vision that will haunt us longer then people who will be criticizing it.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. The Olive Garden * (1.56)

2. Bearing The Cross (3.42) Excellent Track

3. Jesus Arrested (4.37)

4. Peter Denies Jesus (1.58) Excellent Track

5. The Stoning **** (2.25)

6. Song Of Complaint ** (1.33)

7. Simon Is Dismissed (2.25)

8. Flagellation / Dark Choir *** / Disciples (5.54)

9. Mary Goes To Jesus (2.47) Excellent Track

10. Peaceful But Primitive *** / Procession (3.36)

11. Crucifixion (7.38) Excellent Track

12. Raising The Cross (2.13)

13. It Is Done *** (3.37)

14. Jesus Is Carried Down (4.39)

15. Resurrection (5.04) Excellent Track

* Contains "Night Sky" by Jack Lenz, vocals by Tanya Tsarouska

** Traditional

*** Composed by John Debney & Jack Lenz

**** Composed by John Debney & Shankar and Gingger

Total Length: 54.09

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: John Debney ===