Posted on 02/28/2004 5:43:10 AM PST by truthandlife
John Debney is used to writing movie scores for comedies like "Liar, Liar" and "Bruce Almighty," but he admits that composing the score for Mel Gibson's powerful movie "The Passion of the Christ" was the most difficult assignment of his life.
For it turned out to be a battle between good and evil that he had never experienced before in some 20 years in Hollywood.
"I don't think I will ever be given the opportunity to write again for a movie as powerful as this one," he said during a recent media interview in Beverly Hills.
"I was stretched every which way but loose," Debney said. "I was stretched by Mel Gibson. I was stretched by the Guy Upstairs and also I was stretched by the guy downstairs. What it did was completely strengthen my faith and I have realized something very interesting. I had never before subscribed to the idea that maybe Satan is a real person, but I can attest that he was in my room a lot and I know that he hit everyone on this production."
Debney said that the battle he felt with Satan as he wrote the music became "really personal between us."
He went on to say, "I had all these computers and synthesizers in my studio and the hard drives would go down and the digital picture that lives on the computer with the music would just freeze on his [Satan's] face. Then the volume would go to ten and it would happen all the time.
"The first time it happened, it scared me," Debney said. "Once I got over the initial shock of that, I learned to work around it and learned to reboot the computers and so I would start talking to him.
"There was one day when I had been on the movie for about four months when it really became bad that day and a lot of things that were causing doubt in me and I had had enough. The computers froze for about the tenth time that day and it was about nine o'clock at night and so I got really mad, and I told Satan to manifest himself and I said, 'Let's go out into the parking lot and let's go.' It was a sea change in me. I knew that this was war. I am not a physical person, but I was really angry on this occasion.
"I am up on the second floor, and on the bottom floor of my building there are therapists, and they see patients until midnight, and their windows are right at the parking lot, and I was coming down the stairs, and I had had it. I had booted everything down and saved it and I was walking down the stairs and I was verbalizing and saying to Satan, 'Manifest yourself right now.' As I am walking out and saying, 'Come on, let's go now,' I looked over and I could see someone looking at me and I realized how silly I must have looked. He didn't manifest himself, but I wished he would have. It changed for me after that."
God works in mysterious ways
John Debney explained that he was first brought into the movie by Stephen McEveety, a producer on the movie.
"The way God works is very mysterious," he said. "This gentleman is a life-long friend who happens to work for Mel Gibson and Icon and he and I grew up on the same street together in Glendale, California."
This resulted in Debney writing some special music for the movie and Gibson then came over to his office to listen to it. The next thing he knew, he was hired to write the score.
"If you were to draw up a list of composers who would have been perfect for this movie, I don't think I would be on it," he said. "It is a complete miracle that I became involved with the project and every day the thing that got me through was my faith prayer which was, 'Lord, if you want me to make it to the finish line, then help me make it to the finish line.'
"That was my journey. I started working with Mel Gibson and I found him to be incredibly intense," he said. "He's incredibly demanding but he was also incredibly collaborative.
When asked him what it was like to watch the horrendous suffering of Christ day after day, he replied, "It was very difficult and I can describe the process that I went through. I had to at times divorce myself from the visuals at times. You can imagine, day in, day out, you are watching this incredibly powerful journey that Christ went through, it was very difficult for me and I was able to get past it and realize that it was a movie; that really wasn't Him there although the movie was very powerful and beautiful and a wonderful representation of Him, so that kicked in and it was an intellectual process, although it would obviously still get the best of me from time to time.
"For instance, I would be working on a certain scene, like when Mary flashes back to the baby Jesus falling down, and I would see it 20 times, and then I would see if for the 21st time I would just start to weep because it is so elusive, the power of this film. That was way I would get through it. It was difficult; it was uplifting. I would sit there and try and write a piece of music on Jesus being hammered to the cross. So there has to be a little bit of a disconnect. I had to distance myself enough and trust that He would tell me what to do and everyone on the music say that day in and day out, it was extremely difficult.
"I would imagine that we all worked as hard as we ever could. We were all exhausted as we could ever be, but oddest thing was as exhausted and physically drained that I was, I never got tired. I would be exhausted and yet I would find myself in my studio at midnight.
"My studio is a lovely room and I have a work station with my keyboard. I write everything at a keyboard now. Technology has got so far in the last few years that I sit at the computer and realize the score. And what I mean by that is that I wrote and I orchestrate at the same time. So that when Mel Gibson comes and sits in the room, he will hear a piece of music that is fully orchestrated; it's synthesized orchestrated. He'll hear the obo, and then the clarinet and the strings, and so literally, I am composing note for note; instrument for instrument."
"So I have the screen in front of me with the visuals and then I have the speakers and computer screens that have all my synthesizer information on it. So my virtual orchestra is in a box and I just pick my instruments.
"What I was trying to do with the music was to write first of all the best that I could write and try to be true to the period, so I tried to utilize instruments from the period so there are a lot of ancient instruments in the music. In the bigger picture, I gave it all up to the Lord and whatever came out. I didn't have a lot to do with the writing of this music. I have done a lot of music, but literally things would just come out.
"I was tested. I once said to Mel, 'With every lash that Christ felt, I was feeling those lashes in my own way.' I was sorely tested."
He then talked about doubt.
"What happened with this movie was that I started to doubt myself," he said. "Mel started to doubt me, and there was a lot of it going around. You can imagine how important this film was to Mel and God bless him for having the courage to do it. But during my working with him musically, he would say things to me like, "It's really good, but I want it to be great.' And I had been up days … ."
Great article!
Um, I haven't seen the movie, but I thought Satan was manifested as woman in the film. Is this a differnt form you're referring to?
Thanks. Bttt
There has been buzz about this movie since it's conception in Mel's mind. Virtually every film goes through dismisal by many people and organizations including funding, distribution, studios and other backers. Yet every setback fo this made it become something of a "celebrity cause". It creatd buzz. It's almost as if the the trials and tribulations of this movie were scripted and promoted and hyped and worse huckstered. Every misfortune has been capitalized on. There has been a very sucessful marketing campaign since day one. Believe me.
I read an article in my morning paper that discussed the stuff now for sale in stores that are liscensed by this movie. Nails for the cross and picture books of scenes from the movie and other collectable items. Funny, for a movie going against the odds, it certainly seems ironic that all the same stuff that was available for mainstream movies like Disney films and other co-merchandised opportunities are in place like other well orchestrated marketing campaigns. For something that was against all the fundamentals of our culture, this one seems to have all the right things in place at the right time to capitalize on the market. Why would this merchandise stuff be ready to market and why would mainstream stores have it in place if this was a movie that had expectations so low and the miracle was the masses that have seen it. How did the stores get this all in place BEFORE they knew it's marketing potential? Doesn't anyone see this?
I haven't seen the movie. I will next week. If it's a powerful and factual portral of Christ's last days and the meaning of the representation, then it is worthy or our praise and support.
But will it lead to mass conversions? Probably not although a few may be touched. Will it lead to lasting conversions? Probably not. Will it lead to a definable shift in our culture that we will be able to see for years to come? Probably not.
And what happens after all the churches exhaust their flocks ability to fill the seats, (which is largely where the ticket sales are coming from)?
I don't mean to sound cynical, but for all the pushback from Hollywood there seems to be an offsetting marketing campaign. And marketing is based on the puffery of fact.
This is a much about marketing as it is a Passion movie about the ressurection of Christ.
satan doesn't deserve a capital "S"
Back in 1987, I set up the VCR on the television, sat back and eagerly awaited the broadcast of the made for tv movie Jesus of Nazareth. As the movie began, the power in my house went out. I waited a few seconds, expecting that it would come back on. Nothing happened. I looked out the window and mine was the only house on the block with no lights. At 11pm when the movie ended, the power returned.
I called the electric company the next day. They advised me that my house was on a different transformer from the other homes and that no one else had called to complain the previous night.
Coincidence?
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
An androgynous being.
Very well portrayed, especially when he's attempting to convince Jesus that nobody can handle the burden he has to bear in the garden.
I have had a similar reaction. The way the negative criticism of The Passion is going down, I have become convinced that Satan does exist. I wasn't sure before.
However, as I watched Carl Bernstein and Lawrence O'Donnell last night on Scarborough and David Denby on Dennis Miller denigrate The Passion in every way they could, I became convinced that I was looking into the faces of Satanic minions.
In the past, it was easy for these folks to disguise themselves, but the crucifixion of Christ has made them so enraged that they have dropped their guard.
I realize that this might sound kooky, but if one comes to believe that pure evil does exist, it is unescapable that there are those whose mission is to advance the cause of pure evil. Perhaps, they don't realize they are doing it, and I guess, that may be true of some. But I am now convinced that there are those who know fully well what they are doing.
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