Creator of film's score 'battled with Satan'

World Net Daily ^ | 2-28-04 | Dan Wooding

[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 … ."

[livius]

Great catch, thanks for posting.

[livius]

I thought the casting of Satan was brilliant - Satan reeked of smooth, slippery, almost unidentifiable evil. I think that was one of the effects of the woman's face with the man's voice - it was somehow unidentifiable, but at the same time, you knew it was wrong and profoundly disturbing.

[Elsie]

Are you sure????....

This is STILL the only thing Satan can do.....

---

Genesis 3
1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

---

His MO hasn't changed in all these millienia....

[Elsie]

Some of Satan's (the devil) descriptions...

 

 

 

Matthew 4:10
   Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' "

 

Matthew 16:22-23

 Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

 

Luke 10:18-19
 18.  He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
 19.  I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

 

Luke 13:15-16

  Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"

 

Luke 22:2-3

 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve.

 

Luke 22:30-32

 31.  "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you  as wheat.
 32.  But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."

 

John 8:43-44
  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

 

John 13:2
  The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

 

Acts 5:2-3

 Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?

 

Acts 26:17-18
 17.  I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them
 18.  to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

 

Romans 16:20
   The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.   The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

 

1 Corinthians 5:4-5
 4.  When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,
 5.  hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature  may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.

 

1 Corinthians 7:5
  Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

 

2 Corinthians 2:9-11

 10.  If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven--if there was anything to forgive--I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake,
 11.  in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

 

2 Corinthians 11:14
   And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

 

Ephesians 4:26-27

 26.  "In your anger do not sin" : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,
 27.  and do not give the devil a foothold.

 

Ephesians 6:11

  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  

 

1 Thessalonians 2:18
  For we wanted to come to you--certainly I, Paul, did, again and again--but Satan stopped us.

 

2 Thessalonians 2:9-10
  9.  The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,
 10.  and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

 

1 Timothy 1:19-20

  Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

 

1 Timothy 3:7
   He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.

 

1 Timothy 5:14-15

  Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.

 

2 Timothy 2:24-26

 25.  Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,
 26.  and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

 

Hebrews 2:13-15

 14.  Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil--
 15.  and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

 

James 3:14-15
 14.  But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.
 15.  Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.

 

James 4:6-7

  Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

 

1 Peter 5:8-9
 8.  Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
 9.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

 

1 John 3:7-8

  He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.

 

Jude 1:9
  But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"

 

Revelation 2:10
  Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

 

Revelation 2:9
  I know your afflictions and your poverty--yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

 

Revelation 2:12-13

  I know where you live--where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city--where Satan lives.

 

Revelation 2:24-25
 24.  Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you):
 25.  Only hold on to what you have until I come.

 

Revelation 12:8-9

  The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 

 

Revelation 12:12
  Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."

 

Revelation 20:2
   He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

 

Revelation 20:7-8

 7.  When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison
 8.  and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth--Gog and Magog--to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore.

 

Revelation 20:10
  And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

 

[GUIDO]

How well is this portrayed in the Passion? And how well do you think people will pick up on that and see it for what it is?

I am so glad you asked this. SATAN in the movie was what you will NOT forget.

I went to the movie opening day, first showing @ 12:PM. Came out exhausted, drained but fully CONVICTED. Went to the grocery store a few hours after that a found MONEY $$ on the floor. eeeekkk I could really use it right NOW @ this time. Looked around to see if anyone was near that could have dropped it an there was NO ONE, which is unusual for a store that size and the time was 5:15pm (busy time. I picked it up and really thought about keeping it, just easily slipping it into my purse. But I am not kidding guess what came into my mind?????? The Satan I saw in the movie, his face came into my mind and that was it. I just thought about Jesus in the Garden when the devil came upon him and was tempting him. And of him slithering through the crowd, etc.... THAT was it!! Wasn't going to let him win so I turned it into the office and they took my name and # and will call me in 30 days if not claimed.

This was not easy for me. The temptation was so overwhelming, especially since no one saw me pick it up. But "HE" is everywhere and always there. GOD was very good for testing me at this time on that day. He is an awesome GOD. It was a powerful movie that will stay with you, even in the grocery store.

[Not A Snowbird]

Thanks for posting. I noticed during the movie how well the score supported the film and how beautifully the music was performed. I will be buying the soundtrack when it becomes available.

[Poohbah]

And let's not forget, Gibson is not just a Christian, but a Catholic, the only religious group I know of that has been discriminated against by the gov't in the US (via the Blaine amendments).

This post is not a flame. I am a Catholic.

1. Re: the Catholics being the oly religion discriminated against by the US Government: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints could disagree with you with some justification. Please note the history of Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City: it was built specifically to ensure that the FedGov could bombard the s**t outta the Mormon Tabernacle if the Mormons ever got uppity.

2. What are the Blaine Amendments?

[WIladyconservative]

The Passion website says Satan's a woman with shaved eyebrows and the voice is dubbed over male - purposely androgynous and purposely seductive in that twisted kind of way that evil is.

[Fester Chugabrew]

I know a Lutheran Pastor who has given a presentation of his experiences with the occult during his younger days. He said that no one has yet been successful in recording his presentation.

I attended his presentation and saw that it was being recorded. Even ordered the tape. But it did not succeed in coming out. He said that on one occasion the playback was radio communication between school bus drivers.

[livius]

Are you sure????....

Exactly.

[McGavin999]

there is a long history of career failure after actors portray Jesus.

Not for this one, he did it right.

[ostephani]

"But will it lead to mass conversions? Probably not although a few may be touched."

Obviously, you have not seen the movie. I have. You are wrong. Like someone said previously, it is the best movie ever made. People are being more than "touched."

[ostephani]

Back in 1977, my husband and I were in Wisc. visiting his family for Christmas. We were all at my in-laws house--Grandma O., Aunt MaryJane, Uncle George/wife/kids...etc.

Uncle George was playing the guitar and we were all singing. Well, we decided to record us singing "Amazing Grace." It was so beautiful. When we played back the tape, that was the only song that was all garbled. Nothing else was. I always felt that satan didn't like hearing it.

[Bob Eimiller]

This movie is surely part of the battle of GOOD versus evil, we're all experiencing it with every attack on Mel Gibson, every editorial, every talk show, every criticism from the Hollywood elites, and every plaintive cry of anti-semitism.

We should consider ourselves privileged to be part of this incredible conflict.

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP - THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST

[radiohead]

I didn't know what the Blaine amendments were either, so I looked it up:

http://www.blaineamendments.org/Intro/whatis.html

"Blaine Amendments are provisions in many state constitutions that prohibit the use of state funds at "sectarian" schools. They're named for James G. Blaine, who proposed such an amendment to the U.S. Constitution while he was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1875.
...
Until recently, it has not been widely known that Blaine Amendments were passed as a direct result of the nativist, anti-Catholic bigotry that was a recurring theme in American politics during the 19th and early 20th centuries."

[jocon307]

Ack, you are right, I forgot about the Mormons.

As for the Blaine Amendments they are features of many (several, a bunch, not sure how many) STATE constitutions. They forbid the State govs from funding religion in any way and were largely enacted during the isolationist, anti-Catholic "Know-nothing" party days. They were adopted to undermine Roman Catholic education, which was primarily of the children of immigrants.

I believe that the very recent Supreme Court decision where it found that Wash. State was permitted to deny a state Scholarship to a student who wished to pursue a degree in Ministry was based on the presence of such an amendment in the Wash. State constitution.

Obviously the Blaine Amendments don't specify the Roman Catholic faith, that was a bit of hyperbole on my part.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

This is really amazing considering how busy Satan is in Hollywood and the movie industry. Shows how scared he is of it.

[churchillbuff]

O'Donnell said it's a weak film

Isn't he the guy who produced a TV series about a (liberl)_ senator that died after like four episodes? Verry boring

[Ladysmith]

How did the stores get this all in place BEFORE they knew it's marketing potential? Doesn't anyone see this?

Here's my guess. It's being made and distributed by the same Christian companies that fill up Christian book stores. And with many previews by Christians during the making of the movie (for critiques and accuracy,) I'm sure they considered and negotiated deals much ahead of time. SOP, even for Christian companies, as far as I'm concerned.

The thing that gets me is too many people don't realize things like crosses made of nails, etc., have been out there for many years and make the mistake of claiming it's all new. Well, it's not. I have the Nail on a red ribbon which is a Christmas tree ornament that hangs deep in my tree each year. It's symbolic of the moment I realized the depth of Jesus' sacrifice for me and my sins, torture and all. I had just gone through a terrible testing where I was seriously considered checking out, and realized what I went through was nothing compared to what Jesus went through on the cross. After years of atheism, just holding the point of that Nail to my own palm led to many revelations, another powerful and emotional moment for me. (Tears still well up when I consider it.)