Conducted by Nick Ingman

Orchestrated by Brad Dechter, Mike Watts, Frank Bennett, and Jeff Atmajian

Produced by John Debney and Mel Gibson

Release Date: February 24, 2004

 Integrity Music / Sony Music

     A labor of love and strong personal conviction, Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ seeks to bring the two thousand year old story of Christ's death and resurrection to life on the bring screen in as much painstaking detail as possible. Of course, any time religion is broached with something more than just a generalized aim, there are usually outcries. This time however, it isn't the grassroots Christian organizations that are raising the stink. Despite accusations of anti-Semitism, the film opened to a more than satisfactory eighty-three million dollars over it's first weekend, giving The Passion of The Christ an unarguable impact among movie-goers.

     The job of providing the score for this film fell to John Debney. His assignment comes as a breath of fresh air for those of us tiring from the likes of Spy Kids, Inspector Gadget, and The Tuxedo. This film allows Debney to return to the style of scoring that made him stand out in the first place. It also gives him a chance to tackle a subject of real dramatic importance, something bigger than the fluff films we've been accustomed to over the last few years. With this opportunity, Debney approached the film from not the perspective of a more serious project, but also in sharing the same conviction of belief as Gibson. Thus, with a personal element related to the film, Debney noticeably imbues his own passion for the story into the score.

     The music is highly charged with Middle-Eastern styles and rarely relies on Western conventions. Debney's occasional usage of strings is highly appreciated and enjoyable, but it is the traditional elements that make up the bulk of the music. The heavy use of such instruments as the Duduk, the Erhu, and the Oud really give the music a feeling that is uniquely separate from many of the other Eastern flavored scores (with the most recent example being Children of Dune) though at the same time conforming enough to the genre so that the music continues to work for audiences who are more accustomed to this style. The flavor is more than enough, however, to give the music a slight disconcerting, mystical feel that heavily elevates Gibson's already compelling visuals. Thematic usage is slight, but this is one of the rare times that the style of the music actually serves in creating an interesting soundscape without the heavy reliance on themes and motifs.

     For the soundtrack release, Sony Music teamed up with Christian label distributor Integrity Music. The release is pretty standard as far as score albums go, but I was disappointed in the lack of liner notes, especially in the fact that there are no blurbs to be found from the likes of either Mel Gibson or John Debney. Though with the myriad of interviews with both men available all over the Internet, it isn't too big of a problem. The track arrangement is also skewed, but this seems to have been a balancing issue between the dark first half of the film and the even darker second half of the film. Thankfully, there are no major missing cues and the soundtrack appears to handle all the main moments in the score even with a running time of just over fifty-four minutes.

     A different kind of score than what Debney has been releasing lately, The Passion of The Christ is a wonderful mixture of dramatic underscoring and ethnic stylistic trappings that faithfully embraces the film. Even if the film itself fails to garner your interest, Debney's score is worth picking up just by itself.