The Passion of the Christ (Score)

While the film was beautiful to look at I'm not so certain of the accuracy of the historical take made by the movie. Debney did a good job with this score, which is mostly sound design in nature. However, Peter Gabriel's "Passion" has already tread this territory some 15 years earlier and with greater tone and sheer imagination. There can be no doubt that Debney listened to, studied, and in some cases excised ideas straight from that wonderful album. I appreciate that Debney used more orchestral elements to beef up the sonic state of this score, but this feels like he took elements from the sample libraries "Ra" and "Stormdrums" and added a few personal touches here and there and called it a day. There is nothing particularly unique here that Lisa Gerrard, Dead Can Dance, and Gabriel have not already done.

This should not stop anyone who wants to listen to this score from doing so. It correctly evokes a mood and conveys the place and time that this story was set, so I cannot fault Debney.