| CLOSE WINDOW |
|
FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of The Gospel of John (Jeff Danna)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you're open to the idea of hearing a masterful score for Jesus
Christ that utilizes an appropriate balance between the romance of a modern
orchestra and the vocals and instrumentation of 2,000 years ago.
Avoid it... if you cannot reconcile the topic and its interpretation, or if you're among the minority that believes that depictions of Christ be best left without any assumptive underscore at all.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Gospel of John: (Jeff Danna) In the Golden Age of
Hollywood, large-scale movies of historical religious origin took the form of the
massively popular Ben-Hur and The Robe. Even if you weren't in tune
with the religious nature of these films, they sustained enough epic action and
grand scenery to capture your attention. In the incubating environment of
arthouse films spawned in the 1990's and 2000's, however, the industry reached a
moment in history when word for word adaptations of religious texts were becoming
popular productions for both the small and big screens. Inherent in this
transition were the inevitable discussions and arguments over which translations
of gospels to adapt into live action, and no bigger was interest in this debate
than in 2003 and 2004, when Jesus Christ appeared in theatres in more than one
widely publicized and potentially controversial picture. Most of the attention,
naturally, went to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, with its
original language presentation and excruciating attention to violent details
serving as alluring factors. Overshadowed by Gibson's film of early 2004,
however, was The Gospel of John, director Philip Saville's late 2003
presentation of Christ's teachings with Canadian and British actors joined by
several thousand extras. Many important differences between the two pictures
should be mentioned, for the disparate directions that these productions explored
would have a very important influence on the music for the films. While both
movies are epic in length, The Passion of the Christ offered a much more
graphic representation of Christ's final earthly hours while The Gospel of
John, conversely, held violence to a minimum and instead emphasizes
significantly more of the loving teachings of Jesus. For scholars, The Gospel
of John was controversial not only because of the predicament it created with
elements of Jewish history (a glowing endorsement from the polarizing king of
nutty evangelists, Rev. Jerry Falwell, was another red flag), but also because it
raised questions with its English language use and reliance on the more recent
and mystical Good News Bible (from the American Bible Society), which some
scholars have argued as being an unreliable translation. This latter point of
controversy, however, turned out to be strangely good news for soundtrack
enthusiasts.
The hype generated by The Passion of the Christ extended to its score, originally assigned to Rachel Portman and then James Horner (and even absent any notion of a score for a while) before John Debney reportedly battled Satan in his studio in the process of composing and recording the eventual Oscar-nominated score. For The Gospel of John, as a modernized method of understanding Christ, a precarious opportunity for an intelligent score for the man and the era was presented to the filmmakers. Where you fall on the issue of musical appropriateness for the subject is one of those areas not too distant from your attitudes about the film itself. Composer Jeff Danna, known for his work in dramatic arthouse films, traveled the safest route possible for the score: the intellectual one. Instead of getting wrapped up in the mysticism of Christ and blushing with overt romance or melodramatic power in every cue, a characteristic that would plague Debney's music for the topic, Danna balances on that fine line between romanticism for the mythology and historical accuracy for the era. This is one aspect in which Danna and The Gospel of John always had a huge advantage over The Passion of the Christ. Danna and orchestrator/conductor Nicholas Dodd began researching for this film over a year in advance, allowing them to collect extensive information about what instruments and vocal techniques and languages would have existed at the time of Christ's life. This included digging around in music libraries, sound recording archives, Internet sources, and correspondence with Biblical scholars. Even if you are a religious historian and disagree with the merits of the film's translation of the topic, you have to separate that distaste from your analysis of the score. The chilling accuracy with which Danna and his associates strived to create an authentic musical representation of the subject is outstanding, as is the score's surprising accessibility outside of context. Understandably, Danna begins with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London (recorded in a church, no less) and incorporates the four sections of its mass to build a deeply involved, harmonious, and sincere foundation for the specialty instruments and complimentary musical structures that Danna would insert based on his research. The end result is what you would expect to hear from Danna's brother, Mychael, whose career has been largely defined by smart implementation of worldly sounds into a Western symphonic environment. Even if the dozen specialty instruments from ancient Roman culture and the Middle East don't appeal to you, their integration into the Westernized orchestral structures will. No better an example of this keen application is when Danna calls the audience to attention in "Here Comes Your King" with the shofar, a ram's horn used to signal or announce an arrival, and the tone of the instrument is overtaken beautifully by the orchestral ensemble. The voice of French soprano Esther Lamandier, a foremost performer of reconstructions of ancient Hebraic music, is prominently featured in Aramaic chants that are operatic in lyricism and proportion. Representing the soul of Mary, her voice is incorporated in "Mary Washes Jesus' Feet," "The Prayer," and "Follow Me." Percussion work by renowned Egyptian artist Hossam Ramzy includes performances on various instruments from the era. A selection of drums set to different pitches is integral to nearly every cue, as are the neys, which are early forms of a recorder. Danna's thematic development exists with these instruments as constant accents. His two primary themes consist of an elegant, but simple string theme for Jesus (lush when necessary, but usually beautiful in the simplicity of its respectful harmony) and the drum-driven theme for Roman forces, Pilate, and the general topic of betrayal. The powerful, percussive and brass secondary theme asserts itself with force in three cues, finally culminating in a bombastic brass explosion in "Jesus at the Temple." Viewers and listeners will be tempted, however, as impressive as these full scale sections are, to repeatedly enjoy the more contemplative, tender moments of the score. For scenes of poignant dialogue, the underscore never ceases to warm the heart and utilize the friendly, but foreign sounds of ancient instruments. If you were to compare this religious score to another one of note in 2003, Mychael Danna's Ararat, it would be easy to say that both are superior representations of religious authenticity. In rhythmic material such as "Jesus and Nicodemus," a score collector could easily believe that this is a product of Mychael. But The Gospel of John is much more accessible with its combination of grand orchestral applications, the specialty instruments, and the lovely vocals. Jeff Danna inserts just enough romanticism without entering the realm of cheesiness or melodrama, creating an atmosphere appropriate for the topic while exercising stylish restraint. For that achievement, his score for The Gospel of John is a masterpiece deserving of attention no matter your opinion of the film's interpretations or subject matter. *****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 52:55
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes detailed information about the score and film,
addressing the reasearch done for the score as well as the controversy about the
film itself.
Copyright ©
2003-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from The Gospel of John are Copyright © 2003, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/6/03 and last updated 3/16/09. |
