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I just saw this 1988 film for the first time. To call Scorsese's film interesting would be an understatement, it's really powerful and original stuff. I understand the controversy of the film, but on the other hand I think a modern society has to accept a film like this.
I was very surprised about the twist which occured around 30 minutes before the end, when Jesus went down from the cross. But happily, the end of the film was the way it's supposed to be.
I enjoyed Peter Gabriel's music, quite similar to Birdy but still different. Some of the themes were pretty amazing, like when Jesus compiles all his disciples and walks with them in the desert. I think hiring Gabriel was a wise and brave move, much more original and interesting than a plain symphonic score. Does anyone know how Scorsese landed on Gabriel? Nice to see many recognizable music names on the end credits, like drummer Manny Elias of Tears For Fears, Jon Hassell and Manu Katche.
I would like to see Peter Gabriel work more in film.
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Posted: |
Mar 19, 2007 - 11:20 AM
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By: |
Les Jepson
(Member)
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I just saw this 1988 film for the first time. To call Scorsese's film interesting would be an understatement, it's really powerful and original stuff. I understand the controversy of the film, but on the other hand I think a modern society has to accept a film like this.
I was very surprised about the twist which occured around 30 minutes before the end, when Jesus went down from the cross. But happily, the end of the film was the way it's supposed to be.
I enjoyed Peter Gabriel's music, quite similar to Birdy but still different. Some of the themes were pretty amazing, like when Jesus compiles all his disciples and walks with them in the desert. I think hiring Gabriel was a wise and brave move, much more original and interesting than a plain symphonic score. Does anyone know how Scorsese landed on Gabriel? Nice to see many recognizable music names on the end credits, like drummer Manny Elias of Tears For Fears, Jon Hassell and Manu Katche.
I would like to see Peter Gabriel work more in film.
I suppose you have PASSION, the score CD? Also check out SOURCES, which contains more music from the film. Also, Gabriel's score for RABBIT-PROOF FENCE is worth having.
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I also like this score. It's a nice blend of ethno musics from the Middle East and some contemporary styles. At first I found it a little obvious in the film but very much like it on its own- the pentultimate track "Passion" is very dramatic and emotional even though there's not necessarily a lot going on (long drones with ethnic instruments in and around).
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I suppose you have PASSION, the score CD? Also check out SOURCES, which contains more music from the film. Also, Gabriel's score for RABBIT-PROOF FENCE is worth having.
No, I don't have Passion yet...
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No, I don't have Passion yet...
get it. it's a good listen on its own.
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I never cared for this music. Rockers and film music don't mix (unless they're trained, like Kamen or Randy Newman, but most rockers are not). And these ethno-rock-new age fusion soundtracks helped pave the way for the "Hans Zimmer, inc." sound, and caused incalculable (and far-reaching) damage to the art.
What rubbed salt in the wound was that these Boy George and Bangles fans who would say to me "You listen to soundtracks? How weird!" were the first to run out and buy Gabriel's "Passion" and hail it as the greatest thing ever.
And I honestly never thought the film was very good either. There are virtually no sets, and its all filmed in old ruins and looks very cheap and unconvincing. Those 70s RAI bible story TV movies look like Ben-Hur compared to this film. Willem Dafoe was good, and Keitel wasn't bad, but everyone else was so miscast. (I mean, Harry Dean Stanton? Irvin Kirshner???). And in the final shot the camera actually runs-out of film -- and Scorcese kept it in the movie!
Yet the critics loved it. And what I found curious was the quite acrimonious reaction of many of these same critics toward The Passion of the Christ, for its "sadomasochistic" imagery...when Last Temptation of Christ was every bit as bloody.
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I never cared for this music. Rockers and film music don't mix (unless they're trained, like Kamen or Randy Newman, but most rockers are not). And these ethno-rock-new age fusion soundtracks helped pave the way for the "Hans Zimmer, inc." sound, and caused incalculable (and far-reaching) damage to the art.
What rubbed salt in the wound was that these Boy George and Bangles fans who would say to me "You listen to soundtracks? How weird!" were the first to run out and buy Gabriel's "Passion" and hail it as the greatest thing ever.
And I honestly never thought the film was very good either. There are virtually no sets, and its all filmed in old ruins and looks very cheap and unconvincing. Those 70s RAI bible story TV movies look like Ben-Hur compared to this film. Willem Dafoe was good, and Keitel wasn't bad, but everyone else was so miscast. (I mean, Harry Dean Stanton? Irvin Kirshner???). And in the final shot the camera actually runs-out of film -- and Scorcese kept it in the movie!
Yet the critics loved it. And what I found curious was the quite acrimonious reaction of many of these same critics toward The Passion of the Christ, for its "sadomasochistic" imagery...when Last Temptation of Christ was every bit as bloody.
"Rockers and film music don't mix". Oh, how very, very wrong. Rockers doing film music is perhaps the most exciting part of movie scores. It is *so* refreshing to hear a rock artist doing movie music in his own way, going away from the standard cliched orchestral Hollywood style which we hear in 90 % of all movies. I find it strange that people don't accept and respect that a few rock artists choose to score a film their own way. Talk about conservatism and narrow-mindedness.
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I found the music to be sublime. It was certainly anochronistic at times (especially the end title, exhilarating as it is), but I feel it drives the narrative beautifully. The slow motion bearing of the cross sequence is particularly well scored. An instance of "ethnic wailing" that is not only appropriate but which really enhances the scene.
I find this score much more appropriate for this material than something as western as Rozsa's music. That's not to say I don't think Ben Hur and King of Kings are not the glorious scores that they are, I just feel Gabriel's music is what a biblical film for the 80's needed. I know you nay sayers are shouting "You can keep it!" I will, with glee.
I find the film to be very effective. A little awkward at times...Keitel's and Kershner's performances particularly. But ultimately this is one of the rare religious theme films that questions things and doesn't take everything as gospel. I find this to be much more enlightening as it allows the viewer (if he is willing) to look within themselves to see where they stand with the many issues brought up in the film.
And the notion that this film is as bloody as the spiritually limp "Passion of the Christ" is quite silly. No exposed ribs, toothless gums and geisers of blood shooting into Roman faces here. I like gore as much as the next depraved heathen...it just needs to have a bed of substance otherwise it's meaningless. I know many did find Passion of the Christ to be successful...I guess I needed more character reflection, which is what makes Last Temptation so rich.
I agree Gabriel's album plays beautifully. I've listened to it dozens of times.
PS. I think Scorcese's use of the shot with the film running out at the end is inspired and genius.
PPS. I also love Gabriel's "Birdy" and "Rabbit Proof Fence".
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Forget the music. It's a brilliant film with or without it.
I can't. It's too good.
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Posted: |
Mar 19, 2007 - 5:12 PM
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By: |
Southall
(Member)
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"Rockers and film music don't mix". Oh, how very, very wrong. Rockers doing film music is perhaps the most exciting part of movie scores. It is *so* refreshing to hear a rock artist doing movie music in his own way, going away from the standard cliched orchestral Hollywood style which we hear in 90 % of all movies. I find it strange that people don't accept and respect that a few rock artists choose to score a film their own way. Talk about conservatism and narrow-mindedness.
Of course this is one opinion, but it's one I can't begin to comprehend. I'm afraid that 90% of all movies do not have "standard cliched orchestral Hollywood style" these days, about 99% of them have "standard cliched rock music Hollywood style" even if the score is written for orchestra, because of the influence of all these pop music scores and pop musicians. Gone are the days of music really trying to enhance a film with intelligence and wit. No composer like Alex North or Jerry Goldsmith would ever be allowed anywhere near movies any more. Hopefully some day the pendulum will swing back and real composers, ones who can actually compose, will be allowed back into a position of dominance.
Yes, I know there are exceptions like various Newmans, Goldenthal, Young etc, but they really are exceptions, and they're not working on many of the really big movies like would have been the case 20/30 years ago.
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Of course this is one opinion, but it's one I can't begin to comprehend. I'm afraid that 90% of all movies do not have "standard cliched orchestral Hollywood style" these days, about 99% of them have "standard cliched rock music Hollywood style" even if the score is written for orchestra, because of the influence of all these pop music scores and pop musicians. Gone are the days of music really trying to enhance a film with intelligence and wit. No composer like Alex North or Jerry Goldsmith would ever be allowed anywhere near movies any more. Hopefully some day the pendulum will swing back and real composers, ones who can actually compose, will be allowed back into a position of dominance.
Yes, I know there are exceptions like various Newmans, Goldenthal, Young etc, but they really are exceptions, and they're not working on many of the really big movies like would have been the case 20/30 years ago.
Well, it must be quite boring and sad being a film music fan with an opinion like that. Fortunately, I don't agree - I can see a contemporary film and find lots of interesting things about the score. And I'm quite sure I can do that in the future too.
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I was very surprised about the twist which occured around 30 minutes before the end, when Jesus went down from the cross. But happily, the end of the film was the way it's supposed to be.
Though protested and picketed by Christian fundamentalists prior to, and during, the film's release (remember that, a few years earlier, the same folks also threatened a boycott of NBC, which was to air Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth; that mini-series is now a staple on Pat Robertson's TV channel, which just goes to show that these fundamentalists are always spoiling for a fight, whether it's justified or not), Scorsese's film is, in the end, merely a What If? story, on the order of the old Saturday Night Live sketch, "What if Spartacus had a Piper Cub?" Nothing LAST TEMPTATION, Kazantzakis's novel or the movie, was meant to be taken as, well, gospel. It was just spitballing, really, and meant to pose philsophical questions more than religious ones.
As for the score, I have always wished that Scorsese had "discovered" Elmer Bernstein many years earlier (A Bernstein-scored Jesus movie -- wow).
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And I honestly never thought the film was very good either. There are virtually no sets, and its all filmed in old ruins and looks very cheap and unconvincing. Those 70s RAI bible story TV movies look like Ben-Hur compared to this film. Willem Dafoe was good, and Keitel wasn't bad, but everyone else was so miscast. (I mean, Harry Dean Stanton? Irvin Kirshner???). And in the final shot the camera actually runs-out of film -- and Scorcese kept it in the movie!
Yet the critics loved it. And what I found curious was the quite acrimonious reaction of many of these same critics toward The Passion of the Christ, for its "sadomasochistic" imagery...when Last Temptation of Christ was every bit as bloody.
'Last Temp' was stylised and not meant to be a 'representational' piece. The core of the thing is the theological notion that Christ would have to be as 'in the dark' in one way as everyone else, to be truly human. That was Kazantzakis' idea. Denis Potter's 'Son of Man' in 1967 had many metaphors reused by Scorsese including the 'Is it me?' opening.
Harry Dean Stanton wasn't miscast as Paul.... the scene where he proclaims the 'Christ of Faith' whilst the 'Jesus of History' looks on in the crowd and says, 'Crap! It didn't happen that way' is pure dramatic genius. Stanton is playing Paul like a raving American fundamentalist preacher projecting his own interests onto the story, which is what Scorsese's intent would've been.
'Passion' on the other hand IS pure sadomasochism, because it dwells at severe length on pain, draws it out (consider the scourging scene with reeds first, then flagella) and encourages the viewer to revel in this in a 'gosh' vicarious sort of way. It pretends to 'authenticity' but it isn't. And those slightly sickening scenes of Jesus clowning around in a grossly Oedipal way with his Mom at the carpentry shop are pure manipulative hokum and maybe quite cynical!!!!
The OTHER thing is that Scorsese was reacting to 'New Age' spirituality. The 'inner child' as Satan is something the Zeitgeist wouldn't take at that time. He knew just WHEN this film was needed.
One film is about the 'Incarnation' in individual human choices, parallel universes, redemption etc.. The other is a 'substitutionalist' message of suffering being redemptive which is a one-sided insight, and frankly a little sectarian.
Musically, I'm not that hot on Gabriel but a more symphonic score wouldn't have worked for Kazantzakis.
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What about Danny Elfman? 
Philipp
Alexader Courage wrote one of the first rock songs!
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One very good recent rock-inspired score is Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' THE PROPOSITION. Very good score for the film, and not a bad album either. I remember it rubbed the more conservative side of Film Music on the Web the wrong way when I gave the Cave/Ellis score an 'Editor's Recommendation'.
Glad to see that the two have been employed for Andrew Dominik's ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD. Would be interested to hear whether they've got two good western scores in them, not just one.
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