The music behind movies

By A. ASOHAN,thestaronline ,Monday January 12, 2009

(...)The Last Temptation of Christ (Peter Gabriel)

Speaking of what idiots we critics can be at times ....

Okay, I know there was a great hullabaloo over what Entertainment Weekly ranked as No.6 of the 25 most controversial movies of all time. Yes, it was an ambitious and contentious movie, with Willem Dafoe as a very human Jesus who has a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey). Yes, the religious folk were mightily irritated, and it was banned in many countries, including Malaysia.

I really wanted to watch it in 1988, but only managed to do so more than a decade later. I was mightily unimpressed.

Indeed, the fact that it was originally envisioned as a US$14mil movie but was finally shot with a US$7mil budget shows ... very badly. The sets were horrible.

The acting? We’re talking a stellar cast here, some of the finest actors of their generation, directed by a maestro, Martin Scorsese. So what if in true Hollywood fashion, the bad guys (the Romans) had British accents (including one David Bowie in a Pontius Pilate role originally slated for Sting) and the good guys spoke like Americans?

But when did Jews of olden days speak like modern New Yorkers ... what were you thinking, Martin?

Never mind. The Last Temptation of Christ had great music, composed by former Genesis frontman and creative force Peter Gabriel, who was deep in his “world music” phase. It was so good that he worked further on the music to release an album about a year later called Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ.

Some say it’s his best work ever, drawing from inspirations and influences from all over the world, but especially from the Middle-East and Africa. It introduced the greater world at large to such artistes as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Youssou N’Dour, and should be in the personal collection of anybody who calls himself or herself a fan of world music.

And as any role-playing gamer will tell you, it’s perfect for a Dark Sun campaign. (No, I’m not going to bother explaining the allusion to non-RPGers – it would take too long.) (...)