29 thoughts on “Ennio Morricone

  1. I only wished they’d played more of his groundbreaking, iconic Italian work. By the time the Academy caught up to him, he’d become a bit more tame (although still writing some beautiful music).

  2. I totally agree, Ju-osh. What a terrible tribute. Almost all of his best scores were for spaghetti westerns, horror films, and other Italian genre films, but they focussed almost the entire tribute on his medicore prestige pictures. Morricone deserves a lifetime achievement award for the Danger: Diabolik score alone.

  3. Yeah, I would love to have heard more of his stuff… basically the entire score from ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, as it is basically the best score in the history of film (in my opinion of course). The man is a genius.

  4. Love ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ score…all of the no-name trilogy stuff was amazing…they played it for ten seconds…shame…

  5. Agreed on the lameness on the montage, agreed on Diabolik, agreed on most of the points–but it was still great seeing him up there.

    And not only a Red Sonja mention, but Exorcist II and Orca were listed in the crawl.

  6. This was one of the highlights tonight. I also would’ve hoped to have heard much more from OUATITW and Danger: Diabolik!, which is one of my very favorite movies ever.

    Nevertheless, It was a genuine thrill seeing Mr. Morricone come out, and speak passionately in Italian. And it was just great to see Mr. Eastwood translate, just great television there.

  7. Does Eastwood actually speak Italian or was someone translating it into Eastwood’s ear? I don’t recall ever hearing that he spoke it. In fact he always said that he and Leone couldn’t speak to each other on set due to language.

  8. How could they even let Celine Dion on the same stage as the great Morricone? That’s like having Hitler do an interpretive dance for the humanitarian award.

  9. They could even bother mentioning ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST in a list that somehow found room for EXORCIST II and FAT MAN AND LITTLE BOY. Disgraceful.

    It looked to me like Morricone had written his speech ahead of time, had it translated, and Eastwood was reading it off the TelePrompter.

  10. Once Upon a Time in the West is an egregious oversight. Definitely my favorite overall score….though I haven’t heard all 400 of them.

  11. Love ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ score…all of the no-name trilogy stuff was amazing…they played it for ten seconds…shame…

  12. How could they even let Celine Dion on the same stage as the great Morricone? That’s like having Hitler do an interpretive dance for the humanitarian award.

  13. Once Upon a Time in the West is an egregious oversight. Definitely my favorite overall score….though I haven’t heard all 400 of them.

  14. I’m with you Matthew!

    That score has some of the most transcendent melodies ever. I looked all over Toronto for the out-of-print CD before lucking into it in a small store. (Today I could download it but that hardly has the same thrill.)

    On the off-chance someone here doesn’t know, that “new song” of Celine’s was just the main theme to Once Upon a Time in America + lyrics.

    I didn’t find it horrific mostly because it’s such a frickin beautiful melody that even Celine couldn’t kill it.

  15. Nothing, I think.

    They just poached the melody from it at random. Makes at least as much sense as having him write something new.

    Relatively speaking, it’s not a well-known film and outside of people on this board I’m sure most people didn’t notice.

    Which is a shame on multiple levels.

  16. if you all don’t know, you should.

    quincy jones and celine dion are doing a disc

    of morricone covers — with lyrics.

    horrible but true.

  17. Oh man…is that for real christian? Geez. I’ll be sure not to run out and get that one.

    I like the score for The Untouchables as well. Hell, he’s got a body of work that put most mere mortals to shame. Lovely to see him honored.

  18. a good friend shared a plane ride with quincy a month ago (who apparently was a prince) and quincy shared this bit of awful news. even he said it sounded like a bad idea, but was actually great.

    so celine’s appearance here was part of the machine at work.

    morricone…with lyrics!

    just try it on fer size at home:

    (whistling theme from TGTBTU: “Who is that man? With no name. Who is that man? With low fame…”

    coming to vegas soon.

  19. His score for “The Mission” with Robert DeNiro is beautiful. Sarah Brightman wanted to add lyrics to it and sing it in her concert. He kept turning her down but she pestered him until he finally gave in and allowed her to sing it. Chas

  20. Heh heh. I can see Celine in a poncho.

    I don’t even much like the Hugo Montenegro versions of TGTBTU so I can’t imagine Morricone: Now With 100% More Words! will do much for me.

    I hope the old guy makes a pile of dough for it though.

  21. Heh heh. I can see Celine in a poncho.

    I don’t even much like the Hugo Montenegro versions of TGTBTU so I can’t imagine Morricone: Now With 100% More Words! will do much for me.

    I hope the old guy makes a pile of dough for it though.

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