The scores that Ennio Morricone was most proud of
Italian composer Ennio Morricone had one of the most prolific careers in the history of cinema, penning over 400 soundtracks spanning decades, ranging from classic westerns to horror staples.
His career in music began in the 1940s when he began writing classical compositions. This led him to pen several pieces for radio before arranging and composing music for popular artists. However, he soon found his calling through the medium of film scoring, often ghostwriting for other composers.
Luciano Salce’s Il Federale can be considered his first proper score, released in 1961. As the years progressed, he found himself working on comedies, dramas and horrors, although he became well-known for his westerns. Perhaps Morricone’s best-known work was on Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The director went to school with Morricone and continually returned to him for scores, resulting in some of the most iconic pieces of film music in existence.
Morricone has provided scores for directors like Pier Paolo Pasolini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Dario Argento, Brian De Palma and Quentin Tarantino. Yet, out of all of his scores, he has his favourites. Talking to Apple Music, he picked out some of those he is most proud of.
He explained: “It is difficult for a composer to pick his own favourite tracks. In each of my compositions, I have always tried to give my best, pushing my own limits, trying to overcome them.” Highlighting that some of his favourite scores have been attached to box-office failures, he stated that with each score, he tried to make a body of work “independent from the film that it was created for”.
Morricone picked out The Red Tent by Mikhail Kalatozov as one of his favourite scores. Released in 1969, the movie was nominated for a Golden Globe, although it has faded into relative obscurity since. Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900, starring Robert De Niro and Gérard Depardieu, is another one of Morricone’s proudest moments, with the score taking inspiration from several Verdi operas.
Additionally, Morricone selected the score he made for Adrien Lyne’s controversial 1997 adaptation of Lolita as one of his favourites. The film has received significant criticism over the years, but the brilliance of Morricone’s lush score has always remained undisputed. Another later pick of his career comes in the form of Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malèna, starring Monica Bellucci. The soundtrack earned Morricone a Golden Globe Award for ‘Best Original Score’.
Of course, Morricone couldn’t avoid mentioning The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, adding ‘The Ectascy of Gold’ to the playlist. The stunning score is one of many Morricone worked on for Leone, once telling Sight and Sound, “Friendship and mutual trust are essential to a successful collaboration.”
Elsewhere, he picked out scores as diverse as The Battle of Algiers to Cinema Paradiso and Days of Heaven. Discover his full list of picks below.
The scores that made Ennio Morricone proudest:
- The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015)
- The Red Tent (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1969)
- 1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976)
- Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
- Once Upon A Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
- Once Upon A Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
- The Mission (Roland Joffé, 1986)
- Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)
- Malèna (Giuseppe Tornatore, 2000)
- Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Elio Petri, 1970)
- Casualties of War (Brian De Palma, 1989)
- The Untouchables (Brain De Palma, 1987)
- The Professional (Georges Lautner, 1981)
- The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
- The Inheritance (Mauro Bolognini, 1976)
- Bugsy (Barry Levinson, 1991)
- Lolita (Adrien Lyne, 1997)
- The Legend of 1900 (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1998)
