“Exorcist II: The Heretic” (1977)
From the beautiful to the absolutely demented, while still playing in the same sandbox. “Exorcist II” is an unmitigated disaster of a film, a poor man’s sequel by the otherwise-great John Boorman. But as is the case with a few others on this list, behind a terrible film there is sometimes a tremendously good score, which Morricone, above any other film composer, proved time and time again, with shining examples like this. Starting off nice and beautiful with “Regan’s Theme,” it’s not long before ‘Exorcist II’ degenerates into madness with the chants of “Pazuz”’ and the female wails of “Little Afro-Flemish Mass.” Once you get to the bonkers “Magic And Ecstasy,” it hits you: this is the craziest we’ve ever heard Morricone. And it’s amazing.
“Days Of Heaven” (1978)
Morricone’s first of five Academy Award nominations (all five of which he’ll end up losing: for shame!), “Days Of Heaven” is one of those dream director-composer collaborations. Working with Terrence Malick for the first time, Morricone produced one of his greatest American scores, one that perfectly compliments Malick’s deeply felt thematic tendencies and Nestor Almendros’ sublime cinematography. The dreamy opener “Aquarium” isn’t a Morricone original, but sets the tone beautifully for the iconic title track full of nostalgic longing, the lilting flutes of “Happiness” and the wind-like sway of strings in “Harvest.” All creating a composition that’s the stuff of movie music magic. And here’s something to feed your anticipation: Morricone and Malick are set to re-team for the director’s long-awaited “Voyage Of Time” documentary.
“The Thing” (1982)
I know that this score was nominated for a Razzie, okay? But screw that, because “The Thing” has through time and good sense become recognized as one of Ennio Morricone’s eeriest pieces. John Carpenter famously decided not to score this particular film, instead commissioning the Maestro for the job (clearly as a fan of the Italian’s giallo work). Though legend has it that Carpenter wasn’t all that happy with Morricone’s work, only using bits and pieces of it in the final film, the originally released OST features tracks that Morricone himself selected. Clear your mind of the background noise surrounding the release and enjoy one of Morricone’s moodiest scores, beautifully evoking the wintry isolation of the film’s setting and the phantasmagorical suspense prevalent throughout. Recommended with headphones on and lights off.
“Once Upon A Time In America” (1984)
What ended up being the final collaboration between two giants of 21st century cinema and dear friends, “Once Upon A Time In America” ranks very high among Morricone’s greatest hits. It’s one of a few examples where you can randomly shuffle to any track and it will be instantly recognizable as the music Morricone created for Leone’s masterpiece; as emotionally epic as the film itself, it is the iconic use of the main pan-flute (listen to the opening of “Childhood Memories” for an especially piercing example) and ‘Deborah’s Theme’ which immortalize the score. Just as he did with ‘West,’ Leone played Morricone’s score on set in order to get the actors in the mood of the film, which sort of makes Morricone a co-director. A lovely thought for a breathtaking cinematic experience.
“The Mission” (1986)
“I definitely felt that I should have won for ‘The Mission,’” is what a possibly cantankerous Morricone told The Guardian in a 2001 interview. And, of course he should’ve won the Academy Award for this expressive and operatic score. “Gabriel’s Oboe” is a 2-and-some minute discovery of what heaven must sound like, while his sensibilities towards creating forever-memorable title themes continues with “The Mission,” as lovely a musical arrangement as he’s ever done before or since. The story goes that, in a rare moment of self-doubt, Morricone found Roland Joffe’s images too powerful and that he thought his music wouldn’t do them justice. See? Even geniuses can be wrong.
“The Untouchables” (1987)
Brian De Palma and Ennio Morricone got along swimmingly, and collaborated successfully again for “Casualties Of War” in 1989, but it’s the Oscar-nominated score for “The Untouchables” that bore the juiciest fruit out of their partnership. Morricone started to slow down with film scores after 1985, focusing on live concertos instead, but as with the remaining soundtracks on the list, he was still very much in his element when he had to add accompanying music to a moving image. The stirringly victorious “Untouchables” theme sounds too damn good once the crescendo trumpets hit to ever be cheesy, while ‘Al Capone’s’ theme fits Robert De Niro’s brilliant comic performance like a glove.
“Cinema Paradiso” (1988)
Morricone’s name is mostly associated with crime epics, Westerns and giallos, but it’s scores like the one he composed and orchestrated for “Cinema Paradiso” that make one take a step back and realize that in fact there was nothing this Maestro couldn’t swing his baton at. It was his first score for Giuseppe Tornatore, a collaborative partnership that would turn out a couple of more unforgettable scores to come, and much like the film itself, all the pieces are a reflection of a bottomless love for the sweeping powers of cinema itself. The string permutations that wraps the listener with encompassing warmth, as heard in the “Title Theme” and “Love Theme,” will stun you into silence.
“Frantic” (1988)
Roman Polanski’s “Frantic” is often forgotten when listing out the director’s greatest films, but it holds a special place in my heart. When I re-visited Morricone’s score (sadly, the only time the two worked together), I was immediately reminded of the mystery and the paranoia experienced by Harrison Ford’s bamboozled doctor. It’s one of the Maestro’s most profoundly subtle works: it’s expertly moody, with an absolutely incredible use of accordion sounds that come in and out, drowned by the high-strung strings. It’s a fusion of giallo sensibilities he’d mastered in the ’70s with the more classical orchestral work he was doing at the time, and the result is another wondrous score one can get completely lost in.
“Legend Of 1900” (1998)
By the time the ’90s hit, Morricone wasn’t nearly as prolific as he’d been in the past, and while he still made the majority of Hollywood’s composers look like children banging on pots and pans, it’s clear the peak of his career was behind him (likely reached, if one were to trace it, in “Once Upon A Time In America”). Having said that, he was still inspired to produce some gorgeous pieces of music, more classical than ever, for his good friend Giuseppe Tornatore. For the “Legend Of 1900,” his second Golden Globe win, he dazzled with passionate piano compositions and woeful strings that beautifully captured the spirit of the musical prodigy at its centre.
“Malena” (2000)
His fifth and final Academy Award nomination before voters realized that an Honorary Oscar was the only way to save face, “Malena” is the greatest piece of work Morricone composed in the autumnal part of his career. He found a way to musically describe the seductive powers of Monica Bellucci, who plays a sensual woman in a small backward Italian town. The emotional rollercoaster that is the film —both a coming-of-age tale and a social commentary on intolerance of narrow-minded communities— bares its soul and essence in Morricone’s music. The composer digs into his arsenal of instrumental arrangements and creates something jovial, inimitable and sublime.
Since this list was wrangled out from more than 500 film compositions, there can easily be another 30 Ennio Morricone scores added and something would still feel missing. Try as I might to do justice considering his furious output, it was with an incredibly heavy heart that I had to exclude some of his stuff from the ’60s and ’70s, a period in which he did little wrong. Of these, “A Fistful Of Dollars,” the infectiously poppy “Slalom,” “Death Rides A Horse” (another Western gem from which Tarantino borrowed), “The Five Man Army,” the offbeat and kooky “Danger: Diabolik,” Corbucci’s “The Great Silence” and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “The Hawks And The Sparrows” stand out.
In the ’70s, there’s “Violent City,” “Two Mules For Sister Sara,” “The Forbidden Photos Of A Lady Above Suspicion,” “The Fifth Cord,” “Vamos a Matar, Compañeros,” “Working Class Goes To Heaven,” and “Who Saw Her Die?” that all missed entries by a cat’s whisker. His 1971 scores for “Veruschka” and “Sacco e Vanzetti” are popular among diehards, but as good as they really are, I found that I couldn’t replace them with any of the others. Was I wrong? You tell me!
Morricone’s ’80s and ’90s, though not nearly as prolific as the first two decades, still have “White Dog,” “Red Sonja,” “Casualties of War,” “Bugsy” (the only Academy Award nomination not included in the main list), “Hamlet,” “Wolf,” and “Lolita” as some of the stuff that was seriously considered for main entry.