"To tell the truth, I didn’t care for it. Too much blood," legendary composer Ennio Morricone said about Quentin Tarantino‘s "Django Unchained" in 2013. And while that might sound like he was throwing a bit of shade at the film, Morricone later clarified his statement saying: "Regarding ‘Django,’ the thing is that I cannot see too much blood in a movie due to my character, is how I feel and impress me especially with a film that is made very well and where the blood is well shot. But this has nothing to do with my respect for that Tarantino which remains great." But it would seem one sequence from Tarantino’s slavery revenge western really pushed it over the edge for Morricone.
Chatting with Esquire UK, the composer stated: "In ‘Django Unchained,’ there’s that sequence where a dog attacks and eats a man. That was too much. I sent a message to Quentin Tarantino and told him that was too strong."
In case you forgot, he’s referring to the rather grim scene in which Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Calvin Candie sets a pack of dogs upon a slave, who is torn apart and killed, while Django (Jamie Foxx) and Schultz (Christoph Waltz) uneasily watch. It certainly isn’t the easiest scene to watch, and maybe it’s not a surprise that for all the Morricone songs on the official soundtrack (and a few more that aren’t), it’s actually Jerry Goldmith and Pat Metheny‘s "Nicaragua" from "Under Fire" that’s used at the close of the sequence.
Thoughts? Is Morricone right about this scene, or does it work precisely because it’s so vicious? Let us know below.