Ennio Morricone

By Alan Cho

With Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West being released on a brand spankin’ new, special edition DVD, there’s no better time to re-visit the work of Ennio Morricone. The man has scored several hundred films in his career, and on this album, Film Music, his best-known works stands alongside his more obscure work with funny Italian names.


This is not a re-release of previous work, but a complete reworking. Ennio produced, arranged and conducted the whole bloody thing himself. Accompanied by an A-list orchestra, the effect is startlingly powerful–the theme from Lolita has never sounded so haunting.


The music is of such operatic scale it’s hard to imagine even Clint Eastwood not being moved–and I don’t mean the Bridges of Madison County Eastwood, but balls-to-the-wall Eastwood from Dirty Harry and the Leone’s Dollars trilogy.


Pick up the album so you too can join him and shed manly tears.