MORRICONE MADNESS: Ennio (2021)

By Sarah Jester

Ennio: 2.5/4 stars

4 years after Ennio Morricone’s passing and 3 years after its European festival run, Guiseppe Tornatore’s Ennio finally hit American screens. Yes, Tornatore of Cinema Paradiso fame. It’s a sprawling homage and unrelenting tribute to one of the most prolific and talented film composers that ever lived.

Ennio Morricone. Credit: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Let’s backtrack for a moment. Prolific is perhaps the greatest understatement of the century. Morricone scored over 400 films and television shows, not to mention more than 100 classical pieces. His musical impact is equal to his output. Ennio boasts glowing soundbites from the likes of silver screen superstars Clint Eastwood, Dario Argento, and Wong Kar-wai; legendary musicians Quincy Jones (RIP), Bruce Springsteen, and Joan Baez; and fellow lauded composers John Williams and Hans Zimmer.

Morricone passed in 2020 at 91 years old. I’m grateful to Tornatore for his heavenly timing in capturing these hours and hours of valuable interview footage with Morricone. Out of the 150-minute runtime, it’s generous to say that 5 minutes tops were allotted to discuss Morricone’s actual upbringing, family, and other biographical items of note. But I suppose it’s fair to say that we will always know and remember Morricone best through his scores. At least, that’s what Tornatore posits through this approach.

Tornatore escorts us chronologically through Morricone’s filmography. Me and every other b*tch in the theater sat up straight when Sergio Leone entered the picture in 1963. Leone and Morricone were classmates as young boys, and the two reunited after Morricone placed pen to paper for ‘63 Westerns Gunfight at Red Sands and Bullets Don’t Argue. 

And through this reunion, the ultimate spaghetti Western soundtrack was born. Morricone defined an entire genre via the Dollars trilogy. What Ennio was successful in, however, was demonstrating his reach beyond Westerns into nearly every other nook and cranny of genre filmmaking for 9 decades. (Yes, he started writing his own compositions at the ripe old age of six.) Leone and Tornatore aside, Morricone counted Argento, De Palma, Carpenter, Malick, and Pasolini among his endless list of storied collaborators. 

As part of my 200 movie goal this year, I watched the full Dollars trilogy (first time watch, if you can believe it), The Battle of Algiers (rewatch), Once Upon a Time in the West (first time watch), and The Thing (double rewatch). All scored by Morricone. The first time I watched The Battle of Algiers was in 2023 at Suns Cinema. Knowing very little about Morricone at the time—in fact, not even realizing that he had scored the movie—I went home, logged onto Discogs, and immediately ordered the cheapest vinyl I could find. 

My beloved copy of The Battle of Algiers soundtrack.

Morricone’s “Algeri: 1 Novembre 1954” is a terrifying, discordant first movement. The French Army descends upon Algerian revolutionary Ali la Pointe’s hideout as military drums beat, horns blast, and piano keys grow more frenzied and ominous. This motif returns throughout the film as an audible reminder of colonial omnipresence and brutality. “Rue de Tebes” is a devastating foil to the “Algeri” motif, with strings soaring high in grief. The newsreel-style cinematography and casting of real Algerian revolutionaries couple with Morricone’s score to pack a powerfully authentic gut punch.

Some of the revelations in Ennio are surprising. He considered scoring music for movies to be the lowest-of-the-low for a respectable composer. He occasionally composed under pseudonyms, feeling less than proud of his output. He envisioned himself as a purely classical composer and felt that he was falling prey to whims and parlor tricks within the movie business. At least, that’s what he tells Tornatore. And perhaps some critics felt similarly. In 1982, two of his works were nominated for the Razzie Award for Worst Musical Score: Butterfly and The Thing.

That’s right, John Carpenter’s seminal classic. Not to mention one of my favorite movies of all time. To accompany the American wide-ish release of Ennio, many theaters around the country held “Morricone Fests,” including my favorite screens in Chicago and DC. Had I not seen that title card twice this year, I don’t think it would have sunk in that Morricone scored The Thing. The score feels extremely subdued compared to the rest of his output. To me, it’s always sounded like classic, creeping horror.

I think it’s a testament to his range. He spent about half of the time blending in and the rest of the time playing with toys and tricks that hadn’t been invented yet. A chameleon in glittery cowboy boots.

After watching Ennio, here are some Morricone-scored movies I’d like to watch next year: 

The Sicilian Clan

Exorcist II: The Heretic

Days of Heaven

Burn!