Quentin Tarantino has been very open about his admiration of composer Ennio Morricone. It is clear where this admiration comes from. Morricone scored movies like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Untouchables, Days of Heaven and Once Upon a Time in the West. The guy is a legend. It is too bad that, in a recent interview, Morricone had little nice to say about Quentin Tarantino.
Tarantino used Morricone’s music in his Kill Bill movies and Death Proof and then signed Morricone to help score Inglourious Basterds. Of course, anyone who follows Tarantino’s movies knows that he doesn’t use typical scores and instead infuses his movies with specific songs that fits the mood and feel of his scene. Tarantino is one of the modern day masters at knowing exactly what song, no matter how obscure, will punch the message home in that particular moment of his film.
Ennio Morricone does not see this.
I wouldn’t like to work with him again, on anything. He said last year he wanted to work with me again ever since ‘Inglourious Basterds,’ but I told him I couldn’t, because he didn’t give me enough time. So he just used a song I had written previously… [Tarantino] places music in his films without coherence…. You can’t do anything with someone like that.
This statement is mind boggling. How Morricone can think that Tarantino places his music “without coherence” is puzzling. Tarantino uses his music with precise coherence, whether to build a scene’s theme or to juxtapose it with the action on the screen (the Reservoir Dogs ear cutting scene while Stuck in the Middle with You plays is a perfect example). The songs in Django Unchained are another perfect example, although Morricone said he didn’t like that movie very much.
The only thing I can come up with is the fact that these are two men from very different generations, with Morricone 84-years-old. The fact that the two men have different views of how to use music in movies is one thing, but for Morricone to throw out an offhanded insult towards Tarantino’s work seems uncalled for. I guess at this stage in his life, Morricone can say anything he wants. He has earned that spot in life.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
