Wednesday Minute
No. 49 | March 10, 2010

What’s the Score?

Our theme this week (theme introduction)
Unforgettable film scores of the 1960s

Featured this week
Monday         —   Bernard Herrmann:  “Psycho” (1960)
Tuesday         —   Elmer Bernstein:  “The Magnificent Seven” (1960)

Ennio Morricone:  “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966)

About Ennio Morricone

• Italian, born 1928; active in film 1959-present
• Educated at Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, he worked in classical and jazz before scoring films
• Best known for his collaborations with Sergio Leone and a host of Italian directors
• Among the most prolific of film composers

Honors

• Academy Awards:  5 nominations; Honorary Oscar
• ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards:  Lifetime Achievement Award
• National Board of Review:  Lifetime Achievement Award
• Venice Film Festival:  Career Golden Lion
• One score among the top 25 American film scores chosen by the AFI in 2005 (The Mission, #4)

Select list of film credits

• A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
• For a Few Dollars More (1965)
• The Battle of Algiers (1965)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
• The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969)
• Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)
• Sacco e Vanzetti (1971)
• Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
• 1900 (1976)
• Orca (1977)
• Days of Heaven (1979)
• The Thing (1982)
• Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
• The Mission (1986)
• The Untouchables (1987)
• Cinema Paradiso (1988)
• Bugsy (1991)
• In the Line of Fire (1993)
• Bulworth (1998)
• Malèna (2000)
• Ripley’s Game (2002) 

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Ennio Morricone, composer

 

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Sergio Leone, director
Tonino Delli Colli, director of photography

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Quote of Note
“Today everything is different.  There’s no action—have to wait around like everyone else.  Can’t even get decent food—right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I got egg noodles and ketchup.  I’m an average nobody—get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.”
—Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), Goodfellas (1990)

…58…59…60.