comment #1

Mr. Peel says ...

Watching him was like watching a God walk among mere mortals.

comment #2

Ju-osh says ...

I only wished they'd played more of his groundbreaking, iconic Italian work. By the time the Academy caught up to him, he'd become a bit more tame (although still writing some beautiful music).

comment #3

rocco says ...

Wow, Jeff, you're giddy. Seems Arkin winning has soothed your soul even more than nourishing personal stuff.

comment #4

JD says ...

I totally agree, Ju-osh. What a terrible tribute. Almost all of his best scores were for spaghetti westerns, horror films, and other Italian genre films, but they focussed almost the entire tribute on his medicore prestige pictures. Morricone deserves a lifetime achievement award for the Danger: Diabolik score alone.

comment #5

Matthew says ...

Yeah, I would love to have heard more of his stuff... basically the entire score from ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, as it is basically the best score in the history of film (in my opinion of course). The man is a genius.

comment #6

Josh Massey says ...

I did love the score for The Untouchables.

And is that the only time in Oscar history that Red Sonja has been mentioned during the ceremony?

comment #7

rocco says ...

Love 'Once Upon a Time in the West' score...all of the no-name trilogy stuff was amazing...they played it for ten seconds...shame...

comment #8

Mr. Peel says ...

Agreed on the lameness on the montage, agreed on Diabolik, agreed on most of the points--but it was still great seeing him up there.

And not only a Red Sonja mention, but Exorcist II and Orca were listed in the crawl.

comment #9

alynch says ...

at least they mentioned Days of Heaven. It is definitely the best and most unique of his oscar nominated scores.

comment #10

goodvibe61 says ...

This was one of the highlights tonight. I also would've hoped to have heard much more from OUATITW and Danger: Diabolik!, which is one of my very favorite movies ever.

Nevertheless, It was a genuine thrill seeing Mr. Morricone come out, and speak passionately in Italian. And it was just great to see Mr. Eastwood translate, just great television there.

comment #11

alynch says ...

Does Eastwood actually speak Italian or was someone translating it into Eastwood's ear? I don't recall ever hearing that he spoke it. In fact he always said that he and Leone couldn't speak to each other on set due to language.

comment #12

Craig Kennedy says ...

How could they even let Celine Dion on the same stage as the great Morricone? That's like having Hitler do an interpretive dance for the humanitarian award.

comment #13

Cadavra says ...

They could even bother mentioning ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST in a list that somehow found room for EXORCIST II and FAT MAN AND LITTLE BOY. Disgraceful.

It looked to me like Morricone had written his speech ahead of time, had it translated, and Eastwood was reading it off the TelePrompter.

comment #14

Craig Kennedy says ...

Once Upon a Time in the West is an egregious oversight. Definitely my favorite overall score....though I haven't heard all 400 of them.

comment #15

DavidF says ...

I'm with you Matthew!
That score has some of the most transcendent melodies ever. I looked all over Toronto for the out-of-print CD before lucking into it in a small store. (Today I could download it but that hardly has the same thrill.)

On the off-chance someone here doesn't know, that "new song" of Celine's was just the main theme to Once Upon a Time in America + lyrics.

I didn't find it horrific mostly because it's such a frickin beautiful melody that even Celine couldn't kill it.

comment #16

Mr. Peel says ...

But could someone tell me exactly what those lyrics have to do with Once Upon A Time In America?

comment #17

DavidF says ...

Nothing, I think.
They just poached the melody from it at random. Makes at least as much sense as having him write something new.
Relatively speaking, it's not a well-known film and outside of people on this board I'm sure most people didn't notice.

Which is a shame on multiple levels.

comment #18

christian says ...

if you all don't know, you should.

quincy jones and celine dion are doing a disc
of morricone covers -- with lyrics.

horrible but true.

comment #19

Craig Kennedy says ...

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

comment #20

dixiedugan says ...

Oh man...is that for real christian? Geez. I'll be sure not to run out and get that one.

I like the score for The Untouchables as well. Hell, he's got a body of work that put most mere mortals to shame. Lovely to see him honored.

comment #21

christian says ...

a good friend shared a plane ride with quincy a month ago (who apparently was a prince) and quincy shared this bit of awful news. even he said it sounded like a bad idea, but was actually great.

so celine's appearance here was part of the machine at work.

morricone...with lyrics!

just try it on fer size at home:

(whistling theme from TGTBTU: "Who is that man? With no name. Who is that man? With low fame..."

coming to vegas soon.

comment #22

cbuckie says ...

His score for "The Mission" with Robert DeNiro is beautiful. Sarah Brightman wanted to add lyrics to it and sing it in her concert. He kept turning her down but she pestered him until he finally gave in and allowed her to sing it. Chas

comment #23

Craig Kennedy says ...

Heh heh. I can see Celine in a poncho.

I don't even much like the Hugo Montenegro versions of TGTBTU so I can't imagine Morricone: Now With 100% More Words! will do much for me.

I hope the old guy makes a pile of dough for it though.