I know neither of these dudes is “metal,” but I’d go to bat any day for both Ennio Morricone and Quentin Tarantino as two of the most “metal” people active in the film business.
In case you’ve never heard of Morricone, he’s one of the most iconic composers of all time – writing music for spaghetti westerns (e.g. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West) Italian horror films (his collaborations with Dario Argento are for my money better than the director’s work with Goblin), John Carpenter’s The Thing, and hundreds more. You probably at least know “The Ecstasy of Gold” from The Good, The Bad… because Metallica have been using it as their intro music for like thirty years.
Tarantino has been using Morricone’s music in his movies for years, but the two have never collaborated on an original score until his newest film, The Hateful Eight. While my feelings about the movie are mixed, one of my favorite things about it was Morricone’s music, which I feel is among the best that he’s ever written. It’s especially powerful if you see the movie in the massive 70mm format that it’s been touring in since Christmas, which includes a musical overture before the movie begins. A little teaser/interview video about the collaboration has just gone up online, and it’s a juicy one – enjoy below!
