Legendary composer Ennio Morricone, who won an Oscar for scoring Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, has slammed the director and called his movies "trash." The 90-year-old Morricone became one of cinema's most acclaimed composers largely thanks to his distinctive work on the films of Sergio Leone, including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time In the West. Morricone racked up five Oscar nominations before winning his first statue in 2016 for The Hateful Eight, and was also given a lifetime achievement award in 2007.
That Morricone would finally win the Oscar for working with Tarantino comes with a twinge of irony, as Morricone endured a rather contentious relationship with the filmmaker. Tarantino initially engaged Morricone to write the score for Django Unchained, but the composer was ultimately able to deliver only one original piece due to time constraints. The relentless Tarantino tried again on The Hateful Eight, and this time Morricone came through with a full score, though he clearly did not enjoy the experience.
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In a new interview with the German-language edition of Playboy (via Variety), Morricone showed just how low his opinion of Tarantino has become, lambasting the director for his lazy work habits and unreasonable demands. Calling Tarantino "chaotic," Morricone talked about the director demanding he compose a full score for Django Unchained at the last minute, something he was not physically able to accomplish. "That’s not possible. It makes me so mad. I’m not going to put up with this. And I told him so last time.” Even so, Morricone did go on to work with Tarantino again on The Hateful Eight, but that experience was also unhappy, despite his Oscar win for the work. In his most scathing remarks, Morricone dismissed Tarantino's movies as "trash," and accused the director of lacking originality. He said:
“The man is a cretin. He only steals from others and puts stuff back together again. There’s nothing original about that. That doesn’t make him a director. He is nothing compared with the Hollywood greats, such as John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock or Billy Wilder. They had class. Tarantino simply recooks old dishes.”
Morricone also reserved harsh judgment for the Oscars, calling the ceremony boring and insisting he only looked happy as he claimed his statue because he knew he would soon be able to leave America and its “self-inflated pomposities and embarrassments like the Oscars."
Morricone of course is not the only person to suffer an unpleasant experience while working with Tarantino. Uma Thurman, who once was Tarantino's muse, endured actual physical pain when the director forced her to perform a dangerous driving stunt during the filming of Kill Bill, leading to an accident which left Thurman with injuries that have not yet fully healed. Morricone's accusations that Tarantino is unoriginal are nothing new either, as many critics have accused the director of simply lifting ideas from earlier movies and re-arranging them into his own works. Tarantino's defenders will of course note that though the director clearly draws from many influences, he always puts his own unique stamp on the finished works. Tarantino's particular style has become familiar enough that the term "Tarantinoesque" has even won inclusion in the dictionary.
It's sad that Ennio Morricone came out of his experience on The Hateful Eight feeling so bitter and indeed hateful toward Tarantino, but what's not sad is the great art that resulted from the composer's work with the director. Whatever may have gone down between Tarantino and Morricone on a personal level, the fact is that Morricone did some of his best work in years thanks in part to Tarantino's prodding. The director's personality may be pushy and demanding, but he usually ends up getting the results he wants, and that arguably is the whole point.
More: Uma Thurman Criticizes Kill Bill Backers For Car Crash Cover Up
Source: Playboy Germany (via Variety)
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