Taking a vastly different route from the usual dance party antics that can be found here every Friday night, this week I am showing some love for one of cinema's greatest contributors, Ennio Morricone. The man's work is vast and he has done many memorable scores, but I have a personal favorite that I will be focusing on this evening, which comes to us from 1971's Duck, You Sucker aka A Fistful of Dynamite.
What sets this party apart from most is the fact that I will be providing an entire sequence from the film, but it is a sequence that encapsulates why Morricone and Duck's director, Sergio Leone, worked so brilliantly together. It's also my favorite part of the film, so it's a no-brainer. The scene in question is the siege on the Mesa Verde bank, where Juan Miranda (Rod Steiger) believes he is robbing a bank, but instead, he is actually releasing political prisoners of the Mexican revolution, making him a great hero.
This segment starts with a little sampling of the Duck,You Sucker title theme, Invention for John, and sets up the entire segment in a nice way. After a little chit-chat, thing really gets going at the 3:05 mark when the song March of the Beggars begins to make its presence known and then plays throughout the rest of the sequence. What I love about this section of the film is how it shows what music can add to a film, as the music simply compliments everything that is happening on screen - which is essentially the point of a score - but this is a perfect example of it being done right.
Before I send you off, I should note that the 6 and 7 minute marks are SOOOO GOOD!! Sorry, I could resist.
Alright, this party's about to "blow up," shun (shun-shun-shun)!
