ENNIO'S BACK!

While the rest of you were getting nostalgic chills watching a Star Wars intro scroll and listening to John Williams's iconic theme song, I was busy getting the very same feeling as THE H8FUL EIGHT began playing. (Just kidding. During the start of THE FORCE AWAKENS, I got the same nostalgic chills, but it sounded like a good way to start this.)


Seriously. I was absolutely thrilled to hear the first original western score from Ennio Morricone in how many years now? Morricone is my absolute favorite film composer. You've probably heard his music at some point in your life. If not, get some fucking culture, you goddam savages. Go here. And here. And here. And here. And here. That should get you started.


This score isn't as iconic as his earlier work, but goddam, it is fucking awesome. I whistled some of it on the way to my car. You know how much I loved the music? I broke one of my most sacred rules. I don't buy anything on holidays mostly because I think it's unfair those poor saps in retail have to work when they should be home with their families and friends. Well, I went straight from the theater to Best Buy. I suppose I could have gotten it from Amazon, but I wanted the score immediately in my hands. I got the only copy they had and played it in my car on the way home. I'm listening to it as I type these words. That is how much I loved this music. Here's a small sample. It's completely Morricone. You can hear familiar strains from his work on FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. You can hear some of the harmonica from ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. It brought me back to my youth when I first saw the spaghetti westerns. I was lucky enough to have seen THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY on the big screen when the complete version played at the Music Box. THE H8FUL EIGHT made me feel like I did back when I saw tGtBatU.


Morricone's music isn't the only wonderful thing about this movie. No. I loved every fucking minute of it. Everyone does a great job. Tarantino nails the spaghetti western so well that sometimes I felt like we'd uncovered a lost Sergio Leone film. (Although Leone would have probably elongated the beginning, leaving it completely without dialogue, just the sound of the whistling wind and some kind of weird sound effect in the background.)


I loved the new Star Wars, but THE H8FUL EIGHT was the one movie I'd spent most of 2015 looking forward to seeing, especially once I learned about who did the score. I was not let down. I loved each and every scumbag character we met. I loved seeing Bruce Dern--the motherfucker who killed John Wayne that one time, and he tried to kill Marshal Dillon a couple of times--back in a western. I loved the atmosphere (I felt the merciless cold while sitting in the theater). I loved the bloodbath. I even loved the flashback. I usually hate flashbacks, but this one is pretty integral to the story. And holy Christ, I loved the ending.


I want to see it again. Immediately. WHO'S WITH ME?!