Anthony Selby Cinema Final An analysis of Ennio Morricone's score in "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly"

It has been said that film music first appeared to cover up the sound made by the clunky projectors that were used to show the early silent movies. Film music has come a long since the days of the lone piano player or small orchestra. In fact, there are few films from which music is absent. But why does film music exist? ell, the simple answer is that it!s a way of emphasi"ing and underlying the important dramatic aspects of the film. In many cases, the music says even more than the words or the images on screen. #ne such example is $%he good, the bad and the ugly$&'()*+, directed by ,ergio -eone, and the final installment in his spaghetti western trilogy, so.called because the three films were made and financed by Italians. %he film takes place against the backdrop of the /merican 0ivil ar, and tells the story of three outlaws searching for a cache of lost 0onfederate gold, each wanting the gold for themselves, but forced, on occasion at least, to work together in order to find it. %he film!s score was composed by 1nnio 2orricone, a fre3uent collaborator of -eone!s, and it is regarded as an ideal fusion of film and film music. It has influenced numerous filmmakers over the years, 4uentin %arantino among them. %arantino attempted to employ 2orricone to compose the score for $Inglorious Basterds$ &566(+ but was turned down. Instead, %arantino sampled music composed by 2orricone for earlier films, a tactic he also adopted for some of the music in both versions of $7ill Bill.$ In fact, in the 566* !1mpire 2aga"ine! poll for !%he 866 9reatest 2ovies of /ll %ime!, %arantino listed $%he 9ood, the bad and the ugly$ as his favoutite movie. 2orricone:s music informs the viewer in ways that the images and dialogue do not. ,ergio -eone considered music to be so integral to his films that he would involve 2orricone in the early stages of production, and they would work together on what each piece of music stood for and how it represented the themes of the film. For ;%he good, the bad and the ugly,< the music was composed and recorded before shooting had begun, so that -eone could play the score during filming and create the right mood on set. %he film:s main title features the same five notes played three times= each time on a different instrument, with each one signifying one of the three main characters. %hese notes are played as the main characters are introduced, one by one, accompanied by their descriptions in Italian> ;il buono< &;the good<+, represented by a soprano recorder= ;il brutto< &;the ugly<+, represented by a scream from two male voices, performed an octave lower, a scream that 2orricone called the sound of a coyote= and ;il cattivo< &;the bad<+, represented by an ocarina bass, performed a further octave lower. ?ust as boxers have their distinctive entrance music as they walk to the

ring, so too do the protagonists here. %he audience knows which character is about to enter the scene and perform as their themes follow them through the film. /nd it is the low bass instrument that stands for the lowliest of the characters> /ngel 1yes, a.k.a. ;the bad.< ,imilarly, the use of two human voices for the theme of %uco, ;the ugly,< is an appropriate choice. %uco is portrayed as the most real of the three protagonists= he is the only one whose background forms part of the story. %uco has not seen his family for a long time and there is an emotional scene where he visits his brother, a priest, who informs %uco that their parents are dead. %uco justifies to his brother his choice of career as an outlaw, and their exchange leads to a physical fight. But %uco clearly still loves and admires his brother, and is devastated by the loss of his parents. %he scene adds complexity to his hitherto characterisation as a simple and idiotic outlaw, and marks him out as somewhat of a tragic clown. 2oreover, the scene humanises %uco in the eyes of the audience and makes his musical theme, the only one to incorporate human voices rather than instruments, more poignant It should be noted that because the same notes are played, there are of course similarities between the three musical cues used here, thus symbolising one of the underlying themes of the film, namely the difficulty in recognising which of these characters is ;good,< ;bad,< or ;ugly.< For instance, 0lint 1astwood:s character, Blondie, who is ;the good< in the film:s opening titles, often behaves in a way that contradicts this description. In truth, they are each comprised of a mix of these characteristics, although the mix has not been distributed in e3ual parts. 2orricone:s score often communicates the nature of the dilemma that the characters find themselves in, such as the scene where %uco marches Blondie across the desert, forbidding him to drink any water. %he eerie melody here is, in the words of film writer 0harles -einberger, ;tonally ambiguous.< %his ambiguity signifies Blondie:s ambiguous future= he is near death from exhaustion and only survives this experience after being nursed back to health at a catholic monastery. @erhaps the film:s most memorable piece of music is entitled ;%he ,tory of a ,oldier<, the only music to be accompanied by lyrics, when performed by a band of musician prisoners in a Anion prison camp to which Blondie and %uco have been taken. Bowever, the instrumental version also plays over additional scenes. /s has been mentioned, the film takes place during the /merican 0ivil ar, a war that saw 5C of the /merican population lose their lives, including around )56,666 soldiers= the number of soldiers lost by /merica in all their other wars combined is approximately D66,666. ;%he ,tory of a ,oldier< is thus a mournful and haunting ballad, which stands for the pain, suffering, and immense loss of life that marked this period of history. Euring the singing of this ballad at the prison camp, %uco is being tortured for information regarding the whereabouts of the gold. %he juxtaposition of shots of his torture and shots of the Anion soldier prisoners performing the song, reinforces it:s representation of pain and suffering. In a later scene, 2orricone returns to the

;%he ,tory of a ,oldier< when %uco is able to gain revenge on the man who earlier tortured him at the prison camp. /s %uco kills the man, the music plays, perhaps as a signifier of suffering, once again, or as a reminder of the man:s earlier torture of %uco, which would reinforce the revenge aspect of the killing. -ater on still, Blondie encounters a dying 0onfederate soldier. /s an instrumental version of ;%he ,tory of a ,oldier< plays, Blondie places his coat around the dying man and gives him a drag of his cigarette, before the soldier draws his last breath. %hroughout the film, 2orricone makes use of the sound of a military bugle, an instrument that consists of notes of a major triad. By contrast, the musical themes that accompany the three main characters &as discussed earlier+, consist of notes of a minor triad. %his disparity between minor and major notes, between the military music and the characters: music, serves to highlight the protagonists: separation from the military and political milieu. %hey are not fighting in the war, nor do they express an allegiance to either side= they simply want to find the gold. / trumpet, a similar instrument to a bugle, is the significant instrument in a musical piece entitled ;%he ,trong<, which is played during three death scenes. First, a trumpet melody is played over the execution of a thief by firing s3uad. /nd later, the same melody plays to signify the death of a soldier. Finally, ;%he ,trong< appears during the scene where Blondie and %uco have their progress blocked by a battle for a bridge between the two /merican armies. %hey meet the alcoholic and dying captain of the Anion army, who confides that his final wish is for the bridge to be blown up but says that he lacks the courage to give the order. Blondie and %uco decide to carry how his wish. hereas ;%he ,trong< earlier signified the deaths of the thief and the soldier, here it signifies the army captain:s impending fate as he lies on his death bed. Bis final moment of consciousness permits him to hear the sound of the dynamite detonating the bridge. #ne can see how 2orricone:s music enables the director to link thematic elements of the film, by accompanying different scenes with the same music.

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