Welcome to another double review of music-themed documentaries. Both of them feature two of my favorite film composers, Ennio Morricone and John Barry.

ENNIO (2021)

Not many composers can create music that pierces your soul quite like Ennio Morricone. I first discovered this legendary Italian maestro through Cinema Paradiso, so I was excited to see its director, Giuseppe Tornatore, directing this documentary. It serves as a heartfelt tribute to their long-standing creative collaboration, and it also dives into the iconic score. 

For a lot of film enthusiasts, Morricone’s work is well-known from spaghetti westerns, especially his partnerships with Sergio Leone. While westerns aren’t really my thing, I’ve definitely enjoyed the scores for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West. 

I’m really glad Tornatore got to interview Morricone himself, speaking in Italian, especially since he passed away in 2020 at the age of 91. His musical legacy is incredible; he composed over 500 scores for film and television, along with more than 100 orchestral pieces. Though he initially wanted to be a doctor, he began composing at just 17 while studying at the renowned Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Music is in his blood, as his father Mario was a professional trumpeter who apparently gave Ennio a horn and told him that music, not medicine, would be his life path.

It’s fascinating to catch a glimpse of how some of the brightest minds go about their days. The film kicks off with a metronome that sets the almost clockwork pace of his daily routine in his Rome apartment. We get to witness his morning stretch and how he composes directly onto paper at his desk, impressively without a piano. The main focus of the film is on Morricone’s musical roots and legacy, so we only get a few basic details about his home life. We hardly find out anything about his 60+ year marriage to his wife, Maria Travia, or his four kids. He did mention that his wife was his most trusted critic and a lifelong source of inspiration. 

For a long time, Morricone felt embarrassed about being a film composer because it was seen as ‘lesser art’ by the highbrow music community. His composition teacher and mentor, Goffredo Petrassi, initially dismissed popular media and applied arts, even going so far as to compare film composition to ‘prostitution.’ Petrassi’s snobbish attitude really impacted Morricone for many years, leaving him with a lingering guilt for ‘slumming it’ in the film industry. He even went by the pseudonym Don Savio for his early film scores to keep his work under wraps.

We all know by now how Morricone has completely changed the game in film music. We hear from music luminaries like Quincy Jones, Hans Zimmer, and John Williams, along with renowned directors such as Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, and Wong Kar-Wai, waxing lyrical about how he deeply influenced their work. There’s so much to learn about his life that I feel like I need to watch it again to catch everything. There are also some surprising facts, like how Morricone almost wrote the score for Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. The reason behind that really blew my mind! 

My absolute favorite moment in the film is when they talk about the haunting score for Roland Joffé’s Cannes Palm d’Or-winning The Mission (which I’ve mentioned in this post). I was shocked to find out that Morricone initially declined to write the score because he thought any music would take away from the film’s emotional impact. I’m sure glad he changed his mind because it’s genuinely one of the best film scores ever made.

I get emotional every time I hear Gabriel’s Oboe, and I love how they blend clips from the film with the discussion about how the score came together. It’s no wonder that Morricone (and most film pundits) felt he was robbed when the Oscar went to Herbie Hancock’s Round Midnight, which was mostly made up of existing jazz standards instead of original music. 

At 2.5 hours, this is one of the longest documentaries I’ve ever watched, but there’s so much beautiful Morricone music that I didn’t mind at all. I find the interviews with the maestro himself to be engaging and insightful. It’s fascinating to learn about his childhood and his creative approach to film scoring that makes his music stand out. His eyes light up when he talks about the iconic three-note motif from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which was inspired by a coyote’s howl. I’m amazed at how sharp Morricone’s memory was; he still remembers so much about his work from 5-6 decades ago!

If you love movie music, I highly recommend checking this out. Ennio is an amazing tribute that honors Morricone’s musical brilliance and lasting impact, showcasing his iconic pieces as timeless and unforgettable.

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The Sound of 007 (2022)

As a long-time James Bond enthusiast, I’ve collected a ton of cassettes and CDs featuring various Bond soundtracks over the years. So, this documentary is totally up my alley. It’s produced by John Battsek, who worked on Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007. He brought in English filmmaker Mat Whitecross to direct it, thanks to his background in music documentaries like Oasis: Supersonic and Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams. 

With 25 Bond songs in total, not every track can fit into the 90-minute runtime, so Whitecross focused on key milestones that shaped the franchise’s musical essence. It’s fascinating to discover the dramatic behind-the-scenes stories of creating Bond music. We even get an interview with Monty Norman (his last before he passed away in 2022), who composed the main Bond theme. Many Bond fans likely already knew that Norman repurposed a song he had originally written for a musical based on the novel A House for Mr. Biswas. While Norman came up with the iconic theme, John Barry made it iconic by adding brass orchestration and that unforgettable guitar riff. To this day, I still see Barry as the true mastermind behind the sonic identity of James Bond.

Since Barry passed away back in 2011, Whitecross has had to dig into archival interviews, but he skillfully combines them with insightful firsthand stories from his peers. I already knew that Michael Caine was his former roommate, but it’s still a treat to hear Caine share memories of Barry’s late-night work on Goldfinger and that he heard that legendary theme before anyone else. 

Speaking of Goldfinger, the film also highlighted Barry’s partnership with another legend, Shirley Bassey, the only singer to record multiple theme songs. I grew up with Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, and Moonraker, and let’s just say she really sets the bar high for 007 ballads. I’m also pleased they included We Have All the Time in the World by the great Louis Armstrong, even though it’s not the main theme and goes against almost every rule of traditional Bond songwriting.

Looking back at most of the Bond songs was a blast, but I can’t help feeling a bit down about the ones that didn’t get their due. Of course, the Daniel Craig era gets a lot of attention, but sadly Chris Cornell’s Casino Royale doesn’t get a mention. Adelle is in the film poster, but there’s no interview with her either; her incredible song Skyfall did get a mention, though. I do appreciate the perspectives from modern composers like David Arnold, Thomas Newman, and Hans Zimmer. Zimmer’s track for No Time To Die with Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell is fantastic, but I’m not a fan of the awful songs by Jack White and Sam Smith.

As a Timothy Dalton fan, it’s a bummer that A-Ha’s work on The Living Daylights and Michael Kamen and Gladys Knight’s contributions to License To Kill barely got any love. I also wish the film would share more cool trivia about alternative tracks, like Radiohead’s song for Spectre (which is way better than what they ended up using) or the one David Arnold wrote for Shirley Bassey for Quantum of Solace.

Music has played a crucial role in the James Bond films, so I think it really deserves a more in-depth documentary. A TV doc series that breaks down the different Bond eras might have been a better approach than just a 90-minute feature. That being said, Whitecross does a commendable job given the constraints. It’s no small feat to blend such a vast amount of archival material, covering over 60 years of musical history and artist interviews, into a concise and engaging story. 

Clearly, Whitecross himself is a massive Bond fan, so this film feels more like a celebration rather than a thorough investigation of Bond music. With EON no longer having creative control over the franchise, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to its 60-year legacy.