Ennio – Music Box Selects (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy/Belgium/Netherlands/Japan, 2021
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Cast: Ennio Morricone, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Dario Argento, Wong Kar-Wai, Oliver Stone, Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen

Release Date: June 25th, 2024
Approximate running time: 156 Minutes 32 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 Italian, DTS-HD Stereo Italian
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $32.98

"Giuseppe Tornatore, director of the beloved Cinema Paradiso, turns his camera on his longtime collaborator Ennio Morricone (1928 - 2020) in a moving and comprehensive profile of the indefatigable composer. Tornatore’s documentary portrait explores the breadth of the maestro’s career, from his early Italian pop songs to the fistful of unforgettable film scores that he wrote, including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Thing, Days of Heaven, and hundreds of others. This examination thoughtfully captures insightful commentary from Morricone’s closest collaborators and contemporaries, featuring testimonies from artists and directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Marco Bellocchio, Giuliano Montaldo, Dario Argento, Clint Eastwood, Joan Baez, Quentin Tarantino, and more. ENNIO affords the master one last chance to recount his career and deconstruct the artistic process that led him to win two Academy Awards and author over 500 unforgettable soundtracks." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Ennio comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 41.6 GB

Feature: 36.4 GB

Ennio is a documentary that consists of newly shot interviews and archival footage. The newly shot footage looks excellent, and the archival footage varies in quality. Since the archival footage is essential to the story being told, lowering the overall score of this transfer wouldn't be a fair assessment.

Audio: 5/5 (DTS-HD 5.1 Italian, DTS-HD Stereo Italian)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in Italian and a DTS-HD stereo mix in Italian. Though most of the participants speak Italian, there are some who speak English, French, Portuguese, and Chinese. Both audio tracks sound excellent; they are clear, balanced, and robust when they should be. Included are removable English subtitles and removable English SDH.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian and English with non-removable English subtitles), a deleted scene titled The Democracy of Sound (2 minutes 6 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles and English SDH), a behind the scenes featurette titled Ennio’s Office Concert (6 minutes 54 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles and English SDH), an interview with director Giuseppe Tornatore (32 minutes 42 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles and English SDH), and a slipcover limited to 1,000 units (OOP).

Summary:

Ennio follows a linear path as it begins with stories from his youth, how his father was a trumpeter, his time as an arranger for RCA, and a well-rounded overall view of his work as a film composer.

Ennio is not simply a talking head documentary; it is a deep dive into the life and career of Ennio Morricone. Besides comments from those who knew and worked with him, this documentary greatly benefits from the recollections of Ennio Morricone. He completed the documentary before his death in 2020, despite some previously archived comments, most of his contributions were newly shot. That said, Giuseppe Tornatore, a long-time collaborator of Ennio Morricone, fittingly made this documentary.

Throughout his career, Ennio Morricone would constantly push himself by taking film scoring into uncharted territories. And though he would effortlessly assimilate into whatever genre he was composing for, he never composed anything that was not right for that moment. Ennio Morricone is a film composer whose music is instantly recognizable, even if you’re not familiar with the film it originated with. Ultimately, Ennio is an extraordinary exploration of the life and career of what is arguably cinema’s greatest composer.

Ennio is an essential purchase, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer