The Big Picture · Discussion
July 7, 2020/ 74 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
A tribute to Ennio Morricone, a run through the movie news, and then Juliette Lippman joins to argue over whether the filmed Hamilton counts as a movie.
15 films across 3 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Remembering Ennio Morriconethe composer, dead at 91
The Sergio Leone Man With No Name western whose theme, along with 'The Ecstasy of Gold,' became the shorthand everyone reaches for. Sean notes it has been parodied to the point of absurdity, from Mel Brooks to the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker movies, and now just lives as music.
First of the Leone trilogy Morricone is best known for.
The middle chapter of the Dollars trilogy.
Sean's favorite thing Morricone ever did, and occasionally his favorite film ever made. The score gives Charles Bronson's character a harmonica that pays off in the final duel.
The other Leone epic Morricone scored.
Gillo Pontecorvo's film, cited as proof of Morricone's range beyond the westerns.
Terrence Malick; Sean's example of the elegant, agrarian orchestral side of Morricone.
John Carpenter usually scores his own films, but for this Howard Hawks remake he brought in Morricone, who wrote what Sean calls basically a Carpenter score, only better. 'An amazing flex.'
Brian De Palma; another late-career collaboration with a filmmaker who had acquired the clout to hire him.
Quentin Tarantino, a longtime Morricone champion who had repurposed his old scores for years before finally commissioning one.
Cited alongside the Malick work as the elegant, beautiful register Morricone could hit.
A post-Man-With-No-Name Clint Eastwood film Sean spent the night listening to; one of the many scores he says are worth hunting for on YouTube.
The newsa Swedish shoot, Tenet, and the Academy's new members
Ruben Ostlund started shooting his new film in Sweden, where production could actually happen; Sean calls the title one of the greatest he's heard. Woody Harrelson stars, apparently as some kind of naval commander on a ship. Ostlund's The Square and Force Majeure (remade this year as Downhill) came up too.
Pushed from July 31 to an August 12 release neither host believes will hold (that's the week Amanda booked vacation). A jumping-off point for Christopher Nolan's Leo-coded insistence on the theatrical experience, and the debunked 'no chairs on set' rumor.
‘Hamilton’ Is a Movie. Or Is It?with The Ringer's Juliette Lippman
Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical, filmed across three June 2016 performances and directed by Thomas Kail, arriving on Disney+ for the July 4th weekend after COVID moved its release up 15 months. The trio weighs it as a movie: Amanda and Juliette on the jarring adjustment from a live ensemble to a camera choosing your point of view, Sean on how much livelier it is than the usual static stage capture. Then they get into the criticism five years on: the show's cavalier handling of slavery, its 'great white man' framing, and Miranda's borrowing from hip-hop, against the joy it still delivers. Favorite bits: the 'Satisfied' staging, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Phillipa Soo, and the ending, 'Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story.'
Also mentioned raised along the way
In the Morricone tribute Star WarsJawsPsychoThe Thing from Another World
Around the news The SquareForce MajeureDownhillNever Rarely Sometimes AlwaysEmmaGreen BookParasiteFamily Romance, LLC
Where the Hamilton cast turns up BlindspottingWavesMary Poppins ReturnsThe Broken Hearts Gallery8 MileLes Misérables
Coming up later this week Palm SpringsGreyhoundThe Old GuardLove & BasketballBeyond the Lights
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Fosse/VerdonGrease LiveTrue DetectiveGame of ThronesThe CrownStation 19EntourageThe Mandalorian
Theater In the HeightsOklahoma!21 Chump StreetA Raisin in the SunLes Blancs
Podcasts The Bakari Sellers Podcast
Ads MasterClassDisney+