Although our cars were stuck in a mountain of snow on Friday (mine is still there actually) we made it over the the video store to grab some movies.
Last night we watched The Untouchables. I really liked it. It's pretty much like a western that takes place in Chicago. I know... it's not a western, it's a gangster movie... but still... the characters, the pace, the plot, and even the music made the movie very much like a western.
I guess the music had more of an urban feel to it, but it had a lot of similarities to Morricone's other work... especially Once Upon a Time in the West. There are some wacky drum synths at times that seem really out of place in a 1930's Chicago settiing and make it all to obvious that the movie was made in the 80's. Other than that, the soundtrack is very effective, most notably so during the tense scenes.
In a comment on my last post Jon asked what I thought Morricone's best work is. I'd have to say for the overall movie, probably Once Upon a Time in the west. The music for that movie was so haunting and beautiful. As far as an individual song... probably "The Ecstacy of Gold". This is the song that Metallica opens with on the album they did with the San Francisco Symphony.
But back to the untouchables... Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Robert De Niro all have big parts in this movie and they all did really well. I think a little bit more of De Niro (who plays Al Capone) would have been good, but that's just me.
The one thing that bugged me is the bizarre scene where the nerdy accountant suddenly becomes Rambo or G.I. Joe or something. It was amusing, but completely killed any sort of believability. But as soon as Connery takes over the scene, the story and characters become believable and real again.
1 comment:
i really like that movie as well...i think i saw on tv for the first time when i was like seven because my dad was a big fan...it's been a while since i've seen it, though. i think it is responsible somewhat for my love of old school gangster movies.
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