Ennio Morricone: Revolver

Quartet Records presents the premiere complete vinyl release of Ennio Morricone’s iconic poliziesco score for Sergio Sollima’s REVOLVER (1973), a violent Italian-French thriller starring Oliver Reed and Fabio Testi. In the film, a prison warden is forced to exchange a French criminal for his kidnapped wife, but the couple soon find themselves on the trail of a larger conspiracy. For REVOLVER, Morricone created the original song “Un Amico,” performed by Daniel Beretta, which is possibly one of the most beautiful melodies written by the Roman maestro (it was included by Tarantino in a key sequence of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS). Morricone also provides a wistful and playful love theme (“Anna”) and several background source cues in his inimitable style. Another major ingredient of the score is a cue titled “Revolver” or “Inseguimento e Fuga (Chase and Escape).” Morricone composed a 12-minute version of this dynamic piece as well as other varied arrangements to fit different moments in the film. “Revolver” is a driving, staccato piece of music for piano and orchestra that repeats and builds, creating a dark, propulsive atmosphere in the style that became Morricone’s shorthand for crime and gangster action. He took very similar approaches in the American gangster films STATE OF GRACE, THE UNTOUCHABLES and BUGSY.