Broxton Comment-MB-009-88

ENNIO MORRICONE REVIEWS, Part IX

CITTÀ VIOLENTA [VIOLENT CITY] (1970)

Città Violenta is an Italian-French action film directed by Sergio Sollima, starring Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland and Telly Savalas. Bronson plays professional assassin Jeff Heston, who is holidaying in the Virgin Islands with his mistress Vanessa (Ireland), but is shot and left for dead by an unknown assailant. Heston survives, but is imprisoned after being framed for a murder he did not commit; years later, Heston is released from prison and tracks Vanessa to New Orleans, where he finds that she is now married to Weber (Savalas), the crime boss who framed him. However, when Heston refuses to join Weber’s gang, the hunter becomes the hunted, and he finds himself running for his life through the Big Easy.

Ennio Morricone’s score is built around two recurring main themes. The first, “Città Violenta,” is a dirty and gritty theme for orchestra, wailing guitars, and darkly insistent pianos, which gradually emerges into a strident melody that many may see as a forerunner to the theme he wrote for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight some 45 years later. The use of a nervous dulcimer in the theme’s second half is vintage Morricone, and the whole thing speaks to Heston’s dangerous lifestyle. The second recurring theme, “Con Estrema Dolcezza,” is a love theme for Heston and Vanessa, and is a quintessential romantic melody for strings and woodwinds, although the unusual addition of an echoing guitar in the background gives it an unexpectedly menacing quality.

The rest of the score is built out from the stylistics of these two ideas. Cues like “Rito Finale” and “Norme Con Ironie” offer more low-key variations on the main Città Violenta theme. Elsewhere, pieces like “Mille Volte Un Grido” are abstract and dissonant suspense tracks for banks of throbbing guitars and unusual synthetic textures, while other cues such as “Momento Estremo” are softer and more intimate, often featuring prominent performances from woodwinds and harpsichord. There are also one or two groovy light rock action tracks – “Svolta Definitiva,” “Disperatamente” – that enhance further the grittiness of the New Orleans setting, with “Disperatamente” being especially notable for its strange, breathless vocals.

The soundtrack to Città Violenta has been released many times over the years. The version reviewed here is the one released by Italian label GDM Records in 2012; the main theme also features on many of the dozens of Morricone compilation albums released over the years.

Track Listing: 1. Città Violenta (2:24), 2. Rito Finale (3:05), 3. Mille Volte Un Grido (2:31), 4. Città Violenta #2 (1:17), 5. Momento Estremo (3:18), 6. Con Estrema Dolcezza (2:41), 7. Svolta Definitiva (4:37), 8. Norme Con Ironie (3:55), 9. Riflessione (1:27), 10. Disperatamente (2:53), 11. Rito Finale #2 (1:29), 12. Con Estrema Dolcezza #2 (3:08), 13. Rito Finale #3 (2:34), 14. Città Violenta #3 (2:40), 15. Dolcemente Acre (3:15), 16. Città Violenta #4 (4:52), 17. Sospensione Sovrapposta (1:40), 18. A Caissa (2:24), 19. Città Violenta #5 (5:00), 20. Con Estrema Dolcezza #3 (1:09), 21. Riassunto (3:07). GDM/Legend 4218, 59 minutes 26 seconds.

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