The opening theme to "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" are now legendary and is probably one of the most recognized pieces of music in cinema. It's also one of the most "fitting" pieces of music. It goes so perfectly with the film... all the odd sound effects, whips, cannon blasts and gun shots... used brilliantly to augment the sparse score combining electric guitar (Morricone used a Fender in those movies) with a few trumpets, whistling, voices and other odd sounds.
It seems so well thought out and planned. Each sound composed perfectly to fit the scene. Surely it's the work of a creative visionary, planning each sound and hearing it all in his head. Right?
WRONG.
The truth is that Morricone and Leone didn't have any money but really wanted to make movies the way they wanted to. Morricone couldn't afford to do it the real way - hiring an orchestra - which is what he would have liked to have done. John Ford movies were super popular and that was the sound of the western: sweeping strings, woodwinds, brass... you know... real music. Morricone didn't have access to this, so he had to cobble together a guitar, a few crappy trumpets and cheap sound effects (whips and whistles are much cheaper than 1st chair violinists).
The result? A completely new vision for the western and a lasting image for what music in cinima could be. So successful was this new vision for the western and so instrumental the music and sound that Morricone did about 18 movies between 1960 and 1970 in addition to Leone's four films. That's a lot of composition!
It was through constraints, lack of resources, and inability to gain access to the desired "requirements" that Morricone was forced to think creatively and invent a new art form.
We think this might be uncommon, but I think it's much more likely that someone with a creative urge that is so loud they can't silence it bursts through despite creative constraints than it is that someone has access to everything they need.
There's a great exchange in the movie Citizen Kane where Kane is talking to one of his colleagues:
Kane: You know, if I hadn't been rich, I might have been a really great man.
Colleague: Don't you think you are a really great man?
Kane: I think I did pretty well under the circumstances.
That line always sticks with me. I think that many times access to too many resources, too many options and too many choices crushes our ability to think creatively. It suffocates the urge. Creativity is born out of sparseness and desperation... people bursting with energy to do something amazing even though there is no reason they should be able to do so.
People are amazing creatures.
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