Ennio Morricone has composed some of the most iconic scores in movie history: “A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More,” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “Once Upon a Time in the West,” “Once Upon a Time in America,” "The Untouchables," “Cinema Paradiso,” “The Battle of Algiers,” John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” “Days of Heaven.” And yet, he only finally won an Oscar in 2015 for his work in Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight." That was actually his second Oscar, if you count a previous honorary Academy Award he had earnestly received.
Tarantino has not been shy in stating how much of an influence Morricone has been to his work, even using Morricone's iconic scores for a bunch of his films. However, Morricone has revealed himself to not be a fan of Tarantino's work, previously stating that QT “places music in his films without coherence" and that "you can’t do anything with someone like that." He went on to add that he wasn't a fan of "Django Unchained: "To tell the truth, I didn’t care for it," he said. "Too much blood." He even once vowed to never work with Tarantino again.
And in a recent interview with German Playboy, Morricone continued his assaultive words on the director:
"He calls out of nowhere and then wants to have a finished film score within days, which is impossible. Which makes me crazy!” Morricone said [via The Playlist]. “Because that’s just not possible. And I do not go there anymore. I told him that last time. But next time I will be tough. Then he can kiss me.”
“The man is a cretin,” Morricone added. “He just steals from others and puts it together again. There is nothing original about that. And he is not a director either. So not comparable to real Hollywood greats like John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock or Billy Wilder. They were great. Tarantino is just cooking up old stuff.” The Playboy interview goes on to add that Morricone doesn't like Tarantino’s films, calling them “trash."