It’s an odd twist of the movie business that Ennio Morricone would regularly score tawdry thrillers and profoundly ambitious epics in close succession. But just a year after lending his talents to films that would prove to be clearly beneath him (Jaws knockoff Orca; the disastrous Exorcist II: The Heretic), it would be Terrence Malick’s immaculately photographed 1978 period drama Days of Heaven that earned Morricone his first Academy Award nomination. While some of its best moments are adaptive — “Harvest” reiterates Camille Saint-Saëns’ glimmering melodies from “The Aquarium” into emotionally wandering contemplation — it only strengthens the bonds Morricone makes between European and American classical music, and creates the perfect match for Malick’s stunning golden-hour visuals.

– Nate Patrin