By ANTHONY LUSARDI
8. The Great Silence
(1968), dir. Sergio Corbucci
Also directed by Sergio Corbucci, The Great Silence is
considered his greatest achievement. While Sergio Leone portrayed the Old West
as a gritty place filled with morally ambivalent figures, Corbucci's Old West
was a darker dog-eat-dog world.
Once again, spaghetti westerns were known for taking the
myth out of the romantic west. The next spaghetti western on this list strays
so far from regular western conventions that it's often called an
“anti-western.”
Taking place in the snow-capped Rocky Mountains of Utah,
The Great Silence is a tale about the evils of capitalism with tragic heroes
fighting against unstoppable forces. Here, we see a cold west where common
people have become outlaws. It has become a bounty hunter's picnic, and the
corpses are piling up all around the town of Snow Hill. But then, somewhere in
the mountains, there rides another man, and wherever he goes, the silence of
death follows. French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant plays the satirically-mute
gunslinger Silence, who hunts down, not outlaws, but bounty hunters, whom he
provokes so he can claim self-defense.
But the character who steals the show is antagonistic
bounty killer Loco (played by out-of-control German actor Klaus Kinski). Like
Silence, a trail of death follows him. This man's obsession for profit grows so
large that the bodies start to include innocent bystanders and law enforcement.
And when Sheriff Gideon Burnett starts bringing law and order, which puts
bounty hunters out of business, nights in the town of Snow Hill get even
darker.
Controversial for its bleak tone and graphic violence,
The Great Silence received praise for its acting, the utilization of the
snowbound landscapes, its tragic musical score by Ennio Morricone, and its
subversion of western conventions. But the most infamous part of The Great
Silence is its shocking ending. Corbucci was forced by film producers to shoot
another more "happy” ending for the North African markets.
Sadly, Corbucci didn't
have much of a happy ending himself. After the spaghetti phase died down, he
switched over to comedies, which were not commercially successful. Corbucci
soon faded into obscurity and for many years after his death, he was merely
considered an exploitation director. However, his cult status continues to grow
every year, and his spaghetti westerns, with their sadistic antiheroes and
scenes of brutality, have been cited as setting a new level of violence in
westerns.
Of all his pictures, The
Great Silence is considered his magnum opus. It is worthy to stand out among
other spaghetti westerns for its complete anti-approach to the western tale.
Trivia: Unlike most
spaghetti westerns, which were filmed in the Almeria province of Spain, The
Great Silence was filmed in Italy, primarily near ski resorts of the Italian
Dolomites. Yet, for scenes involving the town of Snow Hill, not much snow was
around. So Corbucci and his crew used shaving cream. Many scenes were filmed at
night, or with fog in the background during the day, in order to cover up the
green countryside.
ANTHONY LUSARDI
Lives in Rockaway Borough
He's a 2013 graduate of
Centenary College (now Centenary University) in Hackettstown, NJ
He currently work as a
freelance reporter
Anthony is an avid movie
fan, reader, and lover of arts and entertainment. I've attended and covered
music concerts, art exhibits, festivals, parades, book readings, library
lectures, and even a movie premiere in Parsippany and a movie shooting in
Roxbury.
[Continued next week
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