The late, great Italian film maker Sergio Corbucci (Django, Companeros) directed and co-wrote this incredible western, Il Grande Silenzio (aka The Great Silence) in 1968. It is as visually impressive and powerful in its silence as the greatest work of another Sergio, Leone, but what makes Corbucci's piece stand out is its total pessimism, honesty and possibly the darkest and saddest ending ever filmed. These powerful images are fantastic themselves, but when it all is given the magic touch of Ennio Morricone's music, it becomes clear this is perhaps the greatest of all the spaghetti westerns made in Italy.
Extremely great and also handsome actor Jean-Louis Trintignant is a killer named Silence. He has a dark childhood as his family was slaughtered in front of him and his own throat was slashed as a little boy so that he could never speak again, and he doesn't. He is a killer who kills for those who have been mistreated and abused by sadistic and barbaric bounty hunters and thieves that inhabit the area, Snowhill town, sometimes in the late 1800's. Another killer arrives to Snowhill, Loco (Klaus Kinski in a truly memorable role) and he is the other side of Silence: a totally ruthless killer who betrays his friends for money and the like, but still these two men share at least one thing in common. They won't shoot until their opposite has touched his gun first so that the killing could be told as "self defense". The late US actor Frank Wolff plays the funny Sheriff Burnett who tries to uphold the law in the city. Vonetta McGee in her first feature film performance (and a character in Alex Cox' Repo Man, Cox being a huge admirer of Corbucci's film) plays Pauline, a sad big eyed, dark beauty who has lost her husband to Loco's bullet. Everyone wants revenge and everyone also gets it, but never without realistic consequences. The film won't be any more merciful than the real life it's depicting itself.
This belongs to the most powerful experiences I've had for a long time. The magic of silence, proved in its most beautiful and sensitive form in the art of Japanese Takeshi Kitano for example, is totally unique in this tale of the mute killer. He naturally doesn't speak a word during the whole film but still he says much more than many speaking characters here and in much less noteworthy films of any genre. The eyes, the movements, the face expressions in cinema can be much more than any words ever could and this film is a very good example to show it. Especially the love scene between Silence and Pauline is among the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen as the suffered, but still full of (fateful) hate and anger, wife of the dead man falls in love with Silence and sadly doesn't realize to give up the thoughts of revenge before it's too late. The emotions and love in that brief and silent scene are real, they are perhaps even more than some real human beings can ever achieve in their lives.
The darkest and most brutal sides of human nature are here present all the time and the things get almost surreal at times. In Il Grande Silenzio, everyone wants to avenge the wrongs they've suffered, no matter if they're themselves old, weak, strong, young or anything, they just want to answer to violence with violence and of course it never works until there's one man who'd dare to say no to his instincts and feelings of primitive hate and rage. The ending of the film is so harrowingly real (and prolonged) it becomes almost unbearable in its sadness and both mental (especially) and physical violence. Again Kinski's eyes tell everything that is necessary. At this point I'll point out that I'm definitely not talking about the alternative (and very bad) "happy ending" Corbucci was forced to shoot for some foreign audiences like the Far East and North Africa, as the producers thought they would have probably disliked the film too much in its original form and finale, THE original finale I'm talking about. Il Grande Silenzio shows our nature in its ugliest form, in a place in which one has to struggle to survive but still should remember how can we treat each other in any kind of situation. The theme of violence, greediness and overall decadence of man has never been this strong in the Italian western genre and naturally the ending broke all the conventions and rules of the genre, because this film just wants to be and is so much more.
The imagery is stunning in the wintery mountains and white heaven in hell. It is snowing all the time and the coldness of the place comes through the screen. One extremely memorable element in the exteriors is the bunch of outlaws that moves with scythes and other weapons silently around the place trying to find something to eat, like horses of some casual travellers. The silence of the group when it arrives and surrounds the camera is very haunting and as we don't really get to know where they live and stay for night, it becomes almost a surreal element and a very creepy one. Another similar elements can be found for example in British Philip Ridley's disturbing Reflecting Skin (1990) as it has the mysterious black car driving around and other unknown characters haunting the small protagonist (Jeremy Cooper) in his journey towards the (again) sad ending. Surrealism in cinema is among the things that make the art so fascinating and fantastic.
The cinematography is Corbucci's film is nothing short of mind blowing with some great compositions and different angles plus some extreme close ups to make each scene look as powerful as their potential. The white is the dominating color here (in addition to the red that is poured by the characters onto the peaceful white) and it all is captured on screen with huge talent that leaves no space for questions about Corbucci's abilities as a film maker. Also the occasional shaky shots and zooms work greatly as nothing is used too often or without reason. Everything that is there can be explained and have their reason.
Again the music by the masterful Ennio Morricone is something that can make and makes tears come to the viewer eyes when heard over the already wonderful and powerful images. Cinema just could not be any more powerful when imagery, the eyes, the faces like these and music like this give power to each other and show sides of each other that otherwise would be hidden. The music is on the same brilliant level with the music in Leone's films, but it is so sad and without any "heroic" touches in Corbucci's vision of the West.
Il Grande Silenzio is a masterpiece of Italian cinema and easily the greatest achievement of its director. It has important and serious things to tell and depict, things that are (t)here unfortunately today as they were back then, and so the film is as topical and true as it was back then and will remain so until, if ever, its target will change. The cinematic magic could not be any more fantastic than it now is, and there are no any negative sides I would consider forth mentioning in the piece at all. A masterpiece, honest, raw, beautiful, mighty cinema and thoroughly real. 10/10
Extremely great and also handsome actor Jean-Louis Trintignant is a killer named Silence. He has a dark childhood as his family was slaughtered in front of him and his own throat was slashed as a little boy so that he could never speak again, and he doesn't. He is a killer who kills for those who have been mistreated and abused by sadistic and barbaric bounty hunters and thieves that inhabit the area, Snowhill town, sometimes in the late 1800's. Another killer arrives to Snowhill, Loco (Klaus Kinski in a truly memorable role) and he is the other side of Silence: a totally ruthless killer who betrays his friends for money and the like, but still these two men share at least one thing in common. They won't shoot until their opposite has touched his gun first so that the killing could be told as "self defense". The late US actor Frank Wolff plays the funny Sheriff Burnett who tries to uphold the law in the city. Vonetta McGee in her first feature film performance (and a character in Alex Cox' Repo Man, Cox being a huge admirer of Corbucci's film) plays Pauline, a sad big eyed, dark beauty who has lost her husband to Loco's bullet. Everyone wants revenge and everyone also gets it, but never without realistic consequences. The film won't be any more merciful than the real life it's depicting itself.
This belongs to the most powerful experiences I've had for a long time. The magic of silence, proved in its most beautiful and sensitive form in the art of Japanese Takeshi Kitano for example, is totally unique in this tale of the mute killer. He naturally doesn't speak a word during the whole film but still he says much more than many speaking characters here and in much less noteworthy films of any genre. The eyes, the movements, the face expressions in cinema can be much more than any words ever could and this film is a very good example to show it. Especially the love scene between Silence and Pauline is among the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen as the suffered, but still full of (fateful) hate and anger, wife of the dead man falls in love with Silence and sadly doesn't realize to give up the thoughts of revenge before it's too late. The emotions and love in that brief and silent scene are real, they are perhaps even more than some real human beings can ever achieve in their lives.
The darkest and most brutal sides of human nature are here present all the time and the things get almost surreal at times. In Il Grande Silenzio, everyone wants to avenge the wrongs they've suffered, no matter if they're themselves old, weak, strong, young or anything, they just want to answer to violence with violence and of course it never works until there's one man who'd dare to say no to his instincts and feelings of primitive hate and rage. The ending of the film is so harrowingly real (and prolonged) it becomes almost unbearable in its sadness and both mental (especially) and physical violence. Again Kinski's eyes tell everything that is necessary. At this point I'll point out that I'm definitely not talking about the alternative (and very bad) "happy ending" Corbucci was forced to shoot for some foreign audiences like the Far East and North Africa, as the producers thought they would have probably disliked the film too much in its original form and finale, THE original finale I'm talking about. Il Grande Silenzio shows our nature in its ugliest form, in a place in which one has to struggle to survive but still should remember how can we treat each other in any kind of situation. The theme of violence, greediness and overall decadence of man has never been this strong in the Italian western genre and naturally the ending broke all the conventions and rules of the genre, because this film just wants to be and is so much more.
The imagery is stunning in the wintery mountains and white heaven in hell. It is snowing all the time and the coldness of the place comes through the screen. One extremely memorable element in the exteriors is the bunch of outlaws that moves with scythes and other weapons silently around the place trying to find something to eat, like horses of some casual travellers. The silence of the group when it arrives and surrounds the camera is very haunting and as we don't really get to know where they live and stay for night, it becomes almost a surreal element and a very creepy one. Another similar elements can be found for example in British Philip Ridley's disturbing Reflecting Skin (1990) as it has the mysterious black car driving around and other unknown characters haunting the small protagonist (Jeremy Cooper) in his journey towards the (again) sad ending. Surrealism in cinema is among the things that make the art so fascinating and fantastic.
The cinematography is Corbucci's film is nothing short of mind blowing with some great compositions and different angles plus some extreme close ups to make each scene look as powerful as their potential. The white is the dominating color here (in addition to the red that is poured by the characters onto the peaceful white) and it all is captured on screen with huge talent that leaves no space for questions about Corbucci's abilities as a film maker. Also the occasional shaky shots and zooms work greatly as nothing is used too often or without reason. Everything that is there can be explained and have their reason.
Again the music by the masterful Ennio Morricone is something that can make and makes tears come to the viewer eyes when heard over the already wonderful and powerful images. Cinema just could not be any more powerful when imagery, the eyes, the faces like these and music like this give power to each other and show sides of each other that otherwise would be hidden. The music is on the same brilliant level with the music in Leone's films, but it is so sad and without any "heroic" touches in Corbucci's vision of the West.
Il Grande Silenzio is a masterpiece of Italian cinema and easily the greatest achievement of its director. It has important and serious things to tell and depict, things that are (t)here unfortunately today as they were back then, and so the film is as topical and true as it was back then and will remain so until, if ever, its target will change. The cinematic magic could not be any more fantastic than it now is, and there are no any negative sides I would consider forth mentioning in the piece at all. A masterpiece, honest, raw, beautiful, mighty cinema and thoroughly real. 10/10