(aka: THE GREAT SILENCE)
First off, I have to say the Morricone score is a definite keeper. It is one of his best, especially the opening theme playing while Trintignant is riding through the snowy wilderness. It repeats itself throughout the rest of the film with alternate funky sitar and trumpets cues at key points of the film. It's well worth adding to any Spaghetti western soundtrack collection and rates right up there with DEATH RIDES A HORSE (1968) and THE BIG GUNDOWN (1967)
The movie itself involves a hired killer named "Silence" (Jean-Louis Trintignant in a non-speaking role) who helps protect Mormons (who have a bounty on their heads and are forced to live out in the mountains) from the likes of Loco (Klaus Kinski) and his gang of fellow bounty hunters. We also have the wise cracking sheriff played by Frank Wolff who meets a tragic end in a frozen lake.
There's a fair amount of blood (by 1968 standards) as Silence has a habit of shooting off fingers and thumbs of men he is forced to have gunfights with. He uses an unusual machine pistol in a box case strapped to his belt. There's also a lot of mutilation in the film as witnessed by Silence in a flashback scene explaining how as a boy, some bounty killers came to his home and killed his parents and then slit his throat leaving him mute. Fortunately they don't graphically show that but it's implied.
The main problem with this one is the ending. It's so depressing and it involves the massacre of many of the Mormon people who were trapped and lured into town with the promise of food. They were tied up and massacred in a saloon. I won't say what happens to Silence and his lover Pauline (Vonetta McGee) but it too is depressing.
The Fantoma DVD for the most part presents a clean print although it's matted a little too wide for my tastes and is non-anamorphic. It also suffers from compression problems with some scenes looking like they had a cheesecloth covering the lens in a grid-like fashion. Really bizarre-looking.
Extras include an interesting interview with director Alex Cox who says the film was shot in the Pyrenees, although I thought it was up in the Italian Alps with interiors shot outside of Rome. In any case, the Alpine scenery could easily pass for Utah. There's also an alternate 'happy ending' made for some world markets that thought the original was too downbeat, but after seeing it, maybe the downbeat ending was necessary.
Despite it's grim ending, Sergio Corbucci made an above average western. Some people say it's his best but that's debatable.
Still recommended.
7 out of 10
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First off, I have to say the Morricone score is a definite keeper. It is one of his best, especially the opening theme playing while Trintignant is riding through the snowy wilderness. It repeats itself throughout the rest of the film with alternate funky sitar and trumpets cues at key points of the film. It's well worth adding to any Spaghetti western soundtrack collection and rates right up there with DEATH RIDES A HORSE (1968) and THE BIG GUNDOWN (1967)
The movie itself involves a hired killer named "Silence" (Jean-Louis Trintignant in a non-speaking role) who helps protect Mormons (who have a bounty on their heads and are forced to live out in the mountains) from the likes of Loco (Klaus Kinski) and his gang of fellow bounty hunters. We also have the wise cracking sheriff played by Frank Wolff who meets a tragic end in a frozen lake.
There's a fair amount of blood (by 1968 standards) as Silence has a habit of shooting off fingers and thumbs of men he is forced to have gunfights with. He uses an unusual machine pistol in a box case strapped to his belt. There's also a lot of mutilation in the film as witnessed by Silence in a flashback scene explaining how as a boy, some bounty killers came to his home and killed his parents and then slit his throat leaving him mute. Fortunately they don't graphically show that but it's implied.
The main problem with this one is the ending. It's so depressing and it involves the massacre of many of the Mormon people who were trapped and lured into town with the promise of food. They were tied up and massacred in a saloon. I won't say what happens to Silence and his lover Pauline (Vonetta McGee) but it too is depressing.
The Fantoma DVD for the most part presents a clean print although it's matted a little too wide for my tastes and is non-anamorphic. It also suffers from compression problems with some scenes looking like they had a cheesecloth covering the lens in a grid-like fashion. Really bizarre-looking.
Extras include an interesting interview with director Alex Cox who says the film was shot in the Pyrenees, although I thought it was up in the Italian Alps with interiors shot outside of Rome. In any case, the Alpine scenery could easily pass for Utah. There's also an alternate 'happy ending' made for some world markets that thought the original was too downbeat, but after seeing it, maybe the downbeat ending was necessary.
Despite it's grim ending, Sergio Corbucci made an above average western. Some people say it's his best but that's debatable.
Still recommended.
7 out of 10
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