GREAT SILENCE, THE

aka Il Grande Silenzio (I), Le Grande Silence (Fr), Leichen pflastern seinen Weg (WG)
1965
Italy/France
Adelphia Compagnia Cinematografica
Director: Sergio Corbucci
Script: Mario Amendola, Bruno Corbucci, Sergio Corbucci, Vittoriano Petrilli
Music: Ennio Morricone
Photography: Silvano Ippoliti
Cast : Jean Louis Trintignant (Silence), Klaus Kinski (Loko), Frank Wolff (Gideon Corbett), Vonetta Mcgee (Pauline Middleton), Luigi Pistilli (Pollicut), Carlo D'Angelo (The governor), Marisa Merlini (Regina), Mario Brega (Martin, Pollicut's sidekick), Maria Mizar, Marisa Sally, Raf Baldassarre (Bounty hunter with strange eye), Spartaco Conversi (Walter, leader of the outlaws), Remo De Angelis, Jacques Toulouse, Mirella Pamphili, Bruno Corazzari (Charlie, a bounty killer), Mimmo Poli (the barman)

This title is available from Amazon.com on DVD

Well, I restrained myself from buying a DVD player for quite a while, mainly because I was awaiting the arrival of some kind of recording functionality (for a reasonable price). However, if there’s one film that could have been released that would sway me into finally making the inevitable purchase it is The Great Silence - Sergio Corbucci’s tour-de-force and possibly my favourite western, if not film, of all time. Even better, it comes in a pristine, widescreen version which even tops the rather good print that showed on Alex Cox’s ‘Moviedrome’ series all those years back (before it became an opportunity to repeat films that are screened every year anyway, fronted by annoying pseudo-intellectual Mark Cousins).

I’m guessing that most of you are familiar with the plot, and have probably watched the film at least a dozen times. Just to recap, though, it is set in the inhospitable, snowy mountains of Utah. A group of bounty hunters, led by Loko (Klaus Kinski), have descended on the town of Snow Hill; hoping to gain the reward on the heads of a bedraggled bunch of starving outlaws (who are desperately awaiting an amnesty). The only hope for the renegades is Silence (Jean Louis Trintignant), a gunfighter who only shoots those who draw first and agrees to help them out for a price.

The other main characters are Pauline (Vonetta McGee), widow who pays Silence to revenge her husband and who falls in love with him. Sheriff Corbett (Frank Wolff), a well intentioned if somewhat gullible lawman who has been dispatched to put an end to this legalised slaughter and, finally, Pollicut (Luigi Pistilli), a revolting banker who takes a cut of all the bounty paid out (and who happens to have been one of the people who murdered Silence’s father).

I find it very difficult to write about this film without descending into hyperbole, so apart from stressing that you really must buy this DVD I’ll just make a few observations that struck me whilst reacquainting myself with it. The photography is immaculate, the music probably Morricone’s best and the cast all performs with aplomb (particularly Kinski - with a perpetual smirk - and Pistilli). The art direction is somewhat similar to that of Django (66), with baroque saloon girls, tumble-down towns and thick, red blood dripping from every wound. There are other similarities; most particularly hand mutilation and an ‘unusual’ setting (as opposed to the desert that is more familiar from spaghettis). There’s also a macabre, AC horror comic feel to the proceedings, with rickety graveyards, scythe carrying outlaws (a la Grim Reaper) and many quotes such as ‘...for all we know he’s the devil’. Also there are the early parallels between Silence and Loko, both of whom carry out their work for money (albeit on different sides) suggesting that they are both profiteering from the unfortunate outlaws as much as each other.

It’s not perfect; some of the dialogue at the beginning rings of being explanatory and the Corbett character is far too dim (if likeable) to have been a great war hero. There’s also a fun scene where Frank Wolff throws a couple of potatoes in the air, ‘shoots them’ and then has to virtually duck out of the way as one of the crewmen chucks them back in screen.

As extras, the disc has a neat introduction by the aforementioned Alex Cox, who makes the interesting observation that most of the characters are dressed like hippies, a subculture for whom the director had a particular loathing (good fellow!). I was also tickled to find out that, as the film was shot in Summer, gallons of shaving foam were used to simulate snow.

There’s also a particularly weird ‘alternative’ ending, which Corbucci was obliged to shoot by the producers, who thought that the original (and far more famous) ending was too dark and pessimistic. This is really an example of how input from the moneymen can completely f*** up a movie. Featuring a resurrected Sheriff Corbett, all the bad guys dying and all the good guys smiling at each other chummily, as well as an outlandish armour plated hand, it is truly outlandish. You can’t help but wonder if Corbucci made it so patently ridiculous in order that the backers were obliged to stick with the original rather than risk the cinemas echoing with howls of laughter (thanks to Kevin Grant for suggesting this).

Overall, then, an essential and also timely - with it’s theme of the guys with the biggest guns taking advantage out of the weak and dispossessed for their own political and monetary gain - DVD. Buy it now.

Matt B