A strange western that has little heroic about it,
none of it's heroes being terribly nice. Il Grande Silenzio is more of a gritty
drama about the imperfections of man-made law then a traditional heroic tale.
Trintigniant as Silenzio manages to look both rugged
and refined, burnt-out and sensitive at the same time. He hasn’t got a a lot of scenes, considering he’s the main character, but all of them are memorable.
Kinski is excellent as the cold and calculating killer
Loco. Luckily he’s got quite a substantial role this time. Luigi Pistilli
creates a truly hateful character as Pollicut. Genre stalwart Mario Brega plays
Loco’s retarded henchman.
Director Corbucci’s stylistic choices are very
interesting and unusual for the time. Tense, dramatic soundtrack is another
Morricone classic.
Il Grande Silenzio is one of the cruelest and most sombre films I’ve ever seen,
with a violent, downbeat climax. A very unusual spaghetti western that warrants
repeat viewings and lives up to the hype of being among the best in the genre.
This is a movie that just didn't work for me. I thought it was rather heavy-handed, bludgeoning the audience with its message. Kinski was great though.
ReplyDeleteThat's fair enough.
DeleteThere are very few westerns I've seen which
I found interesting and watched more than once.
All these unshaven people staring each other down in rickety sets and firing blanks - rarely works for me.
IL GRANDE SILENZIO seems to me an attack on the genre, an attempt to do something different.
I love the rough cinematography, with those wild zooms. I love the look of blood on the snow. And above all I love that Kinski gets away with it this time.
For me, IL GRANDE SILENZIO have a well deserved place along with Leone's THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY as the best Spaghetti Westerns ever made. It's very downbeat, even the most comical and charismatic character (played by the great Frank Wolff) finds his end in a cruel way.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favourite westerns, together with Fulci’s late entry into the genre “Four of the Apocalypse” and Eugenio Martin’s excellent “Bounty Hunter”. Of, course, there are famous “Dollar” films of Leone but their status is sky-high anyhow so I shan’t go on about them :)
Delete