The Great Silence
by Sergio Corbucci
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Actor: Frank Wolff, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Luigi Pistilli, Vonetta McGeeDirector: Sergio Corbucci
Brand: Music Video Dist
Cinematographer: Silvano Ippoliti
Writer: Sergio Corbucci
Writer: Bruno Corbucci
Writer: Mario Amendola
Writer: Vittoriano Petrilli
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Director's Cut, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-27
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Fantoma
DVD Reviews of The Great Silence
DVD Review: A well-told story, but, really, why tell it at all?
Summary: 3 Stars
WARNING: Because my judgment of this movie was significantly impacted by the final scenes, I feel an obligation to describe them. You have been warned.
I hate it when people dismiss movies because they don't end in a predictable, or upbeat manner. I hate it when they call a movie "depressing" because the protagonist does not ride off into the sunset. I applaud when a director has the nerve to follow a story to its inevitable conclusion, even if that conclusion does not cater to the sentiments of the audience.
I'm a huge fan of Robert Bresson and I thought Bad Lieutenant was inspiring and, ultimately, optimistic. Most people hate movies like that.
That said, Bresson took us into dark places for a reason, and brought us into the light at the end. His characters wallowed in the pits of hell, but they persevered, and even if they were killed in the process, one never doubted that they had achieved something. Bresson never made a movie that did not strive to enlighten his viewers, to lead them towards a higher truth, even if he asked them to suffer a lot in the meantime.
"The Great Silence" does not lead viewers towards a higher truth. It is about a callous man who has compromised his moral inclinations to such an extent that he is incapable of thinking twice about doing harm to others, and the unfortunate souls who happen to cross his path. His name is Loco, he is a bounty hunter, and he is the central character of the film, even if we do not realize it at first, because we are instinctively repelled by him and drawn towards a mute gunfighter named Silence. Silence, in contrast to Loco, who is greedy, cowardly, and unprincipled, has at least one principle: he doesn't draw on anyone who doesn't draw on him. There is also a widow (whose husband was killed by Loco)who ends up falling in love with Silence. And an idealistic sheriff, who believes in the law, and intends to uphold it.
Loco, the bounty hunter is, as I have said, the principal character in this drama. Klaus Kinski, whose leering lips and steely eyes made him the most dependable psychopath in the business during his prime (with his performance in "Aguirre, Wrath of God" being the best example), is able to bring the bounty hunter to life here by shifting the emphasis from his madness to his practicality. Loco is a sadist, yes, but he's a very controlled one. His nerves never fray, not even when he's hauling a load of bandits across snowy terrain in scenes that delineate evil so nakedly that I am sure I will never forget them. His conscience never bothers him. He may seem like a harmless wisecracker, but this is a rock of a man, and he will crush you.
We care about Silence, about the widow, and about the sheriff. Silence has had a hard life, and he's not mean spirited. The widow seems nice enough. The sheriff has a good sense of humor and a firm committment to justice. Conversely, we hate Loco, and we hate the corrupt storeowner who intends to extort the widow for sex and is largely responsible for Silence being mute.
By the end of the film, Loco and some of his fellow bounty hunters have slaughtered the inhabitants of an entire town, killed Silence about as dishonorably as possible (after promising him a fair fight), mercilessly gunned down the widow as she grieves over his body, and killed the sheriff. They also kill some starving woodsdwellers who were lured into town by the promise of food. Basically, everything goes wrong. Then, the movie ends.
Technically speaking, the film is impeccable. The dubbed dialogue is somewhat distracting, but it hardly matters because the cinematography is extraordinarily bleak, snowy, and harsh, the characters are well-drawn, the score, by Ennio Morricone, is absolutely perfect. But in the end, the story has no dramatic value. There's no higher truth that emerges from the events. Yes, I know, Corbucci's demystifying the West, and apparently, his film is based on a true story.
Great. I don't care. The defense of realism or demystification is the equivalent of defending a movie consisting entirely of soldiers getting slaughted on Omaha Beach by making similar claims. Imagine watching the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan" for two hours. That would make for a good anti-war film. It wouldn't make for good drama.
So it is with "The Great Silence," which tells a story that has no message, no dramatic arc, no higher truth, nothing, extremely well. It demystifies the West. It is, I am sure, realistic. I'm sure there are many such stories. And I'm pretty sure many do-gooders eventually walk into a town like Snow Hill and meet their end at the hands of men like Loco.
In a way, this movie acts as the coda to the saga of the Man With No Name who became such a fixture in the Western. Watching it is like an act of mourning. But that doesn't validate it as a dramatic work. And praising it as realistic seems like a knee-jerk reaction to the undeniable craft, without taking into account the nature of the content, which is without any value of any kind. "The Great Silence" is a spectacularly made example of Level 1 filmmaking. It does what it says out to do, yes, but one cannot help but wonder why so much effort was expanded on making something so nihilistic and unedifying.
Description of The Great Silence
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