Friday, December 30, 2011

Il grande silenzio (The Great Silence) by Sergio Corbucci

When speaking of Corbucci, the first thing that comes to most people's minds is Django, famous spaghetti western, staring Franco Nero. This film is a lot like Django. Well, in a way all of Corbucci's westerns are alike. There is a central figure, Franco Nero, and there are the bad guys that need to get asskicked, and good guys that need help. Now, that is just basic knowlege when it comes to spaghetti subgenre. What happens inbetween is what matters.
The main difference between classic American westerns and Italian "spaghetti" westerns is the fact that Italian films spoke more freely about political stuff, what American directors didn't even think about doing. They were too general when speaking of it, while Italians didn't really have a good reason to hide all of that. They just let it flow through their films. In this case, it's not a typical spaghetti western. They're usually set in remote parts of the west, desert-like plains, with small towns, saloons.... This is a genuine snow western. Here, riders fight the snow rush and not the heat. A new gunman is in town. He doesn't speak, he just kills. He's filled with anger and is in pursuit of vengeance. Who is he against? Why? What's everyones agenda? Well, that's the only thing you can actually spoil in these films, so I'll skip that part. If you've seen one spaghetti western and you're used to the general voice over thing, you won't mind. Some of the actors spoke english, but were still voiceovered. It doesn't sound perfect, but it's something that makes those films unique. Feel free to also check out Django, if you already haven't.
One can hardly call this film ingenius or Corbucci a master, but it's still quite entertaining. If you enjoy seeing one Italian western, you'll easily enjoy them all, including this one. I was talking about political things in Italian westerns, but don't think that this is a political thriller with deep message and stuff like that. It's just a western, made Italian way. Check it out!

4 comments:

  1. im definetly going to check it out! thanks

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  2. I have never seen an Italian western. The Great Silence sounds good. I have never heard of the movie until I have read your review. My interest in Italian westerns has just been raised thanks to your review. Good review by the way.

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  3. I loved "The good, the bad and the ugly" so this might be worth checking out.

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