Well, low and behold The Great Silence was on Movies4Men this morning.
Quite possibly cut, i'm not sure, there were still bullets to heads and bloody hands on show. However despite having five minute ad breaks every 15 minutes (mercifully they left the final half hour unscathed though) i could really appreciate how good Sergio Corbucci's film is.
Brilliantly photographed in snowy Utah landscapes mean it's immediately different to the majority of dust bowl spaghetti westerns. Add to this a hero - Jean-Louis Trintignant - who's mute throughout, a superb turn from Klaus Kinski (Possibly his best i've seen) as the bounty killer, Loco, real characters, not just typical toothless, laughing spag clowns and one of the most downbeat finales i can remember - Kill List is practically a comedy in comparison - and you have one mighty fine and original Italian western.
I definitely need to own this on disc.
|