Corpses pave his way

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Movie
German title Corpses pave his way
Original title Il grande silenzio
Country of production France , Italy
original language English
Publishing year 1968
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Sergio Corbucci
script Mario Amendola
Bruno Corbucci
Sergio Corbucci
Vittoriano Petrilli
music Ennio Morricone
camera Silvano Ippoliti
cut Amedeo Salfa
occupation
synchronization

Corpses pave his way (original title: Il grande silenzio) is a spaghetti western from 1968 with Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski in the leading roles.

action

In 1898, the cold, harsh winter weather led to hunger and hardship in the small village of Snowhill, Utah . In their need, the poorest begin to organize and attack the wealthier. So they become outlaws who have to hide in the mountains because each of them has a bounty . As the people suffer, the village becomes a bounty hunter's paradise that the poor, who are considered outlaws, have nothing to counter.

When Pauline's husband falls victim to the unscrupulous bounty hunter Loco (Spanish: the madman), she hires Silence , who was silenced by a throat cut in his childhood, to shoot Loco. Ever since Silence saw his parents killed by bounty hunters as a child, and he too was seriously injured, he has roamed the country in search of people who kill for money under the guise of the law. In order not to break the law himself and then end up on the hit list of the bounty hunters, Silence provokes his counterpart until he is the first to pull the gun. Then he can shoot him in "self-defense".

However, Loco cannot be provoked. Only when he has killed the new sheriff , who on behalf of the governor is to restore order in the area and grant amnesty to the hungry in the mountains , does he and his "colleagues" face the final battle with Silence. He wins this, however, in an “unhappy ending ” that is unusual for a movie , and then instigates a massacre among the “outlaws” (including women) who were previously captured and partially bound. Then he rides out of town with his cronies.

background

The movie became a classic for two reasons. On the one hand it created a unique atmosphere through the snowy landscape, on the other hand it caused excitement because of the brutal ending; because unlike usual in westerns , the "bad" triumphs here.

Sergio Corbucci lead with this movie different approaches of the spaghetti western genre with historically political motives. The main hero is not only silent, he is rather dumb. The silent Trintignant is a typical Corbucci joke. Since a western hero speaks little in itself, Corbucci exaggerates this type and depicts the hero as a mute. The main actor Trintignant was also unable to speak English and was therefore given this role. At the time, spaghetti westerns were partly shot in English in order to increase marketing opportunities in the Anglo-American region.

Another aspect (besides the end) is the emphasis on the law and its organs. As a villain, Kinski speaks repeatedly about not breaking a single law. This is also illustrated by the character of the Justice of the Peace , played by Luigi Pistilli . Because the justice of the peace is also the local merchant. Here the left zeitgeist of the time becomes clear, according to which there is a risk that the actions of the state and its laws will be dominated by capital. It was precisely this aspect that was to be assessed as a criticism of America and capitalism in his portrayal of the film at that time. Because through its interpretation the law now fails as a moral authority. The state's laws only protect property and give bounties instead of providing for people. Pure hardship forces people to steal in order to survive. But this turns them into criminals who are now being hunted down by the bounty hunters in order to secure the “ legal peace ”. The (actually "bad") bounty hunters are then those who ensure law and order, while the "poor" are fought as lawbreakers.

Corbucci succeeds in incorporating this type of political criticism very quietly into an exciting film. Because even Silence (Trintignant) is not a savior. Silence himself gives Sergio Corbucci a reason for his actions (a traumatic childhood experience), but also lets Pauline explicitly mention that he demands the same amount for the order to kill Loco that Loco received for the murder of Pauline's husband. And he, too, interprets the law in his favor in order to allow contract killing to pass as self-defense.

Nevertheless, the role of Silence, like that of other heroes in spaghetti westerns, is designed as a figure of identification and sympathetic for the viewer compared to his opponents . Seen in this way, it is a remarkable consequence of Corbucci that he lets Loco triumph and that all sympathizers, including the defenseless hostages, are killed in cold blood.

Corbucci dedicated the story of the good man who perishes in a barbaric hell in memory of Jesus , Martin Luther King and Che Guevara . The reference to Che Guevara and Jesus is made clear by the mutilation of the hands (from Silence). Corbucci had already used the motif of the destroyed hands in Django - it comes from Roman history and is a reference to the legend of Gaius Mucius Scaevola . The film aims to show the impossibility of the revolution , because the execution of Silence does not save the hostages any more than the assassination of Che Guevara changed the life of mankind.

The film can also be understood as a critical response to For a Few Dollars More by Sergio Leone , who portrayed the role of the bounty hunter in a much less critical, even naive way (and in which Klaus Kinski and Luigi Pistilli also play).

So Corbucci took a sociological approach by creating the first part of a trilogy with this film that deals with the subject of "revolution". While corpses pave its way still shows the impossibility of the revolution, the subject is taken up in the films Mercenario - The Feared and Let Us Kill, Compañeros , and solutions are shown.

Mainly because of its unusual ending, this anti-western was considered a cult film of the 1968 generation. But Corbucci's fame faded as the zeitgeist shifted and the political component of his films became less important. Later works could hardly hold this level, they even angered his former fans.

In addition to the atmosphere, the acting performances of Kinski and Trintignant are convincing. But the supporting roles are also well cast, with Luigi Pistilli as the insidious banker and Frank Wolff, who emigrated from America, as sheriff.

Darryl F. Zanuck called the film one of the best westerns of all time.

The Austrian director Michael Haneke is also considered a big fan of the film, he described its end in an interview with the weekly newspaper Die Zeit as unique. The only piece with a similar plot structure that occurs to him is Monteverdi's opera The Coronation of Poppea .

The dramatic achievements of Trintignant and especially of Kinski are to be emphasized as well as the formative music of Ennio Morricone . This was later used by the band Thievery Corporation . The grind core - band Cripple Bastards published an EP which they named after the title of the movie.

Also noteworthy about this film is the unusual weapon used by the main character. Corbucci has Silence shot with a Mauser C96 , one of the 1898 in which the film is set, a state-of-the-art self-loading pistol, whose case also serves as a stock (which can be seen in the film) and which Loco collects as booty at the end - the same The weapon is also shown in the late-western "Joe Kidd / Sinola", which takes place in the same period, with and without the stock and used with typical rapid-fire volleys.

Alternative ending

The DVD release of the German label “Kinowelt” also features an alternative ending allegedly shot for Japan or North Africa . It is said to have been created at the time under pressure from the producer, who rejected the tragic ending. The soundtrack has not been preserved, however. However, in places this ending seems like a parody (perhaps also intended by the director) of a convulsive happy ending that contradicts the plot development. Loco is not played by Kinski, but by a doppelganger.

In the alternate ending, Silence is saved by the sheriff who can shoot Loco at the last second. Whether the sheriff's appearance, whom Loco previously sank in a frozen lake, has any plausible explanation cannot be answered, as the associated tone is not received.

After Loco sank to the ground in a relatively unspectacular manner, the seriously injured Silence somersaults and shoots all bounty hunters, revealing gauntlets under his bandage. And at the end he still holds Pauline, who doesn't die in this variant, grinning in his arms. In January 2013, a new edition of the film was released in Italy. The alternative ending is now available as additional material with sound, and the image quality has also been significantly improved.

production

The "Western in the Snow" was filmed in Cortina d'Ampezzo , in St. Kassian ( Abtei municipality (South Tyrol) ), in Abruzzo , on Lake Bracciano and in the Roman Elios studios .

The German dubbed version was created in 1968 in the studios of Berliner Synchron AG Wenzel Lüdecke . Speakers were

Reviews

“With compelling consistency staged, extremely cynical-brutal spaghetti westerns, a major work of its genre and its director Corbucci.” - rororo film dictionary

“Corbucci freezes humanity to an ice desert in which no one can survive. The human being is reduced to his dead utility. The good are not the guardians of the law, but the defenseless hunted who have been forsaken by the law. IL GRANDE SILENZIO is a great film that you will never forget. ” - Christian Kessler in“ Welcome to Hell ”p. 115.

"Spaghetti Westerns staged with compelling consistency, which with its excessive brutalities calls into question existing socio-critical references." - Lexicon of international film

"A bitter film that makes you shiver." - Ulrich Greiner, Die Zeit [4]

"Italo-Westerns [...] with brutalities that can hardly be surpassed, without interest in the social side of the problem. Despite the acting performances of the main actors repulsive to nauseating. Reject. ” - Protestant film observer, criticism No. 97/1969

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Christian Kessler, in: Willkommen in der Hölle. The Italo Western at a glance . Terrorverlag, 2002, ISBN 3-00-009290-0 , pp. 115, 116
  2. ^ So: Bernd Kiefer, Norbert Grob (Ed., With the collaboration of Marcus Stiglegger): Film genres: Western. Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018402-9 .
  3. ↑ TV Today , issue 17/2012, p. 66
  4. ↑ Interview in Die Zeit from January 19, 2006