“The Great Silence” (1968)
Jean-Louis Trintignant stars in Sergio Corbucci‘s standard-setting spaghetti western as a mute gunslinger who has a particular dislike for bounty hunters. Klaus Kinski, wearing a madonna-like shawl under his hat, opposes him as a viciously amoral bounty hunter. Just to indicate how on-the-nose Corbucci’s film can be, the mute is named “Silence” while Kinski’s bounty hunter is “Loco.” The director has some social critique in mind as Silence’s faces down bounty hunters who, protected by law, kill in an all but indiscriminate manner, and a corrupt banker who supports their actions. Handsomely lensed if never quite stunning, “The Great Silence” has become one of the first-mentioned titles in any conversation about westerns set in the snow — and boasting an effective Ennio Morricone score certainly doesn’t hurt. The film has a halting, languid pace, like a wanderer with joints frozen by cold, and it is further undermined by thin characters and a lack of dramatic tension. But there’s still a spark of life, thanks to a number of memorable sequences in which tensions run high before exploding into violence. Quentin Tarantino borrows from this film, particularly with respect to a sequence in which a new lawman shares a stagecoach with Silence and Loco — a faithful riff on that setup is a major factor in the first chapter of “The Hateful Eight.”
Availability: DVD (Fantoma)
“El Topo” (1970)
The original insane western, and one of the first true midnight movies, Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s second film, and his first major international breakthrough, is a difficult-to-decipher phantasmagoria of violence, philosophy, and religious imagery. A man in black, played by Jodorowsky, travels through a desert, his naked young son in tow. Soon the man, known as the Mole, will leave his son with monks before hunting four master gunslingers at the behest of the woman he loves… and that’s just in the first half, before the Mole becomes a god-like figure worshipped by outcasts. Rife with juxtaposed religious and violent imagery, unusual sexuality, and scenes featuring dead animals (which Jodorowsky has said he did not kill for the film… but there’s reason to wonder) in addition to the oblique and heavily symbolic narrative, “El Topo” was deliberately crafted to be deciphered over multiple viewings. Other Jodorowsky films are more structurally inviting and display greater command of symbols, but the blend of impulsiveness and intuitive filmmaking of “El Topo” is unique not only among westerns, but in filmmaking, period.
Availability: DVD/Blu-ray (Abkco/Anchor Bay); Digital (Amazon, poor quality/iTunes)
“Jeremiah Johnson” (1972)
Based merely on the people involved, this is a must-see that has inexplicably fallen off the radar. Robert Redford stars as a slightly cleaned-up version of the real figure John “Liver-Eating” Johnson. Sydney Pollack directs from a script co-written by John Milius, whose voice comes through loud and clear. The action, shot partially at Redford’s then-recently acquired Sundance ski area, follows a Mexican War veteran who lights out for the Rockies to live an isolated life as a trapper. Johnson learns to sustain life as a mountain man, reckoning first with his own shortcomings, and dealing with other people, white and native, and natural dangers. Redford calls the film “existential,” and it is definitely more of a meander than a dash, with a great deal of room to slip into reverie. (It’s a good companion piece, in that way, to Peter Fonda‘s “The Hired Hand,” released a year earlier, and to Redford’s more recent “All Is Lost.”) Like “The Hateful Eight,” “Jeremiah Johnson” was released in roadshow format, with an overture and intermission, and the film’s languid pace set it apart from many common westerns. Performed with real affection for Johnson’s lifestyle and shot with a tenderness towards the natural beauty of Utah, this is a fine outdoorsman’s adventure.
Availability: DVD/Blu-ray (Warner Bros.); Digital (Amazon/iTunes)
“Cut Throats Nine” (1972)
This brutal and often gory Spanish production follows a chain gang of prisoners whose escorts are waylaid by bandits en route to the safety of a fort. With all the prisoners’ escorts slaughtered by the bandits except for one sergeant and his daughter (who is inexplicably along for the journey), their wagon is cast off into the snowy mountain wilderness. With the chain gang almost entirely intact, the sergeant attempts to lead the hard-nosed line of malcontents to their original destination, and only the worst may survive. Their journey, which is soon enlivened by a significant surprise, is a contest of wills and an opportunity for dangerous old secrets to come to light. Conflicts between the lawman and individual prisoners soon escalate, and grim violence follows. The count of surviving characters slowly dwindles. While many westerns follow characters on a search for redemption, this film all but negates that very concept, and stands as an unusually downbeat story even amongst the gritty standards of European westerns. Raw filmmaking and a simple but heavy score enhance the atmosphere, and one sequence, in which one of the convicts hallucinates a deceased character returning from the dead, particularly stands out as an intriguing oddity.
Availability: DVD/Blu-ray (Code Red); Digital (Amazon, poor quality)
