Masterpiece

I'm a huge fan of Sergio Leone, but I think Corbucci outdoes him with this one. It's by the far the best spaghetti Western I've seen, and I think I must have seen most of them, good, bad and ugly. I like that Corbucci goes further than Leone would dare to take it, and that he was brave enough to release it with his preferred ending intact, rather than making a decision to substitute it with the far more commercially-friendly alternative ending. That's European cinema for you. I remember seeing it on Moviedrome one night about fifteen years ago, and when it ended I just sat staring at the tv screen for about five minutes, unable to believe what I'd just seen. Trintignant is a fine, fine actor and I've enjoyed him in many films but this is the role I like him best in, even though he doesn't say a word. He plays Silence with a vulnerability and with an almost childlike quality that I've rarely seen on screen. This would be high in the running for my desert-island DVD. Bloody, brutal, majestic and magnificent - a true masterpiece

"That, - Captain Bligh, - that is the thing; - I am in hell, sir - I am in hell."