Most people seem to hate the alternate version, but the fact is that it's neither bad nor illogic.
I guess that's how the movie was intended to end, before Corbucci changed his mind and decided to kill the hero.Remember that Loco did not shoot directly at the sheriff.
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The sheriff returns and kills Loco just as the latter is going to shoot at the hero.Silence then proceeds to kill the bad guys left.Finally we disover that Silence was wearing a metal glove.
I love this movie but the alternate ending doesn't make sense. think of it, silence just got beat up and his hand got burned(remember the long silent scream)he then gets all of his energy back and kills everyone without having enough time to recover, it woulda made sense if he came back in a week or two. the weird armor that silence displays at the end woulda made this movie into one of the run in the mill spaghetti westerns. the actual ending truned this good movie into a great one.
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I just wanted to point out that Sergio Corbucci never wanted his hero to stay alive, its the whole point of the film, its tragedie in the sense that he has to die and there many scenes before that, that forshow what will happen so to speak which does make it kinda illogic. It's the producers who wanted Corbucci to direct an alternate ending because they felt it was to dark to end like that which therefore would not give this film any chance in many country's.
share Laft pointed it out, and he's right. Corbucci never intended to use the alternate ending. The original poster had it the other way around. He was forced to do the alternate ending because of studio pressure that insisted on a happier ending for certain markets, South Africa if I remember right.
"Congratulations, Major. It appears that at last you have found yourself a real war." Ben Tyreen
I got an german version of the movie and there is written on it that the alternate ending was done for japan...could be - the glove reminded me of some weird manga style which didn`t fit into the rest of the movie at all. It was pretty funny though!
The original ending is far better.
I watched the alternate ending and it clearly shows how Corbucci felt about him being forced to make that ending, so he decided to make it so happy it felt ridiculous. I read from some article that Corbucci had stated he has little sympathy for happy endings.
shareYea that is a good edning for the good ending more action to it but supose you have to respect the directors descion to keep the original ending the alternate ending was only ment for asia and arfican versions
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''« I got a german version of the movie and there is written on it that the alternate ending was done for Japan. »''
I'd be very surprised the Japanese audience of the sixties would need a "happy end" all'americana ! Think of the ending in a lot of the greatest chambaras of the times : Kiru, Seppuku, Samurai, Sword of Doom, Rebellion, Hitokiri... They would have none of that naive optimism !
the alternate ending seems like it would be better . . . on IFC the movie ended with "The Great Silence" lying deahe snow under the body of his slain "wife" of sorts and Kinski and all the bad guys left alive with the townspeople dangling from meathooks . . .
It was surreal TOTALLY
as if King Kong got Fay Wray and lived at the end.
the bad guy must die in the movies . . . Its totally screwed-up if he lives as in the case of Il Grande Silenze . . . and true we never see the sheriff die AhHA!
Well, for the kind of mentality that *requires* a "happy ending" maybe it'd work (but maybe not after SUCH a grueling pic)... but I thought it was pretty laughable (like when Silence suddenly beams this huge smile, which he didn't ever previously crack, not even when he was boning Pauline! I don't know what the not-dead-after-all Sheriff told them but it must have been that they'd both won the lottery. Hee hee... or more likely they got all the loot from the dead killers...)
Anyway the alternate ending was like night and day to the real one, and not in a good way, but weirdly interesting.
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The alternate ending was stupid but so was the original ending. There was a level in between the two that would have made this film great.
shareThe "happy" ending didn't even make sense. Where did he get that metal glove?
The sad ending is so much more effective. It's supposed to shock you, because you aren't used to seeing the villain defeat the hero so definitively.
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"Remember that Loco did not shoot directly at the sheriff."
Remember that surviving from a bullet is alot more plausible than surviving hypothermia after falling under ice, eventually struggling to get out from there and walking several kilometers in freezing cold weather.
The whole message of the movie doesn't make any sense if you uses the alternate ending. The entire point of the movie is: if your government is corrupted or passes unjust laws, then you CAN'T save the day with some hero poping out from nowhere. Reality is, if the system is corrupted, you have to change it, not fight the people abiding to it.
Remember: Kinski is the bad guy, but he is completely abiding to the law, never doing anything illegal. Whereas Silence, the good guy, is forced to become an outlaw.
And the movie says: that's hopeless.
Now switch the original (intended) ending with the stupid alternate one, and the movie has no message anymore, it becomes an empty, gratuitous shell of an action movie.
svallee-5:
Exactly!
Best comment on this thread by far.
^ this post gets it.
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