Simply and starkly a great movie, one of the most unforgettable westerns ever made anywhere. As it happens, it was made in the Dolomites, in Italy, by Django director Sergio Corbucci, with a French star (Jean Louis Trintignant, The Conformist) as the eponymous mute gunfighter, and a German madman, Klaus Kinski (Fitzcarraldo), as his antagonist, a vicious bounty hunter appropriately known as Loco. Shot against the wintery mountainous backdrop, their duel is utterly enthralling, culminating in an ending that will scar your soul.
This is a resolutely political movie – small wonder it wasn’t released in the US for 50 years. If it had been let loose in 68, the fires may have burned even more brightly. As usual, Morricone’s score takes all this to another level, the icing on the proverbial cake. He himself rated it is his best work in the genre, barring his collaborations with Leone.
The greatest Spaghetti Western ever made.
Alex Cox, director, Repo Man
Brutal, bleakly beautiful spaghetti Western filmed on stark locations in the Dolomites, with one of the most uncompromising and unforgettable finales ever filmed.
Leonard Maltin
It’s anarchic and rigorous, sophisticated and goofy, heartfelt and cynical. The score, by Ennio Morricone, is as mellow as wine.
AO Scott, New York Times
Community Partner
Sergio Corbucci
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Frank Wolff, Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega, Marisa Merlini, Vonetta McGee
Italy/France
1968
In English and Italian with English subtitles
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Producer
Attilio Riccio, Robert Dorfmann
Screenwriter
Vittoriano Petrilli, Mario Amendola, Bruno Corbucci, Sergio Corbucci
Cinematography
Silvano Ippoliti
Editor
Amedeo Salfa
Original Music
Ennio Morricone
Also in This Series
Ennio
Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore proves the perfect filmmaker to craft this loving tribute to one of the all-time greats: composer Ennio Morricone (1928-2020).
Image: Courtesy of Music Box Films
A Fistful of Dollars
Morricone's clamorous score -- with its chanting, flamenco guitar, bells and whistling -- encapsulated everything that was exciting and new about Sergio Leone's revolutionary spaghetti western, its brazen cheek and style.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The third and the best of the so-called 'Dollars' trilogy amplifies Leone's baroque style: crane shots, shock cuts and Morricone music all vying for attention as three rogues hunt buried gold in a series of triangular variations.
The Mission
Written by Robert Bolt (Lawrence of Arabia; A Man for All Seasons), The Mission is the story of an C18th Catholic outpost on the lands of the Guarani people, near the Iguazi Falls. Music is a transcendent force here, and Morricone's score is inspired.
