Blu-ray debut for a seldom-seen spaghetti western: Sergio Corbucci's THE GREAT SILENCE

One of those movies you may have heard of over the years but rarely have been able to actually see, THE GREAT SILENCE, a 1968 spaghetti western from a lesser-known Italian director, Sergio Corbucci, after a very limited theatrical release here in the USA, will finally be available next week via Film Movement on Blu-ray. No less an authority than Alex Cox has deemed the film "One of the finest westerns ever."  TrustMovies would not go that far, but the film is worth seeing -- if only for its take-no-prisoners finale that pretty much outdoes any other western you'll have seen in its near-total darkness. The only problem is that, while the movie is dark, it's not at all deep.

Signore Corbucci, who died back in 1990, wrote some 57 films and directed 63, so he's not exactly unknown to film buffs, but he is nowhere near as noted, say, as is his friend and compatriot Sergio Leone.

Corbucci was involved in films of various types -- from westerns to comedies to some of the popular-back-then giallo genre. According to many "experts," this film is his masterpiece. If so, I'm happy to have seen and enjoyed it, but I'm probably not going to dig into many of his other movies.

There are a number of good reasons for digging into this film, however -- beginning with its unusual cast. In addition to the fine Italian actors on view (including Luigi Pistilli, playing one of the film's two major villains), we've got a French star (Jean-Louis Trintignant, above) as the hero, German (by way of Poland) star Klaus Kinski (below) as the supreme villain,

and two Americans: the gorgeous Vonetta McGee (below, right, of Blacula and Melinda) and an actor named Frank Wolff who began his career in Roger Corman movies but found his greatest success in Europe doing these spaghetti westerns. Wolff (shown in the penultimate photo below) adds what little humor there is to the film, as the newly sworn-in sheriff who proves a bit smarter than he looks or acts.

The subject here is a little different, too. We've often seen westerns that feature a bounty hunter or two, but here these guys are all over the place and as nasty as they come. In league with the town big-shot (played by Pistilli, at center, below) who turns every-day citizens into criminals with a bounty on their heads, these bounty hunters then bring in their prizes, dead, of course, since their posters proclaim them "Wanted: Dead or Alive."

The film's end credits inform us that the massacre by bounty hunters that we eventually see here, taking place in Utah, was the thing that finally put a halt on these greedy murderers. Just as well, too, because almost immediately after you begin to enjoy and appreciate a character in the film, he or she is summarily killed off.

Women, wives, children, no one is safe. In fact, our hero, known as Silence, was rendered silent as a child by a bounty hunter determined to keep the kid's mouth shut. Filmed in some gorgeous snowscapes, the movie is lovely to look at but about as bleak as they come. Other than that darkness, however, in both concept and execution, the film is pretty obvious and standard. For the first 40 minutes, given its reputation, you wait for something on screen to indicate its "greatness." My spouse gave up at that 40-minute point, noting, "I've seen much better on episodes of Gunsmoke or Bonanza."

Too bad, because the movie does gain power and weight as it moves along. The finale goes against just about all we've come to expect from the western genre, and this in itself makes The Great Silence worth seeing. So far against grain does the movie go that two alternate endings were shot -- evidently, just in case. One of these provide a last-minute reversal and features just about every happy-ending cliche you could want (and indeed probably expected this film to give you). The second alternate ending proves much more bizarre, as it leaves just about everything up in the air.

The Blu-ray transfer in 2K digital restoration is decent enough to pass muster, and the disc's half-dozen Bonus Features include an excellent interview with Alex Cox regarding the film and Sergio Corbucci; a fun 1968 documentary, Western, Italian Style; original Italian- and English-language versions; trailers (then and now: this is the film's 50th anniversary); and those two alternate endings.

Even if you don't place the film in your pantheon of great westerns, there's certainly enough in this tasty, tidy package to make your investment of money and time worthwhile. From Film Movement Classics and running 105 minutes, The Great Silence hits the street on both Blu-ray and DVD this coming Tuesday, June 5 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Emiliano Rocha Minter's WE ARE THE FLESH further pushes the sex-and-violence envelope

Were it not for the use of the same time- and place-setting word -- twice -- in the press material describing this new movie from Mexican filmmaker Emiliano Rocha Minter, viewers like me might not be so easily taken in by WE ARE THE FLESH. God knows, the filmmaker himself never uses this highly descriptive phrase. He proves much too canny for that. He simply shows us a very grungy, dirty, crazy-looking enclosed space, then lets our imagination do the rest. Into this space an even crazier-looking man unloads his heavy cardboard burden and then begins preparing what might be the least appetizing meal ever captured on film.

Señor Rocha Minter, shown at right, would have us wondering "Where the hell are we?" And were it not for that all-purpose/oft-seen-and-heard phrase which we reviewers were sent and that quite dutifully and immediately fills in all the blanks, we might still be wondering. I will not use that phrase in my review and will hope that you don't get wind of it elsewhere, because it simply makes things way too easy. Despite its use, the filmmaker does provide some clues that indicate that something other may be happening. For instance, where in hell do those eggs come from? Wouldn't their continuing existence indicate chickens, too?

Into the environment of our weird but rather sexy little hermit (nice job by Noé Hernández, bearded above then post-corpse clean-shaven below) comes a pair of siblings who explain that they have been wandering the city for days and are very hungry. (The duo is played by María Evoli, at right, two photos below, and Diego Gamaliel, at left). Our oddball host feeds them and almost simultaneously begins feeding them a line of bullshit about all barriers having now been broken so we can give in to our darkest impulses, especially those involving sex or violence.

Before you can say incest, sis is sucking on bro and bro is fucking sis. And yes, this is all viewed hard-core style. (I did mention envelope-pushing in my headline, right?)  And, as our hermit watches all this while jacking off, we get a nice dose of double voyeurism, to boot.

Further, our host appears to have a heart attack while climaxing (the "little death" leads to the big one: shades of John Garfield!), but before long he is back again and weirder than ever, taking the threesome into murder, cannibalism and goodness knows what else.

The film's pivotal scene -- and maybe its best: it's as oddly moving as it is grizzly -- involves a military man, kidnapped and sacrificed for his blood and body. This leads to an orgy and the appearance of many more people than we've so far seen, and then to an ending that changes everything.

Rocha Minter's clever sleight-of-hand is the most impressive thing about the film. Though it is full of darkness and occasional bright shards of light (as below), it also offers some visual oddities like the major sex scene (done via rather needless and artsy posterization effect), plus a moment or two that capture our "heroine's" face in a singular manner (above), and unusual shots of a vagina and penis/scrotum, all at rest.

The orgy finale, which looks something like a particularly bad night at the old Studio 54, is followed by that game-changing denouement. And if this is not quite enough to lift We Are the Flesh into horny-porn greatness, it will at least leave those viewers who've stuck around for the duration a few things to mull over. And, yes, you could call this a "mixed review."

Being released in a dozen or so cities across the U.S. via Arrow Films -- unrated, I would images, due to its hard-core scenes -- the movie opens in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Arhya Fine Arts this Friday, January 13, and in New York City on January 20 at the Cinema Village. Elsewhere? Yes: It will also open for weeklong runs in Texas (in Laredo and San Antonio) on January 13, in Denver and New Orleans on January 20, and in San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Columbus on January 27. Special screenings throughout January and February include El Paso, Houston, Phoenix, Cleveland, Portland (Oregon) and Albuquerque. 

On Blu-ray/DVD/VOD/Dig: Gavin O'Connor's (very) slow-burn western, JANE GOT A GUN

Better than you may have heard (only 40% positive from both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes), but nothing to get excited about, either, the would-be-home-invasion-cum-revenge western, JANE GOT A GUN, proves pretty to look at (via the scenery and the faces of its stars Natalie Portman and Joel Edgerton) as well as decently acted by its ensemble and adequately directed by Gavin O'Connor.

Mr. O'Connor, shown at right, came to the project very late, when the original director suddenly withdrew, and the screenplay he was saddled with (credited to Brian Duffield, Anthony Tambakis and Mr. Edgerton), while laconic enough to pass muster in the western genre, does contain a couple of roll-your-eye howlers along the way. Ms Portman (above and below) is most definitely the star, but her supporting cast is good enough to keep viewers on their toes.

In addition to Edgerton, shown below, that cast includes Noah Emmerich as Jane's wounded husband, whose initial appearance starts the ball rolling, and a nearly unrecognizable Ewan McGregor (two photos below) as the chief baddie and revenge-seeker (though this is the kind of movie in which almost everyone seems to want revenge for something or other).

It is also a very violent movie, in which torturous pain is inflicted prior to death. So this may turn off more than a few viewers. Those remaining (who probably enjoy the western genre or they wouldn't be here) can feed off the stark but lovely landscapes and the slow-burning plot, in which Jane must call upon her ex-boyfriend to help her hubby and herself survive the coming onslaught.

The plot is not all that unusual -- there's a set-up for a huge explosion that we can be sure is coming -- but there is a small surprise or two along the way (one of these is provided by a bird). By the shoot-em-up climax, we've been treated to enough of those why-the-fuck-didn't-he-pull-the-trigger-when-he-had-the-chance moments to render the film silly, which leaves (spoiler just ahead) its feel-good denouement something less than believable.

Budd Boetticher's fine B-movie westerns still remain the genre's high point. See Seven Men From Now or Comanche Station for proof -- and these are around a half-hour shorter, too. (That's Boyd Holbrook, above, as one of the current film's lesser bad guys.)

Meanwhile, Jane Got a Gun -- from The Weinstein Company and Anchor Bay Entertainment and running 98 minutes -- hits the street on Blu-ray (in a nice transfer), DVD and VOD this Tuesday, April 26, after being available on Digital HD since April 15 -- for either purchase or rental.

Blu-ray/DVDebut: James Franco & Kate Hudson in Henrik Ruben Genz's thriller, GOOD PEOPLE

You might imagine that the combination of housing, home construction, the economic downturn, fertility, morality, robbery and murder would make for a fairly heady stew. Add to this an internation-al cast of Brits, Americans, Scandinavians and France's Omar Sy (of The Intouchables), all helmed by Danish director Henrik Ruben Genz (of Terribly Happy), with a screenplay adapted from Marcus Sakey's novel by Kelly Masterson (the Snowpiercer scribe), and you might think, "Wow." Or at least "semi-wow." Maybe this is just too much of a good thing, as GOOD PEOPLE (yes, this is a very ironic title) comes off as both a little too predictable and a lot unbelievable, though it does provide some genuine excitement and dumb fun along the way.

The filmmaker, shown at right, is adept at his action scenes, which begin and end the film, and he draws OK performances from his starry international cast. But Masterson's screenplay piles far too many charac-ters and events into too little time, and thus the plotting feels rushed and too pre-ordained for belief. That said, the movie begins with a knockout scene of drugs-for-money robbery and betrayal, which should have you glued to the screen and waiting for more. But then the actual plot and main characters -- played by James Franco and Kate Hudson -- kick into action and the movie begins immediately to stall.

This is less due to the OK work of the two stars (shown above, in fear, and below, with money) and their co-stars than to a screenplay that gives them so many problems that seem so insoluble that we want to run for cover. But of course we know that, if movie history be our guide, things will all come out for the best.

Money might solve our main couple's woes, but not that of the police inspector on the case (Tom Wilkinson) who suffers from guilt regarding the death of his daughter due to the same drug lord who is now on Franco/Hudson's case.

Toss in Anna Friel who plays a single mom with little baby in tow (guess who is going to be used as kidnap bait?), some scenes of torture-to-obtain-information (one of these is shown above), and the very cinematic M. Sy (below) and you've got a lot on your plate. If there were only some way to make it all coalesce believably.

The prolonged (but I must admit quite exciting) finale puts that home construction theme to interesting use, and adds to the violence on display (Mr. Franco gets beaten to a pulp in the course of things -- this happens so frequently on film to the poor guy that I am guessing it must now be an ironclad clause in the contract he signs for each new movie).

And that's about it. After a very brief theatrical foray, Good People -- from Millennium Entertainment and running 91 minutes -- makes its Blu-ray and DVD debut this coming Tuesday, October 28, for sale and rental.

Babak Najafi's EASY MONEY: HARD TO KILL proves that rare sequel to outshine its originator

Dark, action-packed, fast-paced and all too believable, EASY MONEY: HARD TO KILL is better than the original -- from which, if you recall my coverage of that earlier and overpraised twaddle, you might not expect much. Yet this sequel indeed delivers the goods you'll want from a smart, tight crime thriller -- Scandinavian variety. Interestingly enough, the sequel simply carries right on from the point at which the former film ended: with much of the cast dead, dying or injured and our near-hero caught by the authorities.

The difference, it seems, lies in the choice of director and co-writer, Babak Najafi, who outshines the filmmaker of the original (Daniél Espinosa) by leaps and bounds, sticking to immediate action and character over tired (and, as it turns out, unnecessary) history, love and class clichés, and making that fast action coincide with character. The hints Najafi gives us of background and history proves better than the lengthy and obvious scenes used by Espinosa -- and thankfully there is nothing here nearly as silly as the chase-by-city-bus scene, followed by the even worse "Oh, look, I've just conveniently found a gun here in the bushes!" moment. My spouse, who watched the movie with me and had not seen the original, found it completely understandable and utterly riveting. I felt the same, while also realizing how well Part Two builds from Part One. (Part Three, with yet a new director/co-writer on board, has apparently already been released in Scandinavia and The Netherlands, so we'll eventually see how this crime tale trio turns out.)

Picking up from the end of Part One, EM: H2K finds JW (the lean and lovely Joel Kinnaman, above, who is just debuting today as the new Robocop) in prison for his offenses but getting a day out of the can for good behavior. A smartypants computer maven, he's been working on new software that will be a real boon to the banking industry.

Not only is there little honor among thieves of the hardened criminal variety, JW's wealthy partner is bereft of same, too, and soon our poor, fish-out-of-water boy is once more involved in something illegal via one of the men he earlier helped put in prison (not to mention in a wheelchair), and so JW is on the run again.

Both parts of Easy Money have involved a slew of characters, with three especially important: our foolish but relatively decent JW; the petty criminal, Jorge (Matias Varela, above); and a higher-up-in-the-criminal food-chain, Mrado (Dragomir Mrsic, below).

This time another character, Mahmoud (played by Fares Fares, below and on the receiving end of that gun), up to his ears in criminal debt, takes on more importance. All four men are striving to find a place for themselves and/or provide for their families: JW tries to rise above his lower-class roots, while the other three are immigrants from various places. None has managed to join the "mainstream," and while the movie makes clear Scandinavia's forward-looking stance on immigration, it also shows how difficult it can be for immigrants, once resident in their new country, to be able to truly "join" it. Consequently, being all-too human, our fellows end up thrashing about in crime and betrayal, while trying to do the right thing -- occasionally, at least.

Women are kept to a minimum in this chapter of the trilogy, and the movie is better for it. The one important female character is another immigrant, a young woman (an excellent Madeleine Martin, below, left) bound by sex trafficking and her nasty captors, who makes a move for freedom at precisely the time when one of our men is about to be eliminated. While this is indeed coincidental, the scene is handled so well that you'll barely have time to draw a breath.

In fact, timing, pacing, and characters who are both interesting and believable, along with all the rest that go into making a good crime thriller, are here and used to their utmost, without rubbing anything in. Mr. Najafi knows his stuff, and I hope we'll see more from him, even if he isn't directing the third installment.

Meanwhile, this one -- running 99 minutes and coming to us via the increasingly interesting and necessary distributor Cinedigm, which has made a lot of good choices of late -- opens Friday, February 14, in New York City at the Cinema Village. Elsewhere theatrically? No idea. But you can, simultaneous with its theatrical release, view it via iTunes and many local VOD platforms.

EL INFIERNO: Luis Estrada & Jaime Sampietro's black, comedic portrait of the state of Mexico

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EL INFIERNO (the title literally means hell, and the movie metaphorically takes us there) is a very long, straight-ahead tale of a middle-aged man named Benny (played by the well-known Mexican actor Damián Alcázar) who returns from the U.S. (he's been deported) to his little home-town in Mexico and begins to fit right into the completely sleazy, horrific, drug addled, greedy, murderous, lascivious life-style of the place. Even his old mom, who initially berates her son for never having written to her over the 20 years he was gone -- "We thought you were dead!" -- soon enough capitulates to the pricey gifts he offers her. In fact, she asks for more.

To anyone who remotely follows current and past Mexican history, none of this will come as a shock. The real surprise of the movie is how thuddingly obvious it is from first to last in presenting us this tale of an already venal and uncaring guy who becomes even more so when offered the least opportunity. The tone taken by Luis Estrada,(shown at right) the director /co-writer (with Jaime Sampietro), is one of only slight exaggeration, which produces the comedic sense, while the events parading in front of us quickly turn that comedy pitch black.

Alcázar (above and on poster top) is a very talented actor, here given little chance to shown his range or abilities. He's perfectly OK so far as he is allowed to go. But this is no great distance, and it's traversed in mostly baby steps. For a much better example of Mexican black comedy, see the terrific film Herod's Law (from 1999) to discover what Alcázar -- along with Estrada and Sampietro, who, with a couple of other writers, also made this movie -- can accomplish.

In that earlier film, they gave us something at once rich and strange, while also shocking and surprising. Here, perhaps in order to reach the lowest common denominator, they cross every "t" and dot each "i" -- resulting in a screenplay and finished movie that you can pretty much write-as-you-go. At one point, our "hero" asks his friend Cochiloco (Joaquín Cosio, above, right) "Aren't you afraid of going to hell?" Comes the reply: "Hell is right here." Ay -- profound!)

What Benny finds in his home-town is a dead brother, along with the brother's widow and son; his best friends now all working for the local drug lord; and only one person (his kindly godfather) remains free from the taint of Mexico's manure. (As to how this nice guy managed to avoid the smell, we're not made privy.)

As Benny negotiates his new role as "enforcer" for the drug cartel's main man (and his dysfunctional family), he thrives on its perks, while trying to retain his "humanity." Sure. Along the way we note the collaboration of the local police, the Church, politicians, and all else -- with betrayal, somewhere along the line, forever the name of the game.

There's a lot of violence here, though it barely begins to compare with Oliver Stone's Savages, to cite but one of our recent super-violent films. And because the tone is somewhat comic, that violence is somehow made easier to take, which is exactly the effect that it should not have. The darkly funny conclusion promises, undoubtedly correctly, that poor Mexico will continue to experience, down the generations, more (and more and more) of the same.

You can view El Infierno (known in some quarters as El Narco), running two hours and 29 minutes, on Netflix streaming, and you can also view Herod's Law (under its Spanish title, La ley de Herodes, on DVD, also from Netflix and/or other sources.