Great Silence, The aka Il grande silenzio (1968)

The Great Silence is a bleak, cold spaghetti western with one of the most shocking, memorable endings ever in a western. The film isn't quite as put together or technically competent as its contemporary, Once Upon a Time in the West, but the subject material, setting, and ensuing climactic battle. The Great Silence revolves around corruption in a Utah town regarding the victimization of a group of Morman outcasts (who have bounties put on their heads). Frank Wolff plays a clumsy sheriff with good-intentions assigned to clean up Snowhill, UT, which is plagued by an infrastructure supporting scum like the bounty hunter Loco. Kinski's performance as Loco is quite excellent. Silence (Trintignant), an infamous mute gunslinger, arrives in town and begins a sort of investigation. The film's setting is unusual for a western: it's set in feet of snow with the weather playing heavily into the challenges of the film, from frozen guns and iced-over rivers to horses struggling to walk with the snow up to their bodies. And again, Ennio Morricone delivers a stellar score. The only major issues I had with the film were a slew of awkward moments that seemed script or director-related. These were not made any better by the absolutely terrible dub typical of 1960s Italian productions. Unfortunately, because both the English and Italian tracks were post-dubbed, I'm not confident the Italian dub would be much better.

8/10

Once Upon a Time in the West aka C'era una volta il West (1968)

Once Upon a Time in the West is a masterpiece spaghetti western from Sergio Leone, artfully deconstructing the Western genre and giving us something both clever and entertaining. A man and his family are murdered by a gang on the day of his new wife's arrival. Several men step in to help her discover why and prevent the inevitable confrontation with Frank (Fonda) and his men. Henry Fonda shockingly changes it up and plays the villain. Charles Bronson portrays a nameless cowboy who plays a harmonica and is haunted by his past. My favorite character was Cheyenne,  played by Jason Robards, as he brought a certain eloquent charisma to the role that the tougher characters lacked. Claudia Cardinale portrays the wife, complicated and sometimes difficult to sympathize with--I also don't think women were that hot back then. The film was often thought-provoking or just plain controversial, which makes it even better to mull over. Technically, the film is stunning, employing a surprisingly slow but perfectly executed pace and flowing cinematography. The sound design is striking, with all of the sounds of the Old West augmented in the mix (creating a kind of fantastic reality) which is aided by Ennio Morricone's brilliant score. Once Upon a Time in the West, along with The Wild Bunch, should be considered the crowning examples of an epic western.

10/10

Devils, The (1971)

Ken Russell's controversial film is brooding and powerful. The Devils depicts the downfall of charming priest, Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed). At the beginning, he is concerned with earthly pleasures--sex, power, vanity--but as the film progresses and the Church and government tighten their grip on Grandier, he reveals despite his faults, he was not completely bad. The film is famous for having graphic scenes depicting violence and nudity, including scenes of torture and hysterical "possessed" nuns masturbating and having an orgy. These scenes were certainly shocking, but they were often overly self-indulgent. Really, the film is the most interesting whenever Reed is on screen. The other performances were fantastic all around, with Vanessa Redgrave as the neurotic Sister Jeanne and Michael Gothard as the over-the-top "rockstar" witchhunter/exorcist. The art direction and sets are gorgeous, and curiously, completely removed from 17th century setting. The film punches hard showing the extent that man is willing to go to corrupt political and religious institutions to his will, and comes highly recommended if you've got the stomach for it.

9/10

Hospital, The (1971)

Paddy Chayefsky's scathing satire on the medical industry has all of the bite of a good satire but lacks the focus. George C. Scott plays a troubled doctor who faces personal problems amidst a slew of mysterious malpractice deaths of his own staff-members. Chayefsky's dialogue is snappy as usual, occasionally drifting too far into medical gobbledygook for its own good. Diana Rigg is a wonderful actress (and very beautiful), but the development between her character and George C. Scott's character is rushed and unrealistic. The reasoning behind the deaths felt unsatisfactory as well, although after the initial shock I admit I was intrigued, no matter how screwy. The point the film was making about the health care industry was illustrated well in many moments of the film, but I felt like the film was too distracted for it to work. The Hospital has some good things it's trying to say but just doesn't manage to get out quite right. Five years later, Chayefsky fixed the problems that marred The Hospital and wrote one of the most prophetic, pointed, and witty satires of our time: Network.

6/10

PS: For several of the tracking master shots, the framing on the DVD chops the heads off the characters. The film was still watchable, but those shots did appear to be framed for a fullscreen shot (possibly an open matte?) then cropped incorrectly to 1.85:1.

Starship Troopers (1997)

Starship Troopers is the third film in what I call Paul Verhoeven's unofficial sci-fi trilogy (the first two are Robocop and Total Recall), and it's a blast. While it has a great supporting cast (Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, Neil Patrick Harris), it also holds the notable distinction of making both Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards look like they can act. Van Dien and Richards star as young high school graduates who enter the military to combat an on-going conflict with enormous bug aliens across the galaxy. The film is part high school drama, part satire, and almost all action. Much of the film's humor comes from the jingoistic, propaganda-laden, and brainwashed universe that the characters live in. But even with the satirical elements, the film still has a generous supply of stupidity. Regardless, it's good, stylish fun. The music is by the excellent Basil Poledouris, and it's got some funny "future" 90s pop songs. Of special note is the special effects which still hold up well today despite a good amount of it being late-90s CG. My only complaint is that the film is a hair on the long side, clocking in at 129 minutes.

8/10

Repo Man (1984)

Repo Man is awesome--it's quirky, bizarre, biting, and hilarious. Emilio Estevez stars as Otto, a white suburban punk who quits his job and becomes a repo man alongside Bud (Harry Dean Stanton). They compete to seize a mysterious radioactive 1964 Chevy Malibu while dodging alien conspiracists, the Rodriguez brothers (a rival repo gang), and wacky government agents. The world is inhabited by mindless middle-aged folk, punks, televangelists, and the cosmic unconscious. Repo Man has the same offbeat energy and wild enthusiasm as Buckaroo Banzai, but it's put to better use as there's a lot less zaniness for pure zaniness' sake. The characters are colorful, and the film is highly quotable. I also loved how all of the products were labeled plainly: BEER, FOOD, DRINK, and I wonder if Don Delillo saw Repo Man before writing White Noise. In fact, there are quite a few similarities between the two. While I'm not big into punk music, the soundtrack fit the film really well. One of the most inventive and creative cult films I've ever seen. I highly recommend it.

8/10

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die aka Se Tutte le Donne del Mondo (1966)

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die is a lighthearted spy spoof comedy in the vein of Dino De Laurentiis' other comic book outings in the 1960s (ie Danger: Diabolik, Barbarella). Matt Connors stars as American secret agent Kelly, working to uncover a hairbrained scheme to sterilize the United States by a grinning horndog maniac Conrad Veidt impersonator (Raf Vallone). The plot is rather similar to Moonraker, which didn't come out for another decade and a half. Connors is a bit boring, but he's okay. Terry-Thomas provides the comic relief--as if the film really needed any. As far as comic relief goes though, Terry-Thomas is as good as you can get, and I love him for it. The film plays out with tongue firmly placed in cheek, including some pretty childish gags--slipping on a banana peel, for example--but it kept my attention. The real star of the picture was the music by Mario Nascimbene which is equal parts bossa nova and '60s Italo-soundtrack. Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die is a comic book movie the way comic book movies should be made--fun first, questions later.

6/10