What do you guys think of Sergio Corbucci’s “Mud and Blood Triolgy?” For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is Django, Great Silence, and Specialist. I like all three of these films and I hope to write an article aout them soon. They are all very similar. All are violent (ear cutting, thumb shooting, chest crushing.)They all have cold or gloomy climates, (mud, snow, mountains.) All have wounded or dead heroes in the finale. All have special gimmicks (machine guns, mutes, bullet proof vests.) Not to mention two feature popular French actors. All are directed by Sergio Corbucci.
I haven’t thought of them as a trilogy… hmmm… Ok, there are parallels in Silende and Django, especially concerning the heroes (hands), but Specialist?
I have to think about this for a while…
Howard Hughes has used this phrase for these 3 films. Don’t know if Corbucci also thought about them as a loose trilogy. At least he made other films in between. But 2 of them weren’t personal projects, and the 3rd wasn’t intended to be done by him in the 1st place.
For me the B&M term seems to be a fitting one.
But also for Specialist?
Sure there might be B&M in it, but it just happens to be here and there while in the others it really is a crucial factor.
I can’t imagine Corbucci had a (loose) trilogy in mind
If you only consider the working titles for the film he wanted to make in '69, Lo Specialista a mano armata and Il Ritorno del Mercenario, then he clearly had a Zapata western in mind, about a warfare specialist, to be played by lee van Cleef. I don’t know why the idea was dropped (nobody seems to have a clear answer to that), but he suddenly decided to do a film with Halliday. It was a co-production with France and Germany, but his Italian producer agreed with the plan to do this film (so to give up the other one), probably because the expections were high: Halliday was a big name in France, Corbucci in Italy and Adorf in Germany.
On the other hand, the French wanted to shoot the film in Tunesia or Morocco, but Corbucci absolutely wanted to work near Cortina d’Ampezzo, were he had already shot The Great Silence. To him Gli Specialisti was a ‘cold’ western. Look at the fur coat Adorf is wearing (and look how he is sweating before he is shot by Halliday in the finale - that scene was shot in Rome, where it was scorching!). Halliday preferred to work in Northern Italy too, because he had a villa in the neighbourhood. Ironically Halliday stayed with the group most of the time, but Françoise Fabian spent some time in his villa after she had accused the Italian extras of sexual harassment and threatened to leave the project.
There are some similarities between Django and Silence (the crushed hands symbolism for example, you can read about it in my reviews of both movies), but I don’t think there’s a real connection, they’re fundamentally different movies. There are also some similarities between (the characters) Silence and Hud, both are loners, both are intovert, tragic characters, but Silence is still some kind of idealist who helps the poor against the rich, Hud is a cynical misanthrope, who has no friends and no ideals at all.
They have a similar feel for me. But Navajo Joe is also not so far.
I think in the end you can find similarities everywhere, so you can also add Minnesota Clay:
He also has to fight with a disability in the end of the movie, he’s also a loner, he even leaves his own flesh and blood, so he’s also a tragic figure…
No, Minnesota Clay is quite different for me. As I said it’s more a feel I have about these 3 films than the similarities they share, which are at 1st sight not that much.
A major point for me is that Franco Nero, the short haired Nero not the mercenario Nero, would have been the perfect lead for all 3, even if Trintignant was the better choice for TGS.
And don’t forget I called it a loose trilogy. I never assumed that Corbucci saw them that way.
Well, as you all probably or should know, I didn’t connect these films into my own mental trilogy. Like others have said, I think it might have been hughes,they call these three films the mud and blood triolgy. You are right Dillinger in saying you can notice similarities everywhere but these threee films were all made by the same director. Leone made three seperate films with all the characters names different. t may not even be the same person! But this is definitely a trilogy. So, for my part, I believe that these three films (Django, Great Silence, Speciaists) are a trioogy. Not officially but all have extrordinarily similar characteristics. If I did right an article abut them, I would no doubt go into this in more detail.
Then let’s agree, that we don’t agree 
agreed
;D
Well, I’m hopefully going to have a marathon of these three films this weekend. Keeping my eye out for the similarities.
Look forward to your report.
I finally got the last piece of evidence!!!
There’s no nudity in Django!
It can’t be a trilogy
Ah, but there is a strip tease. Also, something for the sado masochists(if thats ow you spell it) Loradana Nusciak does get whipped.
Ah, whipped cream!
I must confirm the most guys here,really can’t believe that Sergio Corbucci thought about a trilogy.
However any folks designate it later.
The only trilogy wich was made during the spaghetti western period is Sergio Leone’s one,there it’s imaginable that he at himself would call it a trilogy,not anyone other years later.
Just a moment,i remember Giorgio Ferroni with his ‘little dollar trilogy’
Un dollaro bucato - Per pochi dollari ancora - Wanted
Also closer to a trilogy
Stranger trilogy. Corbucci’s revolution trilogy (here are the similarities between the films evident)
But I’m sure Leone also didn’t thought about them as a trilogy, nor had he intended to do one. At least not before the 3rd film began to materialize.
Most so-called trilogies became a trilogy only after the event.
When Leone made ‘Per un pugno di dollari’,he surely don’t look ahead for a trilogy,thats no question for every fan.
But i think,when he did ‘Buono,brutto,cattivo’ and look back,these three movies belong together in his mind.
Thats the difference to Corbucci,who never thought about a context of ‘Django’,‘Silenzio’ and ‘Specialisti’