Sergio Corbucci

Next to Sergio Leone, no Italian director carved out a meatier portion of the delightfully over-the-top spaghetti western genre than Sergio Corbucci. His main partner in crime was actor Franco Nero, who helped power the filmmaker's first commercial success in 1966, "Django," about a gunslinger caught between a number of feuds. Corbucci and Nero made another five films together, including 1968's "Revenge of a Gunfighter," 1970's "Companeros," and the belated 1987 sequel "Django 2." The fan boy and Internet era has greatly added to Corbucci's reputation since he died in 1990. Admirers of the spaghetti genre have elevated the filmmaker to confirmed cult status, especially admiring the violence and silent two lead protagonists of "The Great Silence," centered around a mute gunslinger who must defend himself against a gang of bounty hunters. Starring French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant as Silence and German firebrand Klaus Kinski as Loco, the 1968 western features a "Butch Cassidy"-style ending, with the duo gunned down violently by the bounty hunters who have been giving them chase. As is often the case with cult favorites, Corbucci has no substantial awards to show for his pioneering western efforts.