The Great Silence (1968)

Powerful

Fresh and Exciting

best movie i've ever seen.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

"The Great Silence" has to take the cake as one of the finest entries into the beloved Spaghetti Western genre. Giving it a degree of freshness is the setting: the wintry wilderness of 1898 Utah. No other Western that this viewer has seen has shown off such a harsh and forbidding environment. It lends the film a true beautiful bleakness that has seldom been matched. With typically majestic (and melancholy) music by the maestro Ennio Morricone on the soundtrack, it grimly moves with a steady purpose towards inevitability.French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant plays "Silence", a mute gunslinger whose vocal chords were permanently damaged when he was a child. He arrives in the community of Snow Hill, where the husband of Pauline Middleton (the strikingly attractive young Vonetta McGee) has been murdered by Loco (Klaus Kinski), the leader of a group of "bounty killers". These individuals are much more ruthless than the typical bounty hunter; they actually PREFER to take their quarry back dead. All they care about is profit. Pauline implores Silence to get revenge on her behalf, even though she can't offer him a payday in return.The strong supporting cast also includes Frank Wolff as a dedicated Sheriff, Luigi Pistilli as a slimy mover-and-shaker type, and Mario Brega as Martin. They're all great, with Kinski getting to play one of the most repulsive villains on his resume. And you can tell he's enjoying himself. McGee is very compelling to watch. Trintignant, on the other hand, isn't bad at all, but ultimately lacks the screen presence & charisma of someone like Franco Nero or Clint Eastwood.Directed in high style by Sergio Corbucci (this is definitely his best work in this genre), this creates an interesting gallery of characters that are all very well defined. You're never in any doubt as to who you should be booing and for whom you should be rooting.Corbucci pulls absolutely no punches in this picture, which gains further immortality by giving us one of the most hopeless bummer endings that one is likely to see in such entertainment. It's emotionally draining, to say the least, and ensures that this film will continue to live on for many more years to come.Nine out of 10.

It's hard to gauge this because the dubbing into American accents was not so good. Twas a distraction and would have been better with subtitles. The dubbing on its own is bad but that also throws the sound off at times. What's great about this spaghetti western is definitely the snowy scenery of the Dolomites in northern Italia. What a production filming in such conditions. Our protagonist (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and antagonist (Klaus Kinski) are both solid in their performances. Interesting social undertones with a fine hero out to destroy a terrible villain. But all that gets shot down, literally, at the end. In American westerns you know who wins. American westerns I love and have seen perhaps 1,000 of. So the ending here left me shocked. Many westerns come and go, to be forgotten about for all time. Not this one! --A Kat Pirate Screener

If you like the westerns that were being produced in Italy about forty years ago then you will undeniably enjoy The Great Silence. If you didn't enjoy those films and find Sergio Leone boring or without merit then you will not enjoy this film. It is filmed in typical spaghetti western fashion, fans of the genre will instantly recognize the camera work and use of music (which is Morricone so it is of course excellent.)The film has a good story, great cinematography, and Klaus Kinski is perfect as the villain. It doesn't exactly break new ground or transcend the spaghetti western genre but within that genre it certainly is one of the best that I have seen.Like Italian westerns? Watch it. You won't be disappointed.

What?! This is probably the most weird western i've ever seen in my whole life! What happened at the end of the movie?? Honestly i really hate this kind of ending (well...the hero @ SILENCE died at the end??) However, i still have to admit that the ending was very very good (even though i didn't like it), and probably one of the best western movie i've ever watch. This one really kick Django out of the game and as good as the 3 other Clint Eastwood Italian movies ; THE GOOD BAD & UGLY, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, and A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. The acting is superb with Klaus Kinski proves that he is one the finest actor in western Italian! He is the reason why i watched this movie, it is really fun to see Klaus Kinski as a villain. And today people will still love this movie for there are no any better movies created in this 20th century. I doubt if there is any movies today could be as good as this one..