The Great Silence (1968)

★ 7.5 1h 46m 450 votes IMDb
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A mute gunslinger fights in the defense of a group of outlaws and a vengeful young widow, against a group of ruthless bounty hunters.

The Great Silence

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Cast

Jean-Louis Trintignant
Jean-Louis Trintignant as Silence Died 2022 · Piolenc, Vaucluse, France Jean-Louis Xavier Trintignant (December 11, 1930 – June 17, 2022) was a French actor. He made his theatrical debut in 1951, and went on to be regarded as one of the best French dramatic actors of the...
Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski as Loco (Tigrero) Died 1991 Nikolaus Karl Günther Nakszyński, best known as Klaus Kinski (18 October 1926 – 23 November 1991), was a German actor. He appeared in over 130 films, and is perhaps best-remembered as a leading role a...
Frank Wolff
Frank Wolff as Sheriff Burnett Died 1971 · San Francisco, California, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Walter Frank Hermann Wolff (May 11, 1928 —December 12, 1971) was a versatile American actor whose prolific movie career began with roles in five 1958-61 Roger Co...
Luigi Pistilli
Luigi Pistilli as Pollicut Died 1996 · Grosseto, Toscana, Italy Luigi Pistilli (19 July 1929 – 21 April 1996) was an Italian actor of stage, screen, and TV..
Vonetta McGee
Vonetta McGee as Pauline Died 2010 · San Francisco, California, USA Vonetta Lawrence McGee (January 14, 1945 – July 9, 2010) was an American actress. She debuted in the Spaghetti Western The Great Silence and went on to appear in blaxploitation films such as Hammer, M...
Mario Brega
Mario Brega as Martin Died 1994 · Rome, Lazio, Italy Mario Brega (25 March 1923 – 23 July 1994) was an Italian character actor. His heavy build meant that he regularly portrayed a thug in his films, particularly earlier in his career in westerns. Later...

Audience Reviews

John Chard 7/10 Mar 09, 2017
For all I know he is the devil.

The Great Silence is directed by Sergio Corbucci and Corbucci co- writes the screenplay with Mario Amendola, Bruno Corbucci and Vittoriano Petrilli. It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Frank Wolff, Luigi Pistilli, Vonetta McGee and Mario Brega. Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Silvano Ippoliti.

Snowhill, Utah - Winter at the turn of the century, and the local villagers have succumbed to thievery purely to survive. But with that comes bounties on their heads, which brings into the area the bounty hunters who are a law unto themselves. Enter the mute gunfighter known as Silence, who has a deep rooted hatred of bounty hunters...

Something of a cult classic and massively popular in Spaghetti Western fan's circles, The Great Silence is as perpetually cold as the snowy landscapes that surround this tale. Death is a financial commodity, greed and corruption stalks the land, while the shades between right and wrong are as blurry as can be. The violence cuts deep, none more so than with the famous finale that closes down the pic with a pneumatic thud. The photography captures the winter scapes perfectly and is in tune with the narrative drive, while maestro Morricone lays a ethereal musical score over proceedings.

There's some daft goofs such as a dead man blinking and manacles that mysteriously disappear, and not all the acting is of the standard that Kinski and Wolff provide, but this is one utterly unforgettable bowl of Spaghetti. Its reputation in the pasta circles well deserved. 8/10
Wuchak 7/10 Nov 29, 2021
_**Killers in the snow of the (Italian) Old West**_

In 1898, a mute gunfighter called Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) comes to a snowy town in northern Utah where ruthless bounty hunters clash with fugitives in the hills. He accepts a job from a widow (Vonetta McGee) to take out Loco (Klaus Kinski), the man who slew her husband.

Directed & co-written by Sergio Corbucci, “The Great Silence” (1968) ranks with the better Spaghetti Westerns due to several highlights: The awesome snowy setting, a moving score by Ennio Morricone, the silent protagonist, the uniquely beautiful Vonetta McGee (a rare black woman in a prominent role in an old Western), the dastardly villain played by Kinski and the shocking climax. It influenced future Westerns, like “The Claim” (2000) and “The Hateful Eight” (2015).

As with most Italian Westerns from back then, the English dubbing is serviceable at best. The only issue I have on this front is the voice used for Kinski’s character, which seems incongruous.

The movie runs 1 hour, 45 minutes, and was shot about 15 miles from the border of Austria in northeastern Italy (San Cassiano & Cortina d'Ampezzo), as well as the flashback done at Bracciano Lake, Rome, with other stuff done in Elios Studios, Rome.

GRADE: B+
CinemaSerf 7/10 Jan 04, 2023
Set against a really effective wintry, hostile, background this tells the story of revenge - and that's always best served cold! A woman "Pauline" (Vonetta McGee) and her family are the victims of unscrupulous bandits. Bent of avenging their heinous behaviour, she hires an equally ruthless and deadly enforcer of her own (Jean-Louis Trintignant) to even the score. This anonymous, mute, gunman is very adept at settling scores, and as the bodies gradually pile up, it looks like a confrontation with the bounty hunter/killer "Tigrero" (Klaus Kinski) cannot be long for the waiting. This is a film that you need to watch with a blanket. The freezing scenarios are used superbly to create a sense of isolation, desperation and the frequent presence of blood spattering the snow helps further illustrate the violent and brutal nature of the lives of the late 19th century Utah citizens - only marginally on the human side of civilisation. The dubbing isn't the best, but the dialogue isn't actually that important. It's the whole look and feel of this film that resonates really well. Kinski and his maniacal eyes, the mute Trintignant (did he just not want to learn any lines?) and the sparing interventions of local kingpin "Pollicut" (Luigi Pistilli) and sheriff "Burnett" (Frank Wolff) all add richness and general unpleasantness to the whole thing. What also helps here is unpredictability. The narrative does not just plod along with the usual hero/anti-hero inevitability to it. The story is alive, it has an authenticity and duplicitousness to it that holds the attention really well before a bleak and, frankly rather savage, denouement that is entirely fitting! It's a great big screen experience!

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