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Customer Reviews of The Great Silence

Jean Louis Trintignant (French) plays the title role, a mute (hence his name) in the role of the force for good who carries an unusual gun for the time. Klaus Kinski (German) is the heavy and while his dubbed-in voice can grate on one's nerves, his actions and facial expressions leave no doubt as to who and what he is. Vonetta McGhee (American) is the black widow who becomes, briefly, the Great Silence's love interest. So it was also good to see this unusual development--a black-white couple, rare for its time as well.

While I agree with others that Leone is the best in the genre, this film has to be very close to that quality. The extremely downbeat ending is another plus, a crushing blow to the expected typical Western fare. However, in retrospect, some of the actions of the main characters leading up to this finale seem either naive or stupid. Hence, the three stars. If you can buy into the "good guys" being too trusting for their own good, then I guess this would work.

So the minuses are Kinski's dubbed-in voice, and the possibly non-credible naivete of the "heroes". But if you weigh those against the pluses, which are many, you have overall a solid film, definitely worth seeing, if not owning.

Memorable
Sergio Corbucci is primarily responsible for the emergence of the spaghetti western film genre. I know, I know; you are saying to yourself right now that Sergio Leone's movies starring Clint Eastwood define the genre, and you are correct in this assertion. But Corbucci's film "Django" made it possible for people like Leone to make his vast contributions to the genre. "Django," with its gritty atmosphere, grim violence, and delightfully slick conclusion set the stage for everything that came after. Fortunately, director Corbucci didn't quit making films after his initial success; he made several other films including this 1968 classic spag western, "The Great Silence." Starring the always wonderfully warped Klaus Kinski and French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant, Corbucci's film is an intriguing entry in the universe of Italian westerns. For years the only way to acquire a copy of the movie was to shell out big bucks for cruddy looking VHS dupes usually three or four times removed from the original source. Not anymore. Now you can watch Corbucci's film with great sound, a nice picture, and you even get a few extras. It's too bad they don't make films like this one anymore.

Trintignant plays Silence, a brooding, mute gunslinger moving from place to place gunning down bad guys. He's not a bad guy himself, though, because he only kills goons who prey on innocent people. A burning need for personal revenge fuels these vendettas--several men slaughtered Silence's own family when he was a young child, cutting our hero's throat in the bargain. Silence survived the attack and, even as he avenges innocents egregiously wronged, seeks out the evil ones responsible for his own personal tragedy. And find them he will even if it means dying in the process. Things start to heat up when the mute avenger stumbles across a band of rogue Mormons hiding out in the snow covered mountains. A banker in a small town has put a price on these outcasts' heads, leading to a search and destroy mission conducted by every slimy bounty hunter in the land. Leading the charge to bring in these "baddies" is none other than the psychopathic Loco (Kinski), a smirking thug who shoots first and asks questions later. You just know Loco and Silence will have a showdown somewhere along the line.

In the meantime, several subplots help move the film along: a black woman widowed when Loco gunned down her husband hires Silence to avenge his memory, a new sheriff who refuses to go along blindly with Loco's violent ways arrives in town, and the banker funding most of the mayhem carries an intriguing secret of great interest to Silence. The tension slowly builds as Loco and Silence head towards their final, fatal showdown (not giving anything away here--all of these films have a final, fatal showdown). Will the new sheriff manage to remove Loco and his fellow thugs from the equation before the bullets start to fly? Will the banker manage to eradicate Silence and the sheriff by employing the wily Loco? Will Silence avenge the horrors visited upon his family years before? All of these questions, and many others, find some resolution by the end of the movie. By the way, the conclusion to "The Great Silence" is not at all what you would expect from a movie in this genre. I think the end alone qualifies this movie as a must see for the spag western fan. It's unique in its grimness.

"The Great Silence" is really a fairly standard revenge film of the type often seen in the spaghetti western canon. What sets Corbucci's picture apart is the distinctive atmosphere, the unusual backdrop against which the characters play out their fates. Most low budget Italian western films take place in blasted, desert like landscapes full of wind, dust, and tumbleweeds. The sun beats down on the characters in these films with an unrelenting intenseness, throwing off shadows that stretch for miles, turning faces into dry leather masks, and drenching every living being in a constant sheen of sweat. "The Great Silence" definitely doesn't take place in a desert. Instead, Corbucci opted for snow-covered mountains, ice covered lakes and rivers, and a town with streets mired in deep mud. The freezing cold of winter in the "The Great Silence" acts as a metaphor of sorts, an external symbol of the icy detachment of a speechless gunslinger as he methodically and ruthlessly tracks down his enemies. Throw in a pounding score from veteran Italian master Ennio Morricone and you have all the elements of a great western. I've seen films in the genre that are better than "The Great Silence," but not very many.

A few extras on the DVD version of the film are noteworthy. There's an alternate ending for the film, a "happier" ending without any audio that employs a standard "last minute save" technique seen in dozens of other films. Corbucci apparently shot this conclusion in case audiences rejected his downbeat original idea. I think the film works great with the original ending if for no other reason than it is more realistic. You'll want to pick up Corbucci's movie if you like westerns. The picture quality is quite good, there are extras, and it's just plain fun to watch. Pick up "Django" while you're at it and make it a double feature.

Not Leone
Ok here again is an example of buyer beware. I plunked down about $20 for the Great Silence, mostly through researching different boards and accumulating opinions, and for the most part I picked this film based on that.

Now my tastes in westerns run to stories that are believeable and plausible. Basically, is it a storyline that could have happened? Once you throw in weird stuff and add jugglers and acrobats and hidden guns in banjos (Sabata for example) you loose me. If I want to see that I'd watch re-runs of the Wild Wild West, lol.

The Great Silence was a dark and brooding story it had what at that time was some pretty graffic violence and the juxtaposition of blood and snow was good, it had a good flash back sequence a shocking (for that time ending) and music by Morricone. As a Spaghetti Western at face value it delivered, which at the time was what it was created for.

The back story line of Silence and his motives was good. And the portrayal of the character of Loco was done well by Klaus Kinsky.

But the rest was very far fetched. You have a gang of outlaws some with sickles (looking like medieval grim reapers with their hoods and great coats) with no reason to be there, walking easily over the top of deep snow unaided by snow shoes, while at the same time horses are breaking through and struggling. Its as if it was filmed at a ski resort with packed powder, which it come to think of it probably was, lol.

The town of Snow Hill was way too small and the gang of outlaws and the gand of bounty killers seemed to out number the town.

This like I said was ok, also, must add that except for Klaus Kinsky the dubbing wasn't up to snuff and it was noticeable, but it was very low budget, so get it if you want to see violence more graffic than Leone and very nice western winter snow shots, but check reality at the door.