The Great Silence

There is a lot to like here. I especially bought the "unusual" ending. However, the problem is this: dubbing (all the way through--not that the job of dubbing is poor, it is not, but the mere fact that you can tell it was dubbed on a sound stage bothered me enough and kept pulling me out of the film. Yes, I know it was made by the Italians--and they always shot their films without live sound and then later looped everything.

The other thing that is always annoying with these films is the clunky zooms, even though rarely (if ever) called for.
All in all, Corbucci was a pretty darn good director--even if he was a Red.

RE: Kinski. He is way better in the films he made with Warner Herzog. In SILENCE... he is simply just another actor and there is nothing outstanding about him. In fact, he seems to be smiling and/or laughing throughout, a bit unusual for him.
In my opinion, he is far more impressive when he plays intense, psychotic types.
Having said that, Kinski does portray a bad guy here and I do recommend it if you're a fan of the man's work.

This is a top notch Italian western, with a beautiful score, and great actors/characters. I've never seen anything like this film, it really works on all levels, which is quite hard for some westerns to achieve. You don't want to miss this one folks!
R.I.P. Klaus Kinski and Frank Wolff

Usually I never see a "spaghetti" movie, but this one is the best I have seen of the kind. Especially the french actor Jean Louis Trintignant is tremendous playing the mute man. Without saying a single word, he is able to communicate in a very amazing way. Buy this movie!

Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence (Il Grande Silenzio) is his masterpiece. Set in the desolation of Utah during the Great Blizzard of 1899, the 1968 spaghetti western stars Jean-Louis Trintignant (...And God Created Woman; My Night at Maud's; Red (Three Colors Trilogy); ) as Silence, a mute gunfighter with a personal grudge against bounty hunters, and Klaus Kinski (Nosferatu: The Vampyre/Phantom Der Nacht; Aguirre, the Wrath of God) as Loco, a ruthless though amiable bounty hunter. Silence, whose parents were killed by bounty hunters, is hired to kill Loco. The film is notorious for the bloody fight scene between Silence and Loco that ends the film. I am not a fan of spaghetti westerns, but there are several things that separate Corbucci's film from the rest, making it a true film classic with a wide appeal. In many ways, The Great Silence contradicts other westerns. It was shot in knee-deep snow, rather than some trail-dust town. In the film's battle of good versus evil, evil triumphs. The performances of Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski are superb, and their characters are complicated, often making it impossible to distinguish the good guy from the bad guy. The strong, silent hero (played by a French actor) is literally mute. The film includes a haunting score by maestro Ennio Morricone, a score later sampled by Thievery Corporation. Corbucci dedicated his film to the memory of Jesus, Martin Luther King, and Che Guevara. When combined, all of these things make The Great Silence the greatest spaghetti western ever made.

G. Merritt

Director Sergio Corbucci's "The Great Silence", a spaghetti western that stands at a level only slightly below Sergio Leone's classic trilogy featuring Clint Eastwood chronicles a lawless era in the American west. Set in the snowy environs of Snowhill, Utah in a blizzard of 1898 the movie was filmed amid the craggy alpine peaks of Cortina, Italy.

A group of marginally outlawed Mormons on the verge of amnesty from the territorial governor had sought refuge hiding in the mountains surrounding Snowhill. They were systematically being picked off one by one by a ruthless band of bounty hunters led by the aptly named Loco played by Klaus Kinski. This renegade group however was championed by a mute gunslinger named Silence played by Jean Louis Trintignant who despised bounty hunters. In a scheme of murder for reward Kinski and his group were on a killing spree, which was apparently legal.

Silence, toting an odd looking automatic pistol was proving to be a formidible opponent being aided by local sheriff Burnett played by Frank Wolff. Hired by recently widowed Vonetta McGee to kill Loco, Silence was proving to be up to the task, in several bloody displays of gunfighting.

"The Great Silence" was stunning in its gorgeous cinematography, beautifully capturing the frigid blizzard conditions. The movie featured an excellent and haunting musical score composed by Ennio Morricone. The cast contained spaghetti western regulars Luigi Pistilli and a shorn Mario Brega. The totally unexpected violent ending helped make this both a disturbing and memorable flick.