Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Memorable, April 7, 2004
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very unusual, powerful and largely overlooked gem!, March 23, 2003
This review is from: The Great Silence (DVD)
I watched The Great Silence for the first time last night. There is no doubt in my mind that this film is easily amongst the best spaghetti westerns ever made. I do feel this is better than Django. The Sergio Corbucci films I'd previously seen seemed very hit and miss. The photography sometimes looked rough, complete with shaky zooms. The photography in The Great Silence however is generally superb. Some wonderful wide shots and a number of other beautiful shots, the camera does pan about very well. The film is set on a snow swept landscape and it looks terrific, it also contains a wonderful, haunting score from Ennio Morricone. On an unforgiving, snow-swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski) prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected - one - by - one, only a mute gunslinger named Silence (Jean-Louis-Trintignant) stands between the innocent refugees and the greed and corruption that the bounty hunters represent. It's hard to believe this film was made in 1968, it is very impressive for many reasons. First it does not follow most genre conventions, it simply follows it's own set of rules, the ending is especially different. It's well cast, I thought both of the male leads were perfect. There is a very good moment where the mute gunslinger and a coloured woman make love. This scene is really unusual and quite daring for the time. This is a very bleak film, which may put some people off. I happen to think the ending is brilliant. The Great Silence is such a wonderful film. The English dubbing is sometimes poor, but this is only a small flaw. I'm very pleased with the DVD of this film. Not only have they found a very decent print of the film, it's a new digital widescreen 1.66:1 transfer. Print damage is minimal, there are a few shots which look to have aged but on the whole it's very good, grain is rarely evident. The sound wasn't so good, there is background noise and it can often be heard over the dialogue. If you are a fan of spaghetti westerns, this film is essential viewing. It is better than Sergio Corbucci's own Django which is a very good spaghetti western in it's own right. A very unusual, powerful, bleak and largely overlooked gem. I picked up the DVD due to the positive reviews I read here.
The Amazonians here did not let me down, most of the reviews are spot on. Highly Recommended.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE SNOW, August 7, 2002
This review is from: The Great Silence (DVD)
You can not go wrong with Sergio Corbucci's THE GREAT SILENCE. The movie is simply one of the best spaghetti westerns ever directed and belongs to the priceless category of cult movies. If you consider that, apart of the haunting musical score of Ennio Morricone, Klaus Kinski is one of the main characters of the film, nothing, except maybe the bad quality of the sound, can prevent you now from ordering this Image DVD. You'll find in THE GREAT SILENCE moments of anthology such as a love scene between a mute and a black woman (I remind you that the scene is happening in 1998 in the Utah mountains) with a violin concert as musical background. You'll suffer with the hero -Jean-Louis Trintignant- who is mute and has to face the fiendish Klaus Kinski with a burnt hand, and bullets in the shoulder AND in the other hand. I hardly mention that it is snowing during the entire movie and that the final scene of the GREAT SILENCE is so pessimistic that the movie's producer asked Sergio Corbucci to shoot an alternative ending you will find as bonus feature. Other bonus features include a trailer and an interview of SID AND NANCY'S director Alex Cox. Images are average and the sound, as I mentioned it before, poor. A DVD zone your library.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
