Customer Reviews

The Great Silence

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

After having sat through the tedium of Texas, Adios and Vengeance, it was a terrific pleasure to see this film. The setting is unusual for a Western (mountains full of snow), the score by the great Morricone is tops, and the international casting is inspired.

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.

I saw this movie up in the Abruzzo, in Italy, when it first came out, and it was interesting to watch the reactions of the Italians. The older ones more or less shuffled out of the theater after it was over, as if it were something at once too cruel and all-too-well-remembered. These were people who remembered World War II very vividly. The younger audience was galvanized, excited, thrilled. This a very sharp, jagged film, clumsy in parts but extraordinary overall. It takes the Western genre to its uttermost ending. Evil wins, good loses. It's a Western upside down, and it ends with a massacre. "Pieta! Pieta!" the victims shout and scream in Italian, in the original. Mercy, mercy! Mercy there is none. I wish the DVD had the original Italian soundtrack so I could re-experience it. There is a very good commentary attached, the picture quality is excellent. Klaus Kinski's dubbed voice is squeaky, but that is the only flaw. His acting is superb. A western in a snowscape is a departure. Corbucci was one crazy, gifted dude. This is a fascinating film. It resembles and foreshadows the power of Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven."

This is easily one of the best and most disturbing spaghetti westerns ever made. At the risk of giving away the ending, the movie basically turns all the western cliches on their head. The gorgeously shot snowy landscape, the lush but unobtrusive Morricone score, Klaus Kinski in the role of his life and the unusual casting of Jean Louis Trintignant in the lead role all combine to give the audience a truly original experience. The quality of the transfer to DVD is also excellent and the inclusion of the alternate ending is very informative. Highly recommended.

This amazing film has an impact altogether greater than the sum of its parts. If you take it scene by scene, you may find yourself distracted by the atrocious dubbing, skimpy plot or sloppy editing. But the impact of the movie as a whole is just tremendous. There's the stark originality of the snowbound setting, the unprecedented radicalism of the story, and the shattering conclusion that's designed to enrage you against injustice. Corbucci's attention to gothic detail is as striking as ever, though the gunfights have a strangely "half-cocked" feel compared to the ferociously crisp exchanges in DJANGO. There are some flabby passages, and you almost get the feeling that this is a recovered "lost" western that was never quite completed (although of course it was a successful mainstream release in Europe).

The DVD is great value - a superb new print from the master negative. It's great to be able to see the legendary "happy ending" at last (also in fine condition, though without sound and exhibiting Corbucci's deliberate "spoiler" technique of too-fast filming to prevent it from being used!). It's good to see Alex Cox introducing the film - it was he and the BBC's Nick Freand-Jones who gave the movie its English language premiere, since when its cult status has been assured.

A mute whose family was killed by evil bounty hunters makes his way as a hired gun for those who want to avenge bounty hunter murders. He's a good guy who could use a little more brains (as someone else said, some of the decisions toward the end were dumb).

This is an excellent spaghetti western filmed in mountains and snow. At first it didn't seem like the movie would pull off the premise of snow, horses and guns. But, the atmosphere of it all eventually consumes you - an almost claustrophobic feeling to it.

Klaus Kinski is simply brilliant as the villain, a combination of mean and smart that provides some explanation for the fact that he comes out on top.

I would have given this 5 stars except for the fact that we only got an over-dubbed version (not sure if anything else is available). If there were the actual audio and subtitles, this movie would have been significantly better. Also, the hero was too stupid to be believed at times. All in all, an excellent movie.

I'm sorry for not giving this movie five stars, but a lot of times people have a habit of over reacting when something this rare pops up in America with such a great transfer. The movie looks better than ever (I've only seen it before on foreign bootlegs) and the "happy ending" was a great addition. Klaus Kinski is great as always. I love that the main character carries a broom-handle Mauser. And the ending is just as wild and shocking as everyone says it is. Then why only three stars? I love Sergio Corbucci---everything like Sonny and Jed, The Hellbenders, The Mercenary, Super Fuzz, Navajo Joe, etc.---but the guy just wasn't a five-star director--though Django comes mighty close. He filmed fast and furious, and a lot of times the script was made up as he went--and it shows. His style, like a lot of guys working in Italian exploitation, is very choppy. Way too many crazy zooms and cloe-ups intrude on the action. You have to be prepared to forgive a lot when watching this stuff, and people not tuned in to the whacked-out world of spaghetti exploitation will be thoroughly confused. Not too mention that the guy dubbing Kinski's voice sounds like a moron.

Though Corbucci was the second best spaghetti Western director of all time, there's still miles and miles between him and the great Leone--who I think was the most visual director in the history of film.

But if spaghetti expoitation is your thing, then this is the movie for you. It's one of the best. Just too bad I've outgrown my high-school phase of devouring movies from guys like Lucio Fulci, Vincent Dawn, Anthony Dawson and the like.

The Great Silence is truly one of the greatest westerns ever made. This spaghetti western turns all the cliches on their sides. Based in the snow bound town of Snow Hill, the Great Silence tells the story of a ruthless bounty hunter who hunts down a starving bunch of outlaws trapped in the mountains. A woman in the town hires a gunman who has a deep hatred for bounty killers to protect them.

This is a classic in every sense of the word. Instead of the usual desert setting, the story is based in a mountainous winter setting. Klaus Kinski gives his all-time best performance as Loco, the racist bounty hunter who does everything "according to the law." Jean-Louis Trintignant gives a moving performance as the mute gunfighter, Silence, bent on getting revenge. Also giving good performances are Vonetta McGee in her first role, Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega, and Frank Wolff.

The movie overall is great with Ennio Morricone giving us another haunting soundtrack just as he did with the Dollars trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West. The DVD gives a good if not excellent presentation of the movie with a theatrical trailer and alternate "happy ending" added on. The downbeat ending is completely opposite of what most western fans have come to expect. For any fans of spaghettis or westerns in general, The Great Silence is not one to be missed.