The Great Silence (1968)

A mute gunfighter defends a young widow and a group of outlaws against a gang of bounty killers in the winter of 1898, as a grim, tense struggle unfolds.

Director:

Sergio Corbucci

Writers:

Sergio Corbucci (story), Vittoriano Petrilli (screenplay)

Stars:

Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Frank Wolff

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	Gordon / Silence (as Jean Louis Trintignant)
Klaus Kinski	...	Tigrero / Loco
Frank Wolff	...	Sheriff Gideon Burnett
Luigi Pistilli	...	Henry Pollicut
Mario Brega	...	Martin
Carlo D'Angelo	...	Governor of Utah (as Carlo D' Angelo)
Marisa Merlini	...	Regina
Maria Mizar	...	Blonde Saloon Girl
Marisa Sally	...	Black-Haired Saloon Girl
Raf Baldassarre	...	Sanchez
Spartaco Conversi	...	Walter
Remo De Angelis	...	Fake Sheriff in Flashback
Mirella Pamphili	...	Red-Haired Saloon Girl in Flashback (as Mirella Pamphili C.S.C.)
Vonetta McGee	...	Pauline Middleton (as Vonetta Mc Gee)

Storyline

Bounty killers led by Loco prey on outlaws hiding out in the snowbound Utahn mountains. After Pauline's husband becomes Loco's latest victim, she hires a gunman for revenge; Silence, mute since his throat was cut when he was a boy.

---

Plot Keywords:

spaghetti western | snow | revisionist western | mute | winter | 

---

Taglines:

His voice was the silence of death!

---

Genres:

Western

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian English

Release Date:

27 January 1969 (France)

Also Known As:

The Great Silence

Filming Locations:

Elios Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,755, 1 April 2018, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$53,074, 30 August 2018

Company Credits

Production Co:

Adelphia Compagnia Cinematografica,Les Films Corona

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Sound System)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In publicity photos, Loco is shown holding a "WANTED" poster of an outlaw named Manuel Vasquez, a character who is not seen in the film. The poster is, in fact, a leftover prop from 10,000 Dollars for a Massacre (1967), in which Vasquez is a character played by Claudio Camaso. In The Great Silence (1968) itself, Vasquez's face on the poster is kept out of view.

---

Goofs

In one shot of Silence and Pauline's love scene, Silence's head is immediately under Pauline's arm. However, in the connecting shot, her arm is covering his forehead.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Hunter: [after Silence has killed four other bounty killers] W-Wait! I-I surrender! Don't kill me! I-I won't do it again! I'm through with bounty hunting! Don't kill me, Silence!
[Silence shoots both of the man's thumbs off; the killer moans in pain]
Hunter: Damn you! You've... crippled my hands!
[tries to shoot Silence with his pistol, but is shot in the back by Miguel]

---

Connections

Remade as Mute Samurai (1973)

User Reviews

The ultimate Spaghetti Western!

The spaghetti western is a hybrid creature in many ways. it mixes the great American legend by demystifying it with European pessimism. It plays the landscapes and its inhabitants as ambiguous vehicles of destiny and violence (the background often conveys the mood more than the characters, as the films of Corbucci and Leone demonstrate). And although Fistfull of Dollars is mean and lean, it remains a pale copy of Kuroswa's superior Yojimbo. Despite it's beautiful opera, Once upon a Time in the West is too elegant. despite its biting humor and epic scope, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly is too playful...

What we have here, is nothing less than the ultimate essence of the Spaghetti Western: irony, cruelty, tenderness, beauty, violence, larger than life characters... and chaos. the chaos is as present in the general mood as it is in Corbucci's wild and messy camera-work (from beautiful panoramas to crash zooms and close ups that accentuate the villains' ugliness).

The story is straight and simple but allows for great characters as the mute bounty hunter Silence (Trintignant, conveying impossible emotion with nothing but his haunting eyes) travels to a snowy town to bring down the killer of his client's husband and coincidentally fulfill a more personal vengeance. He is pitted against a range of pathetic and ugly villains, headed by a sleazy and psychotic Loco (Kinski, mesmerizing as the cruel but contained and playful killer).

All the while the nihilism and harshness of nature weigh over these characters as people freeze to death, a man drowns in a frozen lake and the survival of the fittest is demanded in a bloody fashion, leading to a devastating ending that seals this tight film together as a magnificently macabre opera of death. Unmissable.