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IMDbPro

The Great Silence

Original title: Il grande silenzio
  • 19681968
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 45m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
17K
YOUR RATING
The Great Silence (1968)
Western
A mute gunfighter defends a young widow and a group of outlaws against a gang of bounty killers in the winter of 1898, and a grim, tense struggle unfolds.A mute gunfighter defends a young widow and a group of outlaws against a gang of bounty killers in the winter of 1898, and a grim, tense struggle unfolds.A mute gunfighter defends a young widow and a group of outlaws against a gang of bounty killers in the winter of 1898, and a grim, tense struggle unfolds.
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
17K
YOUR RATING
    • Sergio Corbucci
  • Writers
    • Sergio Corbucci(story)
    • Vittoriano Petrilli(screenplay)
    • Mario Amendola(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Jean-Louis Trintignant
    • Klaus Kinski
    • Frank Wolff
    • Sergio Corbucci
  • Writers
    • Sergio Corbucci(story)
    • Vittoriano Petrilli(screenplay)
    • Mario Amendola(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Jean-Louis Trintignant
    • Klaus Kinski
    • Frank Wolff
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 120User reviews
    • 102Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Photos204

    The Great Silence (1968)
    The Great Silence (1968)
    The Great Silence (1968)
    The Great Silence (1968)
    Klaus Kinski in The Great Silence (1968)
    Jean-Louis Trintignant in The Great Silence (1968)
    Klaus Kinski in The Great Silence (1968)
    Marisa Merlini in The Great Silence (1968)
    Jean-Louis Trintignant and Vonetta McGee in The Great Silence (1968)
    Mario Brega and Luigi Pistilli in The Great Silence (1968)
    Klaus Kinski, Luigi Pistilli, and Frank Wolff in The Great Silence (1968)
    Klaus Kinski in The Great Silence (1968)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Jean-Louis Trintignant
    Jean-Louis Trintignant
    • Gordon
    • (as Jean Louis Trintignant)
    • …
    Klaus Kinski
    Klaus Kinski
    • Tigrero…
    Frank Wolff
    Frank Wolff
    • Sheriff Gideon Burnett
    Vonetta McGee
    Vonetta McGee
    • Pauline Middleton
    • (as Vonetta Mc Gee)
    Luigi Pistilli
    Luigi Pistilli
    • Henry Pollicut
    Mario Brega
    Mario Brega
    • Martin
    Carlo D'Angelo
    Carlo D'Angelo
    • Governor of Utah
    • (as Carlo D' Angelo)
    Marisa Merlini
    Marisa Merlini
    • Regina
    Maria Mizar
    • Blonde Saloon Girl
    Marisa Sally
    • Black-Haired Saloon Girl
    Raf Baldassarre
    Raf Baldassarre
    • Sanchez
    Spartaco Conversi
    • Walter
    Remo De Angelis
    Remo De Angelis
    • Fake Sheriff in Flashback
    Mirella Pamphili
    Mirella Pamphili
    • Red-Haired Saloon Girl in Flashback
    Fortunato Arena
    • Outlaw
    • (uncredited)
    Giulio Baraghini
    • Man in Saloon
    • (uncredited)
    Gino Barbacane
    • Poker Player
    • (uncredited)
    Lino Coletta
    • Hunter
    • (uncredited)
      • Sergio Corbucci
    • Writers
      • Sergio Corbucci(story) (screenplay)
      • Vittoriano Petrilli(screenplay)
      • Mario Amendola(screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      According to Sergio Corbucci, Marcello Mastroianni gave him the idea of a mute gunfighter when the actor told him that he had always wanted to do a Western, but unfortunately didn't speak English. When Corbucci first met Jean-Louis Trintignant, he learned that he didn't speak English either. Because he had a fascination with characters with a crippling weakness, Corbucci decided that this was the moment to turn the taciturn Spaghetti Western hero into a mute.
    • Goofs
      Various spelling mistakes in the title cards.
    • Quotes

      Ending title card: The massacres of 1898, year of the Great Blizzard, finally brought forth fierce public condemnation of the bounty killers, who, under the guise of false legality, made violent murder a profitable way of life. For many years there was a clapboard sign at Snow Hill which carried this legend: MEN'S BOOTS CAN KICK UP THE DUST OF THIS PLACE FOR A THOUSAND YEARS, BUT NOTHING MAN CAN EVER DO WILL WIPE OUT THE BLOOD STAINS OF THE POOR FOLK WHO FELL HERE.

    • Alternate versions
      Two alternative endings were created for this film:
      • A "happy" ending, in which Sheriff Burnett (having somehow survived being trapped under a frozen lake) rides into town and shoots Loco before he can kill Silence, allowing him to kill the remaining bounty killers. This ending was once believed to be shot for the North African and Japanese markets, but has since been revealed to have been created as an alternative solution for the producers, who wanted the film to have a "seasonal" (ie. Christmas) appeal.
      • A lesser-known, "ambiguous" re-cut of the original ending with additional footage, in which Silence is wounded, but Loco gestures to his gang members to leave the saloon before they can kill anyone.
    • Connections
      Featured in Western, Italian Style (1968)

    User reviews120

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    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.
    helpful•49
    8
    • OttoVonB
    • May 11, 2005

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 27, 1969 (France)
      • Italy
      • France
      • Italian
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Cortina d'Ampezzo, Belluno, Veneto, Italy
    • Production companies
      • Adelphia Compagnia Cinematografica
      • Les Films Corona
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 1 hour 45 minutes

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