El gran silencio

This French- Italian co-production is a Spaghetti Western masterpiece by Sergio Corbucci , being highly rated by the critics and is one of his best movies, along with ¨the Compañeros¨ and ¨Djanjo¨. It takes place in the snow-filled outdoors of Utah and based on real events during the great Blizzard of 1885 and shot in Cortina D'Ampezzo in the Dolomitas mountains located in the Alps . The film is plenty of dark fatalism and features to Silence (Jean Louis Trintignant in his first and unique Western , he had agreed to do the film in order to help out the producer, who was a friend of his), a mute gunslinger with a 7,63 mm Mauser Broomhandle gun , helping a group of desperado outlaws and an African- American woman named Pauline (Voneta McGee) attempting to revenge death her husband against the bounty hunters led by the ruthless Loco (Klaus Kinski) and payed by Pollicut (Luigi Pistilli) . Furthermore, an upright sheriff (Frank Wolff) appears trying peace and order.

This widely deemed picture , unlike most conventional Spaghetti Western , contains exceptional setting , colorful images with a sensational cinematography by Silvano Ippoliti and features a sensitive musical score by the classic Ennio Morricone . This splendid Western results to be a remake to Japanese Samurai TV series starring Shintarô Katsu (1973) . Jean-Louis Trintignant agreed to play in a spaghetti western under the condition that he did not have to learn any lines for the role , that's why the main character conveniently became a mute in the story. Nice production design and the snow in the town of Snow Hill was created by gallons of shaving cream . The movie was widely inspired by ¨Day of outlaw¨ (Andre de Toth with Robert Ryan , 1959) and set in 1898 in a small town called Snow Hill where is developed a massacre . The motion picture was originally directed by Corbucci and displays a twisted finale with dark surprise included . As trivia, explaining that Trintignant didn't know English , language used during filming , and Marcello Mastroiani, Sergio Corbucci's friend , suggested him playing a mute gunfighter named Silence , resulting to be the film title . Rating : Better than average . Indispensable and essential seeing for SW lovers.

This is among the very few films that make you truly disgusted by its violence; not because of the amount of blood as in many other films but because the victims of the bounty hunters are human beings, slaughtered brutally in front of their own family members. Corbucci has disguised this film as a piece of popular cinema, but gives us shocks once in a while, and finally surprises us completely in the unexpected end. This is how he makes his anti-violent message very clear, and it is easy to agree with him.

IL GRANDE SILENZIO is more pessimistic but also more human than any western by Leone or Peckinpah. It may not be a pleasant experience, but if you want to see a masterpiece of cinema instead of a traditional western, it is definitely worth waiting in line for.

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.

Sergio Corbucci swaps the desert for snowy mountains, howling coyotes for howling wind, and supplies a strong silent hero so silent that he doesn't speak at all. Ennio Morricone changes tone completely and gives us a morose, sad soundtrack that perfectly matches the atmosphere of desperation that flows through the entire film. No doubt about it – this film leaves a mark.

In the mountains of Utah, starving citizens of the town of Snow Hill are forced to steal to feed themselves, and in turn have to hide in the mountains with a price on their head. The corrupt banker and Justice of the Peace Pollicut (Luigi Pistilli), encourages bounty hunters to hunt them down, as he makes a percentage on every 'bandit' brought in. However, the persecuted folks have help in the form of Silence, who really, really hates bounty hunters – and with good reason. Silence will only fire upon someone if they draw first, and he also likes to shoot the thumbs off bounty hunters, as Pollicut knows too well.

Worst of all the bounty hunters is Loco (Klaus Kinski), who doesn't even care why people have a price on their heads, as long as he gets the money, and there's no 'dead or alive' where Loco is concerned. If they're dead, he doesn't have to feed them. Loco kills the husband of Pauline, who returned from exile to visit his wife, and she hires Silence to kill him. Loco knows that Silence is too fast for him, and will not be drawn into a gunfight…yet.

There's also a new Sheriff in town that quickly twigs that things aren't quite right in Snow Hill. Burnett (Wolff, playing the only character approaching 'comic relief'), does not agree at all with Pollicut and Loco's tactics, even going so far as to arrest Loco and take him elsewhere for a trial.

That's enough plot! There's loads going on in this film, and plenty of it must have been quite daring for 1968. The interracial sex scene between Silence and Pauline for starters (and the music during this bit is outstanding, even for Morricone!), the bloody violence with headshots being a speciality, and the ending! The ending! Jesus! Buddha! Brian Blessed! The ending! Indy! The ending! I will not reveal it here, but it's certainly not something you encounter very often, in any genre. Jaw-dropping.

The acting is also faultless too, even if it is dubbed. Klaus Kinski is very restrained for the most part, but still comes across as a polite, malicious, sadistic murderer who is also smarter than everyone else. This might possibly be the best film I've seen him in. Luigi Pistilli isn't too far behind either. He's cowardly and scheming and likes to make others do his dirty work (mainly Mario Brega, who meets a gory end that stands out). Frank Wolff jumps between comedic and serious as the only male character in possession of a soul. His character follows the law to the letter, which may be a mistake in the hostile environment of Snow Hill. I'm not familiar with the actress that plays Pauline but she also stands out as a woman channelling her grief into one simple task – to kill Loco.

This one gets the highest recommendation for me!

A voiceless vigilante enacts revenge, if you've been tricked or tripped up he can make amends, for a fee he will dispense, compensation, recompense, with the weapon of his choice (a Mauser C96), he will avenge. Loco makes collections for the state, if there's a bounty on your head he will checkmate, always dead never alive, as he conspires and connives, has the backing of the local magistrate.

The town of Snow Hill lives up to its name as Pauline Middleton, wonderfully performed by Vonetta McGee, seeks revenge for her husband's killing at the hands of Loco, a devious and scheming bounty hunter (just as wonderfully performed by Klaus Kimski), by hiring the man with no noise who goes by the name of Silent, and bears a close resemblance to a similar spaghetti western character you may have come across, played perfectly by the suave Jean-Louis Trintignant. The ending may leave you a little confounded as it takes a tangent you most likely won't be expecting or indeed be familiar with.