The Great Silence
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.,Various spelling mistakes in the title cards.,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.,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.,Featured in Western, Italian Style (1968),Sergio Corbucci's masterpiece "Il Grande Silenzio" aka. "The Great Silence" is more than just one of the greatest Westerns of all-time. Unlike Corbucci's earlier masterpiece "Django" from 1966, which is a violent Spaghetti Western, but also full of dark humor, "The Great Silence" is an uncompromisingly bleak movie from the beginning to the end, a brutal tale about misery, greed and selfishness, about injustice and the desire for revenge.

Winter of 1898, in the mountain town of Snow Hill, Utah. People who were forced to steal in order to survive an ice cold winter, are mercilessly chased and murdered by unscrupolous bounty hunters, who don't care who they kill as long as there is a reward on their victim's head. The most atrocious of these bounty hunters is vicious Loco, outstandingly pictured by Klaus Kinski. In their calamity, desperate relatives of the head hunters' victims hire a mute gunman called Silence, in order to avenge their loved ones and end the killings.

The acting in this movie is brilliant. Nobody could be as diabolical as Klaus Kinski in the role of Loco, Jean-Louis Trintignant performance as Silence is just great, and Vonetta McGee is amazing as Pauline, a beautiful black woman, who falls in love with Silence after losing her husband to the bountykillers. The supporting cast contains such great Spaghetti Western actors as Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega and Frank Wolff. The Music by Ennio Morricone is, once again, excellent (how couldn't it), the main theme is one of his greatest compositions. The locations are very well-chosen, impressive images of a snowy mountain wasteland make you almost feel the cold. "The Great Silence is", after "Django", Sergio Corbucci's second film that could be described as one of the most important Westerns of all-time. Both brutal and both masterpieces, the two movies are still completely different. While Django was violent but, in its dark way, also humorous, The Great Silence is sad, serious and brutally bleak. Incomparable in every aspect, "The Great Silence" even surpasses "Django" in its brilliance, and easily deserves to be named as one of the greatest Westerns ever made.

The Great Silence is a must-see, not only for fans of Spaghetti Westerns, but for every lover of film. Brilliant And Unique, one of the greatest Westerns ever made! 10/10,