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Reviews (27)
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SSean Baker 8 月 23, 2026
Even though I may have seen this years ago in a dorm room on VHS tape, seeing the Film Movement Blu-ray of this restored classic was like watching the film for the first time. It is a must-see. Classic spaghetti western with a wholly unique approach – a snowy western. Without this film and Cut Throats Nine, there would be no Hateful Eight. From wiki: In March 2017, the Cinémathèque Française reported that Cineteca Nazionale, with the cooperation of Italian distribution rights holder Movietime, had authorised a complete restoration of The Great Silence (including the alternative ending) from the original camera and sound negatives in 4K resolution. The restoration was carried out at the film laboratories Augustus Color and Studio…
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W
Kinski may have been one of the worst people to ever live, but he sure knew how to act.
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J
A western as much for our time as its own, presenting the myths of the Old West as nothing more than a murderous farce that will immolate us all.
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M
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T
If you look up “Fuck You” in the dictionary, there’s a poster for this movie as an example.
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C
Ennio Morricone, my beloved! I promised myself that if “The Great Silence,” a brutal and unforgiving Western set in the dead of winter, followed its nihilistic philosophy to its logical conclusion, the movie would join my five-star movie club. The duel that results in the mute hero’s death is an act of cowardice. The slaughter of the bound outlaws in the saloon is an even greater example of the cruelty exhibited by Klaus Kinski’s character and his bounty hunter companions. “There’s a bounty on each one. We’ll come back and collect ’em later… all according to the law.”There is an operatic quality to this late ’60s Italian Western that is almost orgasmic to witness. I could watch the majestic…
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M
Ladies and gentleman, meet Silence. A man who is the master of instigation, truly deft at baiting others into conflict and eventual death. A “Master Baiter”, one might say. The Great Silence, widely considered Sergio Corbucci’s crowning achievement, is a stark condemnation of the hope and idealism of the mythic American West. A Spaghetti Western as cold and barren as the snowbound landscapes against which it tells its tale, this anti-fable is a dark, unforgiving saga of vengeance and justice (or, more accurately, the lack thereof) that features one of the most iconic villains in the history of the genre in the form of Klaus Kinski’s magnificently diabolical Loco. Brutal and uncompromising, a small mountain town in Utah sees the…
322 6 -
W
Klaus Kinski’s “Loco” is one of the coldest, most ruthless villains of all time. One of the coldest endings of a movie ever presents an allegory for the extermination of the Left in Italy and as Alex Cox said the idea that you can “only take on the powerful and the wicked for a short while, it seemed, before they crushed you.”
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I
An unforgiving journey into the grim confines of ‘no hopesville’, this is Corbucci’s fully realized blizzard world of blurred morality, an ominous snow-swept frontier loaded with corruption, greed, despicable bounty hunters, a man called Loco, and a man named Silence. Beautiful, bleak, and unforgettable. Corbucci’s masterpiece.
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R
Action! – Spaghetti alla Sergio: Il West violentemente divertente di Corbucci Considered by many to be Corbucci’s masterpiece, this is one of those films that proves that contrary to popular belief, the wheel can be reinvented – or at least improved upon. Corbucci’s depressing vision of the Western genre and the world at large was certainly a breath of fresh air in a genre that had grown stale and hackneyed. The story takes place just before the Great Blizzard of 1899, which is fitting as our villains and even our hero, between whom lies a razor’s edge of difference, are all characterized by ruthlessness and despair. Another aspect that makes this film appealing is the different kinds of analyses that…
297 5 -
C
Someone build a bronze statue of Klaus Kinski so I have something tangible to pray and worship to.
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L
Infinity: Avengers War “It’s all within the law.” Plenty of spaghetti westerns deal with the rippling effects of violent vengeance, but The Great Silence is something else, something heavier and colder and more malevolent. It’s haunted. It’s the ghost of all of the previous vengeance cycles, the blankets of snow its shroud, the sound of bullet casings hitting saloon floors its rattling chains. Its story is the prequel to a ghost town. A silent scream. It’s hard watching it today not thinking of its relevance to current events. A crooked powerman looks a grieving widow in the eyes and shrugs at her cries of injustice. “Your husband broke the law. His death was his own fault.” Starving, huddled masses considered outlaws by merciless bounty hunters, have to live outside of the town for fear of being taken down if they step foot in the wrong city. Life is cheap, but business is good if you lack humanity. Cold truth.
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B
Spaghetti Western but quite different to Sergio Leone ‘s masterpieces. Darker, bloodier but somehow also slower. Not one of Morricone ´s best but somehow the movie has that special atmosphere that makes it quite special!!! I loved watching it with Lucas
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M
Miss movie like these nowadays. very refreshing and unique. The ending was shocking to say the least.
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A
He should have learned to swim 🥀
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C
This is a jaw-dropping movie in many different aspects and wow, Klaus Kinski is so great at playing smarmy, asshole villains
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B
Oh my. I have been aware of this one and its reputation, and as a huge Western fan I have always had that little tingle of shame that I haven’t seen it yet. I was given this as an option in the MC Film Swap and decided it was time. I slept on this one for way too long. Easily sits neck and neck with the very best of Leone. Beautiful character work balancing the borderline cartoonish with an uncomfortable…
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F
Das schöne am Urlaub ist nicht nur die Erholung, Familienzeit und Reisen, sondern das man auch was von seinem Pile of shame runter bekommt. The great Silence ist so einer, den ich immer sehen wollte und irgendwie ist es nie dazu gekommen. Wobei mit Schnee, Italowestern, Morricone und Kinski offensichtlich alle wichtigen Kriterien erfüllt sind und auch abliefern. Große Bilder bei denen man die Kälte spürt, unterstützt von einem eingängigen Score, harte Shootouts und Kinski, der hier echt bedrohlich ist…
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A
Love when their Italian accents say “Bounty Killer” *** Not the biggest western guy, but i love when they buck trends and The Great Silence certainly offers some trope subversions. The Italian Dolomites are a great stand in for the lawless west – seriously a gorgeous looking movies the whole way through.
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S
The exuberance of violence and tragedy showcase in one of the saddest westerns I ever seen are just so gut wrenching, that I can’t stop thinking about it.
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S
l’immunità alla vecchiaia di questo film è un qualcosa di allucinante. è del 68 e sembra uscito ieri. penso di averla ritrovata solo nei film di kubrick e pochissimi altri. e c’è poco altro da dire, non sono riuscito a trovarci un singolo difetto o appunto da fare, è meraviglioso e perfetto sotto ogni aspetto, dalla caratterizzazione dei personaggi, alla sceneggiatura, alla colonna sonora, passando per la fotografia e completando infine l’opera con un finale splendidamente onesto voto: 10
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CCinemaSerf 1 月 4, 2023
Set against a really effective wintry, hostile, background this tells the story of revenge – and that’s always best served cold! A woman “Pauline” (Vonetta McGee) and her family are the victims of unscrupulous bandits. Bent of avenging their heinous behaviour, she hires an equally ruthless and deadly enforcer of her own (Jean-Louis Trintignant) to even the score. This anonymous, mute, gunman is very adept at settling scores, and as the bodies gradually pile up, it looks like a confrontation with the bounty hunter/killer “Tigrero” (Klaus Kinski) cannot be long for the waiting. This is a film that you need to watch with a blanket. The freezing scenarios are used superbly to create a sense of isolation, desperation and the frequent presence of blood spattering the snow helps further illustrate the violent and brutal nature of the lives of the late 19th century Utah citizens – only marginally on the human side of civilisation. The dubbing isn’t the best, but the dialogue isn’t actually that important. It’s the whole look and feel of this film that resonates really well. Kinski and his maniacal eyes, the mute Trintignant (did he just not want to learn any lines?) and the sparing interventions of local kingpin “Pollicut” (Luigi Pistilli) and sheriff “Burnett” (Frank Wolff) all add richness and general unpleasantness to the whole thing. What also helps here is unpredictability. The narrative does not just plod along with the usual hero/anti-hero inevitability to it. The story is alive, it has an authenticity and duplicitousness to it that holds the attention really well before a bleak and, frankly rather savage, denouement that is entirely fitting! It’s a great big screen experience!
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WWuchak 11 月 29, 2021
_**Killers in the snow of the (Italian) Old West**_
In 1898, a mute gunfighter called Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) comes to a snowy town in northern Utah where ruthless bounty hunters clash with fugitives in the hills. He accepts a job from a widow (Vonetta McGee) to take out Loco (Klaus Kinski), the man who slew her husband.
Directed & co-written by Sergio Corbucci, “The Great Silence” (1968) ranks with the better Spaghetti Westerns due to several highlights: The awesome snowy setting, a moving score by Ennio Morricone, the silent protagonist, the uniquely beautiful Vonetta McGee (a rare black woman in a prominent role in an old Western), the dastardly villain played by Kinski and the shocking climax. It influenced future Westerns, like “The Claim” (2000) and “The Hateful Eight” (2015).
As with most Italian Westerns from back then, the English dubbing is serviceable at best. The only issue I have on this front is the voice used for Kinski’s character, which seems incongruous.
The movie runs 1 hour, 45 minutes, and was shot about 15 miles from the border of Austria in northeastern Italy (San Cassiano & Cortina d’Ampezzo), as well as the flashback done at Bracciano Lake, Rome, with other stuff done in Elios Studios, Rome.
GRADE: B+
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JJohn Chard 3 月 9, 2017
For all I know he is the devil.
The Great Silence is directed by Sergio Corbucci and Corbucci co- writes the screenplay with Mario Amendola, Bruno Corbucci and Vittoriano Petrilli. It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Frank Wolff, Luigi Pistilli, Vonetta McGee and Mario Brega. Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Silvano Ippoliti.
Snowhill, Utah – Winter at the turn of the century, and the local villagers have succumbed to thievery purely to survive. But with that comes bounties on their heads, which brings into the area the bounty hunters who are a law unto themselves. Enter the mute gunfighter known as Silence, who has a deep rooted hatred of bounty hunters…
Something of a cult classic and massively popular in Spaghetti Western fan’s circles, The Great Silence is as perpetually cold as the snowy landscapes that surround this tale. Death is a financial commodity, greed and corruption stalks the land, while the shades between right and wrong are as blurry as can be. The violence cuts deep, none more so than with the famous finale that closes down the pic with a pneumatic thud. The photography captures the winter scapes perfectly and is in tune with the narrative drive, while maestro Morricone lays a ethereal musical score over proceedings.
There’s some daft goofs such as a dead man blinking and manacles that mysteriously disappear, and not all the acting is of the standard that Kinski and Wolff provide, but this is one utterly unforgettable bowl of Spaghetti. Its reputation in the pasta circles well deserved. 8/10
- Synopsis
- A mute gunslinger fights in the defense of a group of outlaws and a vengeful young widow, against a group of ruthless bounty hunters.
- Director
- Sergio Corbucci
- Writer
- Sergio Corbucci, Mario Amendola, Bruno Corbucci, Vittoriano Petrilli
- Studio
- Les Films Corona, Adelphia Compagnia Cinematografica
- Country
- Italy, France
- Language
- Italian, English, French
- Year
- 1968
- Runtime
- 107 mins
- Italy22 Nov 1968
- Japan23 Sep 1969
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