The Great Silence

The Great Silence (1968) is arguably the best of the spaghetti westerns. Directed by Sergio Corbucci, it has his usual feel, including shaky cam, lots of gore, wild zooming, and otherwise frenetic camera work. It also has possibly the darkest ending ever filmed.

NUDITY REPORT

The exposure is from Vonetta Mc Gee in her first film as the wife of a man killed by the bounty hunters who ends up as love interest for Trintignant. She shows breasts and buns in very brief flashes.

DVD info from Amazon.

Widescreen letterboxed, 1.66:1
alternate "happy" ending

It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as a mute (Silence) who had his throat cut by a bounty hunter after his father. Silence has dedicated his life to killing bounty hunters, but will not draw first. A group of bounty hunters is living off of killing so called wanted people (many of whom were merely poor Mormons). A land owner/banker made sure they got paid. The worst of the bounty hunters, Loco, was played by Klaus Kinski, who always makes a credible bad guy.

The film is of interest to Italian western fans, students of cinema, and anyone one else interested in a very dark non-traditional western.

Scoop's note: this highly regarded 1968 film has never before been available in the USA in any home video format. I have never seen it, and even Leonard Maltin is silent on the topic. What a great cast! Trintignant as the mute and Kinski as the bad guy.

The Critics Vote

none

The People Vote ...

With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 7.7

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C+. Top of the line as a genre film.