The first must-see film of the year.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

"The Great Silence" has to take the cake as one of the finest entries into the beloved Spaghetti Western genre. Giving it a degree of freshness is the setting: the wintry wilderness of 1898 Utah. No other Western that this viewer has seen has shown off such a harsh and forbidding environment. It lends the film a true beautiful bleakness that has seldom been matched. With typically majestic (and melancholy) music by the maestro Ennio Morricone on the soundtrack, it grimly moves with a steady purpose towards inevitability.French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant plays "Silence", a mute gunslinger whose vocal chords were permanently damaged when he was a child. He arrives in the community of Snow Hill, where the husband of Pauline Middleton (the strikingly attractive young Vonetta McGee) has been murdered by Loco (Klaus Kinski), the leader of a group of "bounty killers". These individuals are much more ruthless than the typical bounty hunter; they actually PREFER to take their quarry back dead. All they care about is profit. Pauline implores Silence to get revenge on her behalf, even though she can't offer him a payday in return.The strong supporting cast also includes Frank Wolff as a dedicated Sheriff, Luigi Pistilli as a slimy mover-and-shaker type, and Mario Brega as Martin. They're all great, with Kinski getting to play one of the most repulsive villains on his resume. And you can tell he's enjoying himself. McGee is very compelling to watch. Trintignant, on the other hand, isn't bad at all, but ultimately lacks the screen presence & charisma of someone like Franco Nero or Clint Eastwood.Directed in high style by Sergio Corbucci (this is definitely his best work in this genre), this creates an interesting gallery of characters that are all very well defined. You're never in any doubt as to who you should be booing and for whom you should be rooting.Corbucci pulls absolutely no punches in this picture, which gains further immortality by giving us one of the most hopeless bummer endings that one is likely to see in such entertainment. It's emotionally draining, to say the least, and ensures that this film will continue to live on for many more years to come.Nine out of 10.

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!

It's hard to gauge this because the dubbing into American accents was not so good. Twas a distraction and would have been better with subtitles. The dubbing on its own is bad but that also throws the sound off at times. What's great about this spaghetti western is definitely the snowy scenery of the Dolomites in northern Italia. What a production filming in such conditions. Our protagonist (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and antagonist (Klaus Kinski) are both solid in their performances. Interesting social undertones with a fine hero out to destroy a terrible villain. But all that gets shot down, literally, at the end. In American westerns you know who wins. American westerns I love and have seen perhaps 1,000 of. So the ending here left me shocked. Many westerns come and go, to be forgotten about for all time. Not this one! --A Kat Pirate Screener

In "The Great Silence", Klaus Kinski plays a wonderfully horrid guy. While he is technically on the side of the law as a 'bounty killer' (I think this was a mistranslation and should have been 'bounty hunter'), his methods are despicable. If he shoots some of the family of the wanted men, he has no problem with this. He also routinely promises to bring in his prey for a fair hearing--and then shoots them dead! Clearly, he has issues.After Kinski (playing, appropriately, a guy named 'Loco') butchers a particular man, his surviving widow is furious and commissions a mute man named 'Silence' (Trintignant) to kill Kinski. Considering that Silence's family was butchered and his throat was cut (making him unable to talk) by bounty hunters, naturally he takes the commission. His plan is to provoke Loco to draw on him and then kill him legally in self-defense. However, there are two things in his way. First, Loco knows he's no match for Silence and vows never to draw his gun on him. Second, the local sheriff hates Loco but doesn't want his town turning into a shooting gallery. In fact, to stop all the butchering, the sheriff arrests Loco and spirits him out of town. That, of course, does not end it and in the end there is a HUGE and very bloody shootout.Aside from the very unsatisfying ending, this is one of the better Italian westerns I have seen. I loved the snowy scenes which set it apart from other westerns. It also is very much like director Corbucci's other westerns in that it is almost a political statement and has a lot to do with the little guy standing up against oppressive legal authorities. But, it's also much better than the other Corbucci films--mostly because it was a bit more restrained and the music wasn't so repetitive. When it came to the acting, I especially liked the snarling Kinski--he was easy to hate. As for Trintignant, he really didn't have a lot to do and as heroes go, he wasn't especially compelling--especially at the incredibly grim and nasty ending. As far as the ending goes, it is interesting that the disc also includes a happy ending apparently shot for some markets--though it lacks sound and may never have actually been used.By the way, isn't it ironic that this Italian western is about a mute AND the DVD has no captions whatsoever?! My deaf daughter couldn't have watched the film with me unless I sat there and interpreted the entire movie! Now THAT'S loco!