MoPoshy
Absolutely brilliant
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Ella-May O'Brien
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
adrian-43767
From the outset one gets the feeling that Trintignant, a very fine actor, is miscast. According to production reports, he struggled with Italian and English, and it was decided that the best thing was to give him a silent role - which greatly limits his scope, but somehow helps increase the film's claustrophobic atmosphere, hemmed in by constant snow and cold. Kinski gets the plum part, with the clever lines; the actor who plays the sheriff also does well; cinematography is excellent under such strenuous conditions; dialogue is good enough to keep you riveted; and the motivations of all those human living on the brink of animaldom -- especially the group of "outlaws" who prowl outside of town and keep attacking people for food -- almost turn THE GREAT SILENCE into a Western version of MAD MAX. The film is full of Leone-like touches, including significant looks and close-ups. Unlike any Leone movie, it is able to show two human beings who feel real love for each other (Trintignant and the black woman whose husband was killed by Kinski). It also has its fair share of subjective angles and shots, all of which builds up to what should have been a terrific climax.Instead, Director Sergio Corbucci suddenly and unexpectedly decides to turn THE GREAT SILENCE into a historic piece about some massacre. A happier ending would have made it a masterpiece comparable to ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, and certainly better than A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS or FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.The greater the pity - as much as I would like to give it a higher mark, because there is much to be enjoyed about THE GREAT SILENCE, ultimately its weak and wayward ending lets it down. 6/10
jboldway
Morricone does a brilliant polyrhythm score. Never heard another poly rhythm score ever. This man is a master. It really doesn't get any better than this soundtrack. Kinski is fantastically evil. Trintigant is amazing as Silence. This is the best Western I've ever watched and the best movie I've ever watched. everybody must watch this movie. Vonnetta McGee did a great job too. Again, the poly rhythm score is unreal. Watch Silence shoot the potatoes. :-) How the hell do you actually get something posted on this? It doesn't seem to like poly rhythm. "there were some problems with your review."
drewconnor
I watched The Great Silence for the first time last night. There is no doubt in my mind that this film is easily amongst the best spaghetti westerns ever made. I do feel this is better than Django. The Sergio Corbucci films I'd previously seen seemed very hit and miss. The photography sometimes looked rough, complete with shaky zooms. The photography in The Great Silence however is generally superb. Some wonderful wide shots and a number of other beautiful shots, the camera does pan about very well. The film is set on a snow swept landscape and it looks terrific, it also contains a wonderful, haunting score from Ennio Morricone. On an unforgiving, snow-swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski) prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected - one - by - one, only a mute gunslinger named Silence (Jean-Louis-Trintignant) stands between the innocent refugees and the greed and corruption that the bounty hunters represent. It's hard to believe this film was made in 1968, it is very impressive for many reasons. First it does not follow most genre conventions, it simply follows it's own set of rules, the ending is especially different. It's well cast, I thought both of the male leads were perfect. There is a very good moment where the mute gunslinger and a coloured woman make love. This scene is really unusual and quite daring for the time. This is a very bleak film, which may put some people off. I happen to think the ending is brilliant.
Zoooma
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
