Il grande silenzio (1968)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Sergio Corbucci

Writers:

Mario Amendola (screenplay)
Bruno Corbucci (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 November 1968 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Plot:

A mute gunslinger faces off against a gang of bounty hunters in the great blizzard of 1899, and a grim, tense struggle unfolds.

Plot Keywords:

Mute | Revenge | Outlaw | Bounty Hunter | Mountain

Cast

Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	Silence
Klaus Kinski	...	Tigrero / Loco
Frank Wolff	...	Sheriff Burnett
Luigi Pistilli	...	Pollicut
Vonetta McGee	...	Pauline
Mario Brega	...	Martin, Pollicut's Assistant
Carlo D'Angelo	...	Governor
Marisa Merlini	...	Regina
Maria Mizar
Marisa Sally
Raf Baldassarre	...	One-Eyed Bounty Hunter
Spartaco Conversi	...	Walter, Leader of the Outlaws
Remo De Angelis
Mirella Pamphili	...	Saloon Girl

Also Known As:

The Great Silence (USA)
Le grand silence (France)
The Big Silence

Runtime:

105 min | Brazil:101 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Sound System)

Certification:

Norway:(Banned) (1969) | West Germany:18 (f) | Finland:(Banned) (1969, re-rating) | Finland:(Banned) (1969, original rating) | Finland:K-18 (1989,Video rating, cut) | Australia:M | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (2004)

Filming Locations:

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Belluno, Veneto, Italy

Company:

Adelphia Compagnia Cinematografica

Trivia:

According to "Once Upon a Time in the Italian West" by Howard Hughes, Silence's distinctive rapid-firing pistol is the 1896 7,63 mm Mauser Broomhandle.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Various spelling mistakes in the title cards.

Quotes:

Tigrero, a.k.a. Loco: Now say "good-bye" to your husband. Always respect the dead. Now pack your husband in the snow. That'll keep him fresh till I collect his bounty. So don't you bury him, you hear? What times we live in. Blacks worth as much as a white man.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Western, Italian Style (1968) (TV)

They died with their coats on

In a traditional Western one instantly knows who the good and who the bad guys are, and - of course - we also know who will triumph at the end (the good guys, of course). In a typical Italian Western we still know instantly who's going to win at the end, just the distinction between good guys and bad guys is rather blurred. Il Grande Silenzio is not a typical Italian Western. We know instantly that e.g. Klaus Kinski is one of the bad guys (frankly, we know that before the film starts but that's beside the point), but the final outcome is much less predictable, and if you tried to predict it the actual ending may come as a huge shock.

The title of the film is ambiguous, both referring to the grandiosity of the character played by Jean-Louis Trintignant (called 'silence' since he's mute) and the silence of the winter landscape in which the film is set and the silence of the death.

Yes, the silence of death: the German title of the film ('Leichen pflastern seinen Weg', translation: 'his path is paved with corpses') is also ambiguous, since 'his' could equally apply to both main characters. However, the violence is never gratuitous, it is bleak: most of the victims have faces and a story behind them. Il Grande Silenzio is surprisingly little known but highly regarded amongst genre lovers (including me). As in so many Italian Western, Ennio Morricone's score is a great asset, perfectly assessing and supporting the general mood. This is easily one of the five finest Italian Western ever made, and I'd feel hard pressed to name more than 2 of the others.