INTRODUCTION:

The mid-to-late sixties was undoubtedly the height of the spaghetti western boom. With 1966 producing both Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Sergio Solima’s The Big Gundown. However this sudden boom could not have been accomplished without the release of Sergio Corbucci’s classic Django, which still retains the record of being the most financially successful western produced in Europe with 60+ unofficial sequels. Despite the interest, Corbucci would never direct a sequel or successor to Django, instead he focused his efforts towards more comedically toned excessive westerns like The Mercenary, Navajo Joe, and Companeros. But before this, in 1968, Corbucci would counteract every trope (mostly ones that he created) of the genre with the uniquely dark film, The Great Silence.

 

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PLOT:

A mute gunslinger, called Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who specializes in the “removal” of bounty hunters, arrives in an isolated town located in the Utah wilderness. Silence has been hired by a group of fugitives outside the town to protect them from a band of said bounty hunters led by the soft spoken and violent Loco (Klaus Kinski). Silence becomes increasingly personally drawn into the situation by the recently widowed Pauline (Vonetta Mcgee).

 

I’m intentionally keeping this synopsis short as one of the films strengths is the initially standard and simple setup that, later in the film, is cleverly twisted in a way that can only be truly experienced by watching the film.

 

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REVISIONISM:

The Great Silence was the first of what would later be coined a “revisionist western” or a western that subverts the audiences expectations to criticize the genre or make a specific sophisticated point. This sub-genre within a sub-genre would be better established by the American films The Hired Hand and The Unforgiven. The setup is what allows this to work by creating a situation where the film can become aware of the meta and use the audience's expectation of event progression to blow them out of the water. The Great Silence, despite not being the greatest film in the genre (definitely in the top 5) is possibly the only one that once it’s finished will leave the viewer sitting in reactionary silence for awhile.

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ACTING:

Like all Italian movies from this era, The Great Silence is dubbed in either English or Italian with subtitles. I took the opportunity to watch the film once in english and once with the subtitles, so I can firmly say that both translations are similar enough as to not have a dominant version. Despite this, the acting is still noticeably strong without a single actor ever breaking character. The cast is fairly strong as Klaus Kinski is a spaghetti western hallmark who is usually wasted, but Corbucci allows him to go full ham and really own every scene. Jean-Louis is perfect for a western protagonist, having the prerequisite intense eyes and angular features, in his first role outside of the romance/melodrama genres. Vonette Mcgee is the heart of the film and arguably the real protagonist of the story, due to most of the drama being centered around her with Silence and Loco appearing more as conflicting forces of nature. All in all average to above average stuff for the genre. The biggest issue is the awkward dialogue that, in the beginning of the film sounds weird and off putting, but by the end flows into an almost poetic cadence.

 

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CINEMATOGRAPHY/MUSIC:

The cinematic style is rather tuned down from other spaghetti westerns, tuning down the requisite zooms and sweeps. The Great Silence focuses instead on sharp, jagged editing and wide shots of the mountains and snowy fields. The town is so well disguised as being part of the landscape that the average viewer probably won't even notice that the snow in all the town interiors is shaving cream. Yes this is real, the town is one of those constructed fake towns that many westerns have been shot on but covered in hundreds of pounds of shaving cream, oh Italians. The music is a fantastic score by the great Ennio Morricone as per usual. The main theme is a tad jarring and sounds almost magical, while the majority of the other music is from stringed instruments, primarily the violin. The score is used subtly to add an omnipresent ambient sorrow to the film that when it finally does reach the conclusion, is replaced with a great silence.

 

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RECOMMEND:

Yes, I would recommend The Great Silence. It is a film that should be viewed by anyone even vaguely interested in westerns or drama. This film moved me in ways that no other western has and is a fantastic gateway for people to further explore the trove of italian cinema.

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