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The Great SilenceRating:
Release Date: 27 January, 2004 Retail Price: $24.95 OUR Price: $22.46 You SAVE: $2.49! Cast: |
The Great Silence Reviews
One of the best spaghetti westerns made
After having sat through the tedium of Texas, Adios and Vengeance, it was a terrific pleasure to see this film. The setting is unusual for a Western (mountains full of snow), the score by the great Morricone is tops, and the international casting is inspired.
Jean Louis Trintignant (French) plays the title role, a mute (hence his name) in the role of the force for good who carries an unusual gun for the time. Klaus Kinski (German) is the heavy and while his dubbed-in voice can grate on one's nerves, his actions and facial expressions leave no doubt as to who and what he is. Vonetta McGhee (American) is the black widow who becomes, briefly, the Great Silence's love interest. So it was also good to see this unusual development--a black-white couple, rare for its time as well.
While I agree with others that Leone is the best in the genre, this film has to be very close to that quality. The extremely downbeat ending is another plus, a crushing blow to the expected typical Western fare. However, in retrospect, some of the actions of the main characters leading up to this finale seem either naive or stupid. Hence, the three stars. If you can buy into the "good guys" being too trusting for their own good, then I guess this would work.
So the minuses are Kinski's dubbed-in voice, and the possibly non-credible naivete of the "heroes". But if you weigh those against the pluses, which are many, you have overall a solid film, definitely worth seeing, if not owning.
A very unusual, powerful and largely overlooked gem!
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.
The Great Silence is such a wonderful film. The English dubbing is sometimes poor, but this is only a small flaw.
I'm very pleased with the DVD of this film. Not only have they found a very decent print of the film, it's a new digital widescreen 1.66:1 transfer. Print damage is minimal, there are a few shots which look to have aged but on the whole it's very good, grain is rarely evident. The sound wasn't so good, there is background noise and it can often be heard over the dialogue.
If you are a fan of spaghetti westerns, this film is essential viewing. It is better than Sergio Corbucci's own Django which is a very good spaghetti western in it's own right. A very unusual, powerful, bleak and largely overlooked gem.
I picked up the DVD due to the positive reviews I read here.
The Amazonians here did not let me down, most of the reviews are spot on.
Highly Recommended.
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