Westerns. What comes to mind? Sandy deserts, hot sun, tumbleweeds, and heroic duels, right? Now reverse all of that. Now you have The Great Silence.
After a brutal bounty hunter kills a woman's husband, she hires Silence, a mute man who kills bounty hunters for money.
One of the most interesting ideas behind The Great Silence is apparent through the main plot itself. Is Silence any better than the bounty hunter? Isn't he a bounty hunter? The film is full of questions and thoughts about the nature of the old west. It is a film about the emptiness of violence and revenge. Have there been many films that have dealt with these issues? Yes. But The Great Silence is not just a deep contemplation of violence it is also simply a very entertaining spaghetti western, thus it never feels dull and is always engaging.
The whole cast is excellent, but the highlight is the incredibly talented Klaus Kinski, who is electrifying in the role of the ice-cold bounty hunter Loco. As always, you just can't take your eyes off him. But Jean-Louis Trintignant is also very notable for his portrayal of Silence. He takes the Clint Eastwood archetype of "The Man With No Name" one step further in that he quite literally never says a word. Yet somehow he manages to be a very sympathetic character, and we, as an audience, genuinely care about him.
Sergio Corbucci's direction is fittingly sloppy shaky camera-work and many quick zooms make for an unnerving and slightly surreal framework for the film. Interestingly enough, it is actually quite the opposite of Sergio Leone's glacial direction, though he appears to have been an influence on this film. And it is also worth noting that Ennio Morricone scores the film, and he does it expertly.
But the big allure of The Great Silence is its complete reversal of the western genre. Instead of sand and sun, we get snow and clouds. But what's more is that the hero doesn't win. At the moment when one would expect him to pull his gun and defeat the band of villains, he is crippled, and killed. The heroine is killed. All of the innocent hostages are killed. Evil prevails, and the bad guys live. It is just about the most unexpected and downbeat ending I have ever seen. It is also one of the most honest and powerful. Thanks to Corbucci's skilled direction, it hits you like a punch to the gut and it lingers in your mind. It doesn't feel cheap or gimmicky, like it very easily could have.
It is, in fact, so devastating that Corbucci was actually forced to shoot an alternate "happy" ending for certain markets, in which, just in the nick of time, the (dead) sheriff miraculously reappears and kills Loco, allowing Silence to finish off the rest of the bounty hunters. You can see it on the Fantoma DVD. It is hilarious to watch, as it is so obvious that Corbucci shot it in a tongue-in-cheek manner mocking the very clichés it was perpetuating. The west was a harsh place in time where the good guys didn't always win, and Corbucci did an excellent job conveying that.
The Great Silence is a fascinating film that turns the western genre completely on its head. While it is not as beautifully atmospheric as McCabe & Mrs. Miller or as relentlessly entertaining as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, it is a moving and profound film that you certainly won't forget.
After a brutal bounty hunter kills a woman's husband, she hires Silence, a mute man who kills bounty hunters for money.
One of the most interesting ideas behind The Great Silence is apparent through the main plot itself. Is Silence any better than the bounty hunter? Isn't he a bounty hunter? The film is full of questions and thoughts about the nature of the old west. It is a film about the emptiness of violence and revenge. Have there been many films that have dealt with these issues? Yes. But The Great Silence is not just a deep contemplation of violence it is also simply a very entertaining spaghetti western, thus it never feels dull and is always engaging.
The whole cast is excellent, but the highlight is the incredibly talented Klaus Kinski, who is electrifying in the role of the ice-cold bounty hunter Loco. As always, you just can't take your eyes off him. But Jean-Louis Trintignant is also very notable for his portrayal of Silence. He takes the Clint Eastwood archetype of "The Man With No Name" one step further in that he quite literally never says a word. Yet somehow he manages to be a very sympathetic character, and we, as an audience, genuinely care about him.
Sergio Corbucci's direction is fittingly sloppy shaky camera-work and many quick zooms make for an unnerving and slightly surreal framework for the film. Interestingly enough, it is actually quite the opposite of Sergio Leone's glacial direction, though he appears to have been an influence on this film. And it is also worth noting that Ennio Morricone scores the film, and he does it expertly.
But the big allure of The Great Silence is its complete reversal of the western genre. Instead of sand and sun, we get snow and clouds. But what's more is that the hero doesn't win. At the moment when one would expect him to pull his gun and defeat the band of villains, he is crippled, and killed. The heroine is killed. All of the innocent hostages are killed. Evil prevails, and the bad guys live. It is just about the most unexpected and downbeat ending I have ever seen. It is also one of the most honest and powerful. Thanks to Corbucci's skilled direction, it hits you like a punch to the gut and it lingers in your mind. It doesn't feel cheap or gimmicky, like it very easily could have.
It is, in fact, so devastating that Corbucci was actually forced to shoot an alternate "happy" ending for certain markets, in which, just in the nick of time, the (dead) sheriff miraculously reappears and kills Loco, allowing Silence to finish off the rest of the bounty hunters. You can see it on the Fantoma DVD. It is hilarious to watch, as it is so obvious that Corbucci shot it in a tongue-in-cheek manner mocking the very clichés it was perpetuating. The west was a harsh place in time where the good guys didn't always win, and Corbucci did an excellent job conveying that.
The Great Silence is a fascinating film that turns the western genre completely on its head. While it is not as beautifully atmospheric as McCabe & Mrs. Miller or as relentlessly entertaining as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, it is a moving and profound film that you certainly won't forget.