The Great Silence is a bleak, cold spaghetti western with one of the most shocking, memorable endings ever in a western. The film isn't quite as put together or technically competent as its contemporary,
Once Upon a Time in the West, but the subject material, setting, and ensuing climactic battle. The Great Silence revolves around corruption in a Utah town regarding the victimization of a group of Morman outcasts (who have bounties put on their heads). Frank Wolff plays a clumsy sheriff with good-intentions assigned to clean up Snowhill, UT, which is plagued by an infrastructure supporting scum like the bounty hunter Loco. Kinski's performance as Loco is quite excellent. Silence (Trintignant), an infamous mute gunslinger, arrives in town and begins a sort of investigation. The film's setting is unusual for a western: it's set in feet of snow with the weather playing heavily into the challenges of the film, from frozen guns and iced-over rivers to horses struggling to walk with the snow up to their bodies. And again, Ennio Morricone delivers a stellar score. The only major issues I had with the film were a slew of awkward moments that seemed script or director-related. These were not made any better by the absolutely terrible dub typical of 1960s Italian productions. Unfortunately, because both the English and Italian tracks were post-dubbed, I'm not confident the Italian dub would be much better.
8/10
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