Review of The Great Silence (1968) by Walter M — 19 Aug 2010

In "The Great Silence," a group of outlaws is holding out in the hills of Utah in 1898. Some of them are getting impatient with promises of amnesty and go back to Snow Hill, ruled by the villainous Pollicut(Luigi Pistilli), and are gunned down by Loco(Klaus Kinski), a bounty killer. In fact, the governor(Carlo D'Angelo) is greatly considering the amnesty, appointing Burnett(Frank Wolff) to be sheriff in the meantime to cut down on the bloodshed. Along comes Silence(Jean-Louis Trintignant), a mute avenger, to aid those who cannot protect themselves.

"The Great Silence" is an entertaining spaghetti western that is raised a notch, not only because of its wintry setting and an absolutely stunning ending, but also its being grounded in a politcal reality, and was quite daring for its time. Set in a period when the frontier was closing and lawmen like Burnett were no longer just referees and started to take an active role in protecting the citizens. This was needed to not only stop the killing by the bounty killers(the movie gets tantalizingly close to bringing up the death penalty) but also Silence who uses the law to his advantage by provoking gunmen into a fight they cannot win. Of course, it is easy to goad a sociopath.