The Great Silence (1968)

After the bitter disappointment that was the weekend (after much planning and preparation had gone into it), I decided to watch "The Grand Silence - Il Grande Silenzio)" by Sergio Corbucci. How delighted was I as the credits came on. The premise maybe simple - the good fighting the bad - but the execution and the shattering climax has made The Grand Silence one of my favourite films ever.

A mute gunfighter aptly named "Silence" (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is hired by a woman to avenge the death of her husband who was killed by the bounty hunter Tigrero (Klaus Kinski). The story is set in Utah during the great blizzard of 1899. Trintignant plays Silence to a fault and Kinski is brilliant in his usual sneering self as the cold-hearted Tigrero, who leaves his bounty kills (to collect them later) knowing the bodies will be preserved in the heavy snow fall.

I feel the silence personified is the silence after the staccato of bullets; the deaths of many in the name of the law (when bounty killing was sanctioned by the government). The extreme brutal climax is not one you see often in films. I had only seen Django by Corbucci a few months ago, but I would recommend "The Grand Silence" any day to lover of films (especially genre films). You won't witness the extreme baroque feel of a Sergio Leone in this Italian Western, but rest assured it is a great watch.

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