The Film (5/5)

    The Great Silence concerns itself with Loco (Klaus Kinski) and his group of bloodthirsty assassins who under the orders of the greedy banker Pollicut (Luigi Pistilli) is out to kill a group of outlaws who exist in the hills outside the town of Snow Hill, Utah.  The only person who can put an end to Loco's massacre of innocents is the mute gunslinger Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant).

 I am only sort of joking when I suggest that there really is something about guys named Sergio who made westerns in Italy in the 60's and 70's, because honestly, they made the best ones.  Aside from the obvious Leone (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Once Upon A Time in the West). There was Sollima (The Big Gundown, Face to Face), and of course Corbucci who directed the iconic Django, but also The Great Silence which could easily be categorized as one of the finest of all spaghetti westerns.

   Unlike the dry, arid landscapes that feature prominently in most westerns The Great Silence takes places in a snowy mountainous Utah wasteland that is mostly barren of life. The wealthy, much as they do continue living much as if there is no issue, while the poor must scrape together whatever they must in this no man's land to survive. The world of the film is bleak, and Corbucci gives the whole piece an appropriate downtrodden atmosphere, where even though there are lawmen it would appear that anarchy reigns.

    The film has a marvelous cast from the famed Jean-Louis Trintignant (Trans-Europ Express, The Conformist) to Klaus Kinski (Aguirre, The Wrath of God, Venus in Fur). That really bring truly marvelous and at times brutal performances to the film.  We also get a fantastic score from the legendary Ennio Morricone that fits the melancholy mood of the film. The violence in the film is quite harsh, and depicted on a truly brutal level, and I absolutely loved the way Corbucci shot that, almost in a western noir fashion.  The Great Silence like Django is a dark and bizarre entry into the western genre, and is one that demands to be seen.

Audio/Video (4/5)

    Film Movement presents The Great Silence in an excellent 1:85:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer preserving the OAR of the film. Everything here for the most part (I'll get to that), looks amazing, natural, and well detailed. Colors are reproduced nicely, detail down to facial detail in close-ups is excellent, and we have nice film like textures including a great organic grain structure. My one nitpick is that in the opening moments is the appearance of a net-like configuration that appears to overlay the screen during certain moments. This may have also been present on the Fantoma DVD, so it may be part of the negative, but I cannot be too sure. It is still quite the distraction.

    Audio is handled with a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track in both English and Italian they both sound quite clear and crisp with Morricone's score coming through especially nicely.

Extras (3/5)

    Film Movement has assembled a decent extras package for The Great Silence. It kicks off with Alex Cox doing a 15 minute discussion about the film. There is also a 38 minute documentary about spaghetti westerns at large. There are 2 alternative endings, 2 trailers, the original, and the restoration, other film movement trailers, and a booklet of liner notes.

Overall

    The Great Silence has long been a top 5 western for me. It's brutal, and bleak and that's the way I like them. It also features Klaus Kinski which isn't fare in EuroCult films of the period, but the man had presence.  The Blu-ray from Film Movement looks and sounds TREMENDOUS with some minor early issues.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.