The Great Silence (1968) on Netflix
A banker sets prices on hungry thieves in Snow Hill, drawing killers led by Loco to the snowbound mountains. The mute gunman Silence defends the outlaws; the widow Pauline hires him.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb7.7/1020,859 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Snow Hill, Utah, 1898: a hard winter has left the town short of food, and many of its people steal to survive. Henry Pollicut, a banker who also serves as justice of the peace, places prices on the thieves' heads, and the offer draws a gang of bounty killers led by Loco to the snowbound mountains. Among the hunted is Pauline Middleton's husband, who is killed by Loco. Pauline writes to Silence, a gunman mute since a killer cut his throat in his childhood, and he baits his enemies into drawing first so that he can shoot them in self-defense. She asks him to kill Loco. The newly elected governor of Utah appoints the soldier Gideon Burnett as sheriff of Snow Hill, to keep order before an amnesty for the outlaws.
Cast
- Marisa Sallyas Unknown Character
Show all 20 cast
- Guglielmo Boglianias Klaus Schultz (uncredited)
- Lino Colettaas Bounty Killer in the Snow (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Great Silence (1968)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Because producers wanted a "seasonal" appeal for the film's intended Christmas holiday release, Sergio Corbucci had to shoot an alternate ending to the bleak finale; it was long said to be for North African and Asian markets, though no evidence shows it screened there, and some of the footage appeared only in the film's trailers.
- While filming, Frank Wolff had to be restrained from strangling Klaus Kinski after Kinski told him "I don't want to work with a filthy Jew like you; I'm German and hate Jews." Wolff then refused to speak to Kinski except when the script required it, and Kinski claimed he insulted Wolff to help him get into character.
- Franco Nero turned down the lead that Les Films Corona then gave to Jean-Louis Trintignant, who could not speak English; Marcello Mastroianni had wanted to make a Western but thought his English held him back. To avoid an English-speaking lead, Corbucci made Trintignant's gunslinger mute.
- Snow Hill's street got its snowbound look from 26 tons of shaving cream, and most of the scenes shot on the Elios Film town set in Rome were filmed at night so the fake snow looked more convincing. For daylight scenes the set was swathed in fog to hide that the countryside around it had no snow.
- When the film was screened for Darryl F. Zanuck of 20th Century Fox to see whether it could be released in America, he was so offended by it — reportedly all but swallowing his cigar in shock at the ending — that he refused to distribute it in the United States.
- It has been reported that during a screening of The Great Silence in Sicily, one audience member fired a gun at the screen in anger over the film's ending.
- Quentin Tarantino calls The Great Silence his favourite "snow Western" and paid homage to it in Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight; Robert Richardson, his cinematographer on The Hateful Eight, studied the film's photography with Tarantino to understand the intimacy he wanted.
- Jean-Louis Trintignant practised Silence's fast draw by pulling a sock — standing in for the gloves the character wears — off his hand and reaching for a long-stemmed artichoke in his pocket.
