Bullet Points: The Great Silence
The Western genre has had its ups and downs over the years. My own love of the American Western comes from watching John Wayne movies over and over while sitting cross-legged on the floor. I was lucky enough to grow up in an area of Southern Ohio with tons of historical connections to the frontier and it caused me to fall deeply in love with early American history, both Native American and Colonial. Let’s just say that if there was a movie or television show in the 80’s or 90’s involving Native Americans or frontier life then I was all about it.
The Great Silence landed on screen in 1968 as a part of the “Spaghetti Western” genre that is so famous now. To say that TGS is a bit different than the other films of that era would be an understatement. It may not be for everyone, but this Western packs a real punch.
Synopsis: A mute gunfighter defends a young widow and a group of outlaws against a gang of bounty killers in the winter of 1898, and a grim, tense struggle unfolds.
- Snow, Snow, Beautiful Snow: Unlike almost every other Western movie of the past 70 years, The Great Silence takes place in a place called Snow Hill. You can imagine that it’s not island paradise. It’s cold as hell and there is a constant threat from the elements. Whether it’s characters starving to death, freezing to death, falling through frozen lakes, or losing their weapons to the cold, the impact of the weather takes such a toll on the film that it becomes almost like a third major character next to Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski. It’s both gorgeous and brutal at the same time. Just how I like my women.
- “For all I know, he is the Devil”: A group of outlaws, hiding in the mountains of Utah, are starving and forced to rob anyone and everyone who crosses their path in order to survive. They’re attempting to wait out the winter long enough so that they can eventually get pardoned and be able to return to society. They’re so hungry that at one point they steal the Sheriff’s horse so they can butcher it and eat it. It’s after we meet these outlaws that we soon meet Loco (Kinski), one of the bounty hunters killing and monetizing the starving outlaws and Silence (Trintignant), a hardened killer trying to protect the mostly innocent outlaws.
- Chicks dig scars: Silence is clearly a man of few words. Or no words, actually. We later learn that he doesn’t speak because he had his throat slit as a kid and lost his ability to speak. That is both the most tragic thing I’ve seen and the most metal.
- The Quiet Man: Silence has a pretty good idea of what to do. He makes his way into town and is quickly hired by a widowed hottie to take out the bounty hunter who killed her husband. Silence isn’t the type to just walk up and shoot a man in the head, though, so he goes about provoking the man to draw on him first. Loco is the bounty hunter responsible for the husbands death so Silence starts throwing shit into his whiskey in order to make him pull his piece. Loco might be crazy but he isn’t stupid. He doesn’t fall for the ploy and instead the two play a cat and mouse game for most of the movie.
- The Sheriff: Frank Wolff plays the newly hired Sheriff of Snow Hill and he finds himself in one hell of a situation. He eventually gets a grasp on what it going on in the mountain town and arrests Loco in spite of what some of the wealthy, more corrupt locals want. Wolff knows that the bounty hunters are making a mess of the situation in the snowy town and attempts to deliver a wagon full food to keep the outlaws from having to rob. Maybe he was just trying to save some horses.
- He really is Loco: Kinski returns to the town with a band of bounty hunters ready to take down Silence for good. Before the final shootout can go down, though, Silence is met by one of the Loco’s corrupt benefactors and wounded to the point that he could barely draw his pistol. It turns the finale into a masterful use of tension and shock. No one can argue that it isn’t unique or original as it is very different from most standard Westerns.
The Verdict: The Great Silence feels different from most other Westerns right from the get-go. The environment is a big change from the usual desert town shootouts and the main character being mute is downright crazy. Klaus Kinski is probably the best part of the movie as he seems like a truly evil dude no matter what he is doing or saying. The looks he gives other characters can only be matched by a crazy-eyed Willem Dafoe. I loved The Great Silence for what it was able to accomplish with its villain and the side-kick of a Sheriff. They help to drive the story for the hero while he’s emoting mostly with his face. The ending of the movie is one that needs to be experienced and one that, surprisingly, I don’t think my Father has seen. You can be sure that I’m going to be showing him this movie soon. It’s a must see for Western fans.
