Bounty killers led by the psychotic Loco (Klaus Kinski) ravage isolated Snowhill, Utah. Their only opposition is Silence (Jean-Louis Trintigant), a mute gunslinger with a Mauser Broomhandle who sides with Loco's victims - a band of starving outlaws holed up in the mountains. One outlaw's widow (Vonetta McGee) hires Silence to kill Loco. The Sheriff Barnett (Frank Wolff) arrives in Snowhill, determined to reestablish law and order. But Silence and the Sheriff find handling Loco a tough proposition.
Corbucci shot most of Silence in Italy's Dolomite Mountains, using some Doctor Zhivago-esque trickery for the town scenes (reportedly shaving cream was employed!). He uses the setting to great effect: the snow storm isolates the town and helps drive the story, as when Barnett's uncovered pistol freezes. You can count the number of snow-covered Westerns on one hand (Day of the Outlaw? Jeremiah Johnson?), and photographer Silvano Ippoliti makes Silence a sight to behold. Helped by Ennio Morricone's somber score, it's a genuinely beautiful film.
Silence matches its unconventional setting with a devastating genre deconstruction. Silence himself pushes the Western hero to near-comic extremes: Clint Eastwood and Franco Nero barely speak, so why not make Silence mute? The character still maintains a kind of chivalry; he goads villains into drawing first, and won't shoot wounded men. Trying that on Loco, he gets roughed up for his trouble. Similarly, Sheriff Barnett is less Wyatt Earp than Old West General Gordon, sent by spineless politicians to "manage" an insolvable situation singlehanded. These conventional protagonists prove thoroughly inadequate to save Snowhill.
Similarly, Corbucci mocks the idea of frontier justice. For one, the outlaws are harmless tramps; the film implies they're persecuted Mormons. Loco receives sanction from crooked Judge Pollicutt (Luigi Pistilli), who runs Snowhill as a personal fiefdom. Utah's Governor (Carlo D'Angelo) is mainly interested in reelection; sounding a noble call for equality, he asks an aide to note it for his next speech! With capital and killers working hand in glove, "justice" becomes frontier feudalism.
In his inimitable fashion, Corbucci saturates Silence with grisly violence. Silence's favorite trick involves shooting the thumbs off bad guys so they can't shoot back. Barnett's welcomed into town when the hill outlaws kill and eat his horse. One villain gets his face scorched by burning coals. But it's all prelude to the finale, where Loco goads Silence into an impossible showdown. It's Silence's chivalry against Loco's monstrous pragmatism, the outcome preordained.
Jean-Louis Trintignant (The Conformist) is interesting casting, channeling his cerebral intensity into a wordless gunfighter. But Klaus Kinski steals the show; he makes Loco more cocky schemer than cackling lunatic, but no less frightening. Vonetta McGee gives a strong performance: unlike most Spaghetti women, she's a tough cookie whose actions drive the plot. Luigi Pistilli's (For a Few Dollars More) officious Pollicutt contrats with Kinski's amorality. Frank Wolff (Salvatore Giuliano) plays Barnett broadly, undercutting his tragic arc.
The Great Silence isn't a perfect movie. The plot's a little rough around the edges, with the outlaws' role never fully established and some passages unnecessary (the Silence-Pauline romance). But its aesthetic beauty, good acting and grim atmosphere make for an experience that's decidedly different from most Spaghetti Westerns.
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