Grande silenzio, Il (1968)

Director:

Sergio Corbucci

Writers:

Mario Amendola (screenplay)
Lewis E. Ciannelli (English version)
(más)

Release Date:

19 noviembre 1968 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Plot:

A mute gunslinger faces off against a gang of bounty hunters in the great blizzard of 1899, and a grim, tense struggle unfolds.

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Sheriff | Thumb | Whip | Winter

Comentarios de los usuarios:

The ultimate Spaghetti Western!

Cast

Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	Silence
Klaus Kinski	...	Tigrero, a.k.a. Loco
Frank Wolff	...	Sheriff Burnett
Luigi Pistilli	...	Pollicut
Vonetta McGee	...	Pauline
Mario Brega	...	Martin, Pollicut's Assistant
Carlo D'Angelo	...	Governor
Marisa Merlini	...	Regina
Maria Mizar
Marisa Sally
Raf Baldassarre	...	One-Eyed Bounty Hunter
Spartaco Conversi	...	Walter, Leader of the Outlaws
Remo De Angelis
Mirella Pamphili	...	Saloon Girl
listado alfabético del resto del reparto:
Fortunato Arena	...	Outlaw (uncredited)
Bruno Corazzari	...	Charlie, Bounty Hunter (uncredited)
Loris Loddi	...	Silence as Child (uncredited)
Benito Pacifico	...	Coach Driver (uncredited)
Mimmo Poli	...	Barman (uncredited)
Claudio Ruffini	...	Bounty Hunter (uncredited)
Giulia Salvatori	...	Child on Sled (uncredited)

Dirigida por
Sergio Corbucci

Créditos del guión (in alphabetical order)
Mario Amendola		screenplay
Lewis E. Ciannelli		English version
Bruno Corbucci		screenplay
Sergio Corbucci		screenplay
John Hart		English language version
Vittoriano Petrilli		screenplay
André Tranché		French version

Música original por
Ennio Morricone

Fotografía por
Silvano Ippoliti

Dirección artística
Riccardo Domenici		(as Riccardo Dominici)

Diseño de vestuario por
Enrico Job

Departamento de maquillaje
Marcella De Marzi	....	hair stylist
Lamberto Marini	....	makeup artist

Dirección de producción
Giovanni A. Giurgola	....	production supervisor
Marcello Papaleo	....	production manager

Ayudante de dirección
Filiberto Fiaschi	....	assistant director

Art Department
Enrico Simi	....	assistant set decorator

Departamento de sonido
Romano Pampaloni	....	sound recordist

Efectos especiales
Eros Bacciucchi	....	special effects (as Eros Baciucci)

Especialistas
Bruno Ukmar	....	head stunt man

Camera and Electrical Department
Renato Doria	....	camera operator
Eugenio Saluzzi	....	camera operator
Enrico Sasso	....	camera operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Antonio Palombi	....	wardrobe assistant

Editorial Department
Amedeo Salfa	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Bruno Nicolai	....	conductor

Otros miembros del equipo
Anna Maria Bifarini	....	script supervisor
Lewis E. Ciannelli	....	dialogue director
Nicola Venditti	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Adelphia Compagnia Cinematografica
• Les Films Corona

Distributors

• Centfox (1969) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Filmwelt (1969) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• DMEG (2004) (Sweden) (VHS)
• F.J. Lucas (Brazil) (VHS)
• Fantoma (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Force Video (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2001) (Germany) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2001) (Germany) (VHS)

También conocida como:

The Great Silence (USA)
Grand silence, Le (France)
The Big Silence

Duración:

105 min | Brazil:101 min

País:

France | Italy

Idioma:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Westrex Sound System)

Clasificación:

Norway:(Banned) (1969) | West Germany:18 (f) | Australia:M | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (2004)

Filming Locations:

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Belluno, Veneto, Italy

Company:

Adelphia Compagnia Cinematografica

Trivialidades:

Franco Nero was originally going to be cast as Silence, but he was busy working on another project.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Various spelling mistakes in the title cards.

Quotes:

Governor: The old west is finished. We must learn to live with people of all races and persuasions and unite to make a new west. Yes, use that in my next speech.
Sheriff Burnett: Yeah, a politician would promise amnesty to the murderer of his own father to win an election.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Western, Italian Style (1968) (TV)

The ultimate Spaghetti Western!

The spaghetti western is a hybrid creature in many ways. it mixes the great American legend by demystifying it with European pessimism. It plays the landscapes and its inhabitants as ambiguous vehicles of destiny and violence (the background often conveys the mood more than the characters, as the films of Corbucci and Leone demonstrate). And although Fistfull of Dollars is mean and lean, it remains a pale copy of Kuroswa's superior Yojimbo. Despite it's beautiful opera, Once upon a Time in the West is too elegant. despite its biting humor and epic scope, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly is too playful...

What we have here, is nothing less than the ultimate essence of the Spaghetti Western: irony, cruelty, tenderness, beauty, violence, larger than life characters... and chaos. the chaos is as present in the general mood as it is in Corbucci's wild and messy camera-work (from beautiful panoramas to crash zooms and close ups that accentuate the villains' ugliness).

The story is straight and simple but allows for great characters as the mute bounty hunter Silence (Trintignant, conveying impossible emotion with nothing but his haunting eyes) travels to a snowy town to bring down the killer of his client's husband and coincidentally fulfill a more personal vengeance. He is pitted against a range of pathetic and ugly villains, headed by a sleazy and psychotic Loco (Kinski, mesmerizing as the cruel but contained and playful killer).

All the while the nihilism and harshness of nature weigh over these characters as people freeze to death, a man drowns in a frozen lake and the survival of the fittest is demanded in a bloody fashion, leading to a devastating ending that seals this tight film together as a magnificently macabre opera of death. Unmissable.