Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a mute gunman who hates bounty killers. He has been hired to kill a vicious bounty killed named Tigero/ Loco (Klaus Kinski) by a widow who had her husband shot down by Loco. Silence comes to the town of Snow Hill to provoke Loco to get in a gunfight since Silence only kills in self defense. Also the mayor of Snow Hill was responsible for the death of Silence's family and the loss of the gunman's voice as a kid.

THE GREAT SILENCE (aka IL GRANDE SILENZIO) is a nihilistic Spaghetti Western and it is probably one of the greatest Spaghetti Westerns you never heard of. The snowy landscapes are beautifully photographed along with a great score by Ennio Morricone in what many declare THE GREAT SILENCE to be director Sergio Corbucci's masterpiece. THE GREAT SILENCE is presented from a 2K restoration authorized by Film Movement which looks beautiful except for movements in the movie which suffer from poor film stock used at times when making the movie. After the 2K restoration was done, there was a 4K restoration is in the works in Italy.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
COX ON CORBUCCI- Alex Cox plays homage to Sergio Corbucci as he talks about the Westerns that Corbucci directed

WESTERN, ITALIAN STYLE- a 1968 documentary on Italian Westerns aka Spaghetti Westerns and it features behind-the-scenes footage of THE GREAT SILENCE

Two alternate endings which include a never before-seen ambiguous ending and a happy alternate ending shot to please the distributor (with optional audio commentary by Alex Cox)

The original theatrical trailer and the 2018 US release trailer are on the disc in addition to trailers for ONCE WERE WARRIORS, DARK VALLEY, HANI-BI, TIME TO DIE, KAMIKAZE 89, and UGLY, DIRTY AND BAD

FINAL ANALYSIS: THE GREAT SILENCE is one of the best Western classics/ Spaghetti Westerns you have never heard of. If you want to see what helped inspire THE HATEFUL EIGHT, you have to watch this movie which was made 50 years ago. It is a top notch blu-ray.

This review is (c)6-30-2018 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com and look for additional content at http://enterlinemedia.tumblr.com