Thinking of the great spaghetti western directors of all time, the three Sergios (Leone, Sollima, Corbucci) always pop up. The latter of the three is at the helm of The Great Silence -- one of the best westerns, Italian or otherwise.
What makes Il Grande Silenzio so memorable, refreshing, and rewarding is the unexpected shock value Sergio Corbucci provides the viewer through his refutation of the most essential spag-western elements which we're most familiar with. In a remote, snow-covered Utah village, vicious bounty killers are massacring at whim, mostly innocent "bandits" and local pariahs (apparently Mormons!), in order to collect loot and appease the caprice of the corrupt banker ruling the area.
Fittingly, who better to play the sadistic, self-satisfied leader of the brutal bounty hunters, Loco, than Klaus Kinksi? Fans of Italo-westerns will also love the casting of perennials Luigi Pistilli and Mario Brega (of Sergio Leone fame), as the aforementioned money-grubbing banker and his heavy set, sausage-eating henchman, respectively. While chaos reigns completely, a widow (Vonetta McGee, from the wonderfully anti-PC The Eiger Sanction), whose husband has been gunned down by Loco, calls on justice -- in the form of "Silence" (Jean-Louis Trinitgant), a mute who avenges wrongdoing and has, of course, the reputation of being the fastest and deadliest shot in all of Utah.