The Great Silence

"You were wise to put your trust in the law, boy."

"Well, Petes. What times we live in... when a black's worth as much as a white man!"

"If anybody draws first... it's gotta be you."

"And now, boy... I've been waitin' a long time for an amusin' day like this."

"Calm down, friends. Since when are wolves afraid of wolves?"

"I want the mute to come shoot it out with me. Just him an' me. Tell him if he don't... I'm gonna shoot every one of these people here. My friends won't interfere. So it's my life against every one of theirs."

"[last lines] There's a bounty on each one. We'll come back and collect 'em later... all according to the law."

"Once, my husband told me of this man. He avenges our wrongs. And the bounty killers sure do tremble when he appears. They call him "Silence." Because wherever he goes, the silence of death follows."

"I didn't get the money... but I still want my revenge. I don't want you to work for nothing. There is one who'd give me the money, right away... if I wanted to... do what he wants. Well... what he wants in exchange is too high a price for me to pay... but I'm willing to pay you. Now, before, after, whenever."

"My husband was a good man. They forced him to steal, to give me a decent life. Because... Pollicut could put a price on his head. He thought if I became his mistress... well, he thought wrong."

"There wasn't time! I'm sorry. I tried... but that Loco had captured 'em. He'd taken them all as hostages to the saloon. He wants to shoot it out with you, just you and him. He said to tell you... if you don't, he'll kill every one of them! But... you can't, Silence! You're hurt real bad. Besides... I'm certain it's a trap. You can't trust him. Don't get involved. You're just one man. Please don't go. Let's run for it. There must be some place we can go. They're gonna kill 'em either way, they're all gonna die! I don't want you dead. I love you."

"Charlie: Lucky I didn't hit this critter in the face, or else they couldn't tell who he is!"

"Sheriff Gideon Burnett: Poor old Betsy. Everything I had... was on that horse. The only thing I ever loved."

"Martin: Cold, ain't it? I reckon I'd head for a better climate if I was you... more like Haiti. Oh, I meant no offence, Pauline, no offence."

"Henry Pollicut: [shows his mutilated thumb to Silence] Look at my hand. Remember what you did?! You cripple just to spite the men you hate... so nobody'll be able to use a gun, against you. Maybe you ruined my hand, but still, what I come here to get, it won't matter much!"

"Regina: If you come here, Loco, you'll find out I can shoot a pistol, too!"

"The massacres of 1898, year of the Great Blizzard, finally brought forth fierce public condemnation of the bounthy [sic] killers, who, under the guise of false legality, made violent murder a profitable way of life. For many years there was a clapboard sign at Snow Hill which carried this legend: MEN'S BOOTS CAN KICK UP THE DUST OF THIS PLACE FOR A THOUSAND YEARS, BUT NOTHING MAN CAN EVER DO WILL WIPE OUT THE BLOOD STAINS OF THE POOR FOLK WHO FELL HERE."

"People don't go to the cinema to see love scenes. Buñuel was right when he said the most embarrassing thing, for a filmmaker, is to point a camera at a couple kissing. Nothing is more banal than a kiss. Generally you can't have love scenes in stories which are action-based – though in The Great Silence I shot quite a beautiful love scene between a black woman and a mute. There was something very beautiful and very morbid about it. This was the only love scene I ever included in a film of this genre, where the women are generally bizarre."

"Although The Big Silence is [Corbucci's] best film, it has never been shown publicly here or in the United States. It's easy to see why. The film, like most Italian westerns, is incredibly bleak and pessimistic; but worse, it has the most horrible ending of any film I've ever seen ... The beginning of The Big Silence is a little ragged, but bear with it. Once you're aboard the stagecoach with Trintignant and Klaus Kinski – who plays the politest murderer out west – you're in for an amazing ride. The music is by Ennio Morricone: it's a great and very unusual score."

"Corbucci's heroes can't really be called heroes. In another director's western, they would be the bad guys. And as time went on, Corbucci kept de-emphasizing the role of the hero ... In Il Grande Silenzio, he has Klaus Kinski playing a villainous bounty hunter. I'm not a big fan of Kinski, but he's amazing in this movie — it's definitely his best performance in a genre movie. The hero of Il Grande Silenzio is Jean-Louis Trintignant, playing a mute. By taking his hero’s voice away, Corbucci reduces him to nothing. And Il Grande Silenzio has one of the most nihilistic endings of any western. Trintignant goes out to face the bad guys — and gets killed. The bad guys win, they murder everybody else in the town, they ride away and that's the end of the movie. It's shocking to this day. A movie like (Andre de Toth's) Day of the Outlaw, as famous as it is for being bleak and gritty, is practically a musical in comparison to Il Grande Silenzio. Silenzio takes place in the snow — I liked the action in the snow so much, Django Unchained has a big snow section in the middle of the movie."

"I play the part of a mute. The audience won't realize it because during the first two-thirds of the film, there's no reason for him to speak. I like it because in most Westerns, they talk too much and say nothing."

"Jean-Louis Trintignant as Gordon/"Silence""

"Klaus Kinski as "Loco" ("Tigrero" in the Italian version)"

"Vonetta McGee as Pauline Middleton"

"Frank Wolff as Sheriff Gideon Burnett (Corbett in Italian)"

"Luigi Pistilli as Henry Pollicut"

"Mario Brega as Martin"

"Carlo D'Angelo as the Governor (final film role)"

"Marisa Merlini as Regina (Régine in Italian)"

"Raf Baldassarre as Sanchez's Brother (Bobo Schultz in Italian)"

"Spartaco Conversi as Walter"

"Remo De Angelis as Fake Sheriff"

"Loris Loddi as Young Silence"

"Bruno Corazzari as Charlie"