The Great Silence / Il grande silenzio (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)

There must be an issue with obtaining a quality master for this one. Most SWs on blu-ray aren’t exactly going to be best-sellers and still get released, yet this is one that would probably actually sell a fair few copies.

Yes I think so too, I dont think they are holding back out of spite

Sebastian, even I’m not sure how to go about influencing these Production Companies, regarding the release of particular titles. It was simply an idea (perhaps a naïve one), that with ‘SWDB’ being, in my opinion, THE ‘Spaghetti Western’ site on the Internet to promote the genre, then, perhaps, the members on here - who have vastly more experience, and contact in the ‘Spaghetti’ genre than I - might have an idea of their own, as to how and influence ‘decision making’ regarding future releases.

Remember: the majority of the time, the big Companies are driven by ‘Consumer Demand’.

As I said; I’m not sure how to go about it. Perhaps SWDB members agreeing (via a new thread) on a particular title that they would like to see, from a particular Company. Once a popular Spaghetti title for potential future release has been reached by members, then each member could bombard the necessary Bluray/DVD Production Company with letters, e-mails etc.
At least, the consumers would be voicing their opinions in no uncertain terms.

I don’t know


One thing is for sure
I think an e-mail from Sebastian would be preferable to the head of a horse, from ‘morgan’.
Don’t get me wrong, ‘morgan’, the horse’s head is a ‘bloody’ good idea
but you wouldn’t be able to fit it into a padded envelope


Yeah finding a good master could definitely be an issue but also Arrow said they tried to get the rights but couldn’t so don’t know who does have their palms on the rights.

The whole rights question seems to be very complicated in certain cases. For example, apparently Arrow couldn’t get the rights to the French audio for “Cemetery without Crosses” which is a real shame and the reason why I still haven’t parted with my old DVD in favor of their new Blu-ray (one day when I’m feeling rich I might succumb however).

The news we have been waiting for.

The french cinematheque has restored the film and its alternate ending and 4k remastered it

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Great news,
I’m really glad and look forward to it.

Awesome news! I think we can safely assume a blu-ray will follow?

Here’s the original French announcement:

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I am also hoping for a theatrical re-release. Added the info to our entry page Grande silenzio, Il - The Spaghetti Western Database

I recently viewed and hopefully the next will be on blu-ray :slight_smile: Concerning the DB; I don’t recognize Silence’s father but for me he’s not Emilio Messina. The stage driver is Antonio Danesi not Pacifico. I did not see Giovanni or Franco Ukmar but Giancarlo is an outlaw in the saloon, Sergio is a bounty killer in the opening and Clemente is one of Sanchez’s bounty killers. Bruno is maestro d’armi but I didn’t spot him. I did not see Mauro Mannatrizio, William Mayor or Fulvio Pellegrino. I do not know Lorenzo Terzon, but Lino Coletta and Virgilio Ponti are bounty killers.

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He’s the man struggling with Tigrero’s whip!

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So happy that this has been restored in 4k. Blu-ray releases are only a matter of time now!!!

According to recent quotes the will be using a new restored material never shown before. I am still waiting for info on whether this is the CNC restoration or something else, but I think they have received lots of email (they will receive another one from me) and are interested in not screwing this up :slight_smile:

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It would be wonderful to have this on blu ray ( English friendly, uncut of course). Had a moment to re-watch this and I could recall nearly every scene. I have to say that one of my favorite scene’s is the scene where Silence throws a match into Loco’s whiskey glass, ( then throws his cigar into it) which leads to an awesome fight sequence. Remarkable work here by Corbucci, but something I noticed the second time, is that Frank Wolff’s character has a bit of a “humorous” ,“know it all” kind of persona to him, and I was a bit annoyed by that. Usually my attention is on the gun fights, snowy landscapes, obviously Silence, who is a wonderful character, very original, and very dark, and of course I couldn’t take my eyes away from Vonetta McGee who is simply gorgeous, that I rarely noticed Frank Wolff’s role, but last night it seemed to me that he was sort of a"know it all" about laws and who can be hung and for what reason and so forth, and I don’t know, it almost seemed it was trying to be “humorous” about the whole thing. I also didn’t care for the scene where Wolf’s character is on the “ice” ( while Kinski is shooting) as I found it suffered from poor editing, and looked sloppy, however I must say Corbucci’s Great Silence shine’s as bright as any of his other westerns. The combination of the wintery landscape, mute gunslinger ( who is dressed in an excellent costume and even displays a certain type of sadness and anger on his face for most of the film) and haunting musical score are worthy of a quality blu ray release.

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I know they have been flooded with emails, but I sent them another long email. I think they aware what is at stake releasing this movie


Here’s a couple of screenshots that supposedly identify the actors in the film: The Amazing MEFI: Il Grande Silenzio

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If you guys manage to identify more actors, feel free to edit the IMDB page: Sign in with IMDb - IMDb

Interesting. Thanks for the link captain. I appreciate the screens to support his identifications and speculations (the ones with question marks).

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Is there any word on a possible blu-ray release of this? I know it was restored this year and I heard some chatter it was getting a new release on video.

yes scrolling up helps :slight_smile: and already listed in the SWDb