THE GREAT SILENCE, released on this day in 1968

On this day--22 Nov.--in 1968, Sergio Corbucci's THE GREAT SILENCE (IL GRANDE SILENZIO) made its screen debut in Rome, Italy. Jean-Louis Trintignant stars as Silence, a mute mercenary protecting a group of Mormons facing persecution in the late 1890s, and the ever-diabolical Klaus Kinski is the leader of a group of bounty-hunters stalking and killing them.

Historically speaking, the film is a real mish-mash. It's set in Utah territory at the end of the 19th century but the anti-Mormon persecution it depicts--Mormons ordered exterminated for being Mormons--actually occurred in Missouri in the 1830s.

The film was the 2nd--and by far the best--in director Corbucci's "Blood & Mud" trilogy, after DJANGO and before THE SPECIALISTS, that attempted to upend the conventions of Westerns and create a sort of anti-Western Western. Among other things, the ending is still every bit the wrought-iron gut-punch it was over 50 years ago.

Made at the height of the Italian boom in the genre (when 2/3 of the movies being made by Italy were Westerns), THE GREAT SILENCE was neglected for decades, until the birth of digital media gave it a whole new life. Since then, it has earned--and deserves--a reputation as not just one of the high-points of the spaghetti Western but of Westerns, full-stop.