10 Best Spaghetti Westerns You Must See Before You Die

4. The Great Silence

The Great Silence is the best Western you've probably never even heard of, and one that should be watched post-haste.

Set during the Great Blizzard of 1899, Sergio Corbucci's Western is a different beast compared to other efforts in the genre, bearing an edge and atmosphere that its contemporaries never managed to achieve. The tone is owed in part to the setting of the film, with the chilly climate of Utah contrasting greatly with the baking heat of the Mexican border, where most other films tended to set up shop during the period.

What makes The Great Silence so great, however, isn't just its setting, but the strength of its story as a whole. Jean-Louis Trintigant plays Silence, a gunslinger left mute in the wake of his parent's assassination, as he sets about delivering justice with a Mauser strapped to his hip.

The twist here is that Corbucci places the bounty killers in the role of the villains, rather than as the heroes. Silence allies himself with Mormon outlaws to battle against the forces that killed his family, who are now terrorising the local populace as well, along with a young African-American woman called Pauline.

Tarantino paid homage to the film's opening within The Hateful Eight, but it's best to watch the real deal in all its entirety if given the opportunity.