O Espírito do Silêncio

I find it rather odd that anybody who loves movies would find this movie slow or dull. The characters are wonderful. Complex characters, each contains both virtues and self serving vices; each at times you feel pity for what has happen to them, yet feel pity for what they have done. There is no end, for what the father has done in the name of his son can never have closure. Mixed with top notch acting, a gripping musical score, perfect sound and wonderful cinematography by under rated Jack Conroy this movie works as a feast for the not just the mind but the eyes and ears as well. Hardly a second passed by where I was not entranced by the spirt of this film. Slow to those fail to understand the each moment in time begins a anew, for each moment is this movie changes a character and in turns changes the story. Perhaps a few scenes went on a few seconds too long, and one can find faults here and there regarding all but the greatest works, but in this movie the faults are mainly hidden by the strengths and story which should leave you thinking about the human heart for some time to come.

This much maligned and very strange Western is ambitious and interesting in places, but also pretentious, convoluted, silly and frequently boring. Shepard's direction is reasonable, and the main theme effective, but the ghost scenes are accompanied by a poor, pounding score and increasingly daft camera-work. The acting is similarly inconsistent: Mulroney is dire in a well-written minor role, and Bates overacts dreadfully, but Harris is fairly good and Phoenix unforgettable (if underused) in his final role. His first scene is particularly potent and moving. Indeed, whenever River is on screen the movie comes to life: his eccentric turn partly compensating for the long periods of poorly scripted shouting.

Despite some striking imagery, unusual subject matter and unwanted status as River's swansong, the film's expected cult status hasn't materialised, perhaps because it is plot less and pointless. Filmed for French TV in 1992, but not released until 1994, it grossed just $61,274 in the US. For a better, similarly offbeat modern take on the Western, try Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. Silent Tongue is for Phoenix completists like myself only.

Silent Tongue is a western about a disturbed young man (River Phoenix) who grows increasingly distraught over the death of his white/Amer. Indian wife. His father (Richard Harris) attempts to purchase the dead woman's sister, with the hope that she will be a consolation to his son.

What a peculiar movie! I can't say I liked it because there was nothing enjoyable about it ... on the other hand, I didn't hate it because it had some redeeming qualities. For example, Richard Harris (whom you may, perhaps, remember as English Bob in 'Unforgiven') was quite excellent, and director Shepard certainly had some vision for this picture; however, I can't say with any certainty what that vision was.

The film struck me as being about the desperation of grief and rage, and how both manifest themselves when they are not addressed or dealt with. The main characters all want to reverse something that has happened, yet the past cannot be changed. The wrongs they perceive were done against them can never be righted. What can they do with their pain except suffer it? They communicate not so much in words as in hurtful behaviors.

The film is not pretty to look at: the landscape is dry and yellow; the characters are begrimed and weary. The things they do and ultimately say are just ... ugly. It's an ugly, disheartening picture in which boorish people are motivated by the simplest of emotions to do base things because they cannot cope with reality.

To call this quirky, brooding film a western is a failure of imagination since it is nothing less than a classical tragedy, a sort of Hamlet set in the American west circa 1875. "Silent Tongue" is a Sam Sheppard film with a stout cast and ambitious themes. It is helped toward that end by the venerable talents of Alan Bates as a drunken Irish thespian and snake oil salesman (what a great archetype) along with Richard Harris as the desperate father of a young man lost in madness from grieving the death of his Indian wife. It does not hurt that the screenplay's characters sometimes speak with the cadence and tone of formal 17th Century English mixed with a touch of cowboy colloquy. It helps even more that there are murderous ghosts and allusions to suicide. After about 30 minutes of trying to get a peg to hang my movie genre hat on, I was left with a question. "WTF is going on here?" That is why eventually I gave up and accepted it for what it was--a Shakespearian western. Aside from that, its a slow stroll with lots of dramatic flourishes and an unexpected touch of Grand Guignol. Dermott Mulroney and River Phoenix are evident in support. Native American actress Sheila Tousey is absolutely terrific. Watch it but in the right mood.

I originally tracked down a copy of this film because it was River's last movie. I'm also a Richard Harris fan.

Not surprisingly, I liked it. Great performances by Richard Harris (the father), Alan Bates (the medicine show owner), and of course River Phoenix. The film has a unique and eerie look and feel that's unlike any others I've seen.

River's role as the grieving young widower is interesting to watch. Especially since he plays a disoriented, hallucinating character which seems to mirror his real life at the time battling drug addiction and other demons. He even looks high during some scenes (Of course he was a great actor).

Granted this movie is not for everyone. The friends & family I've shown it to liked it. I recommend it to any River Phoenix fan and to anyone who enjoys the escape to a different time and place that a good movie like this provides.

~Randawg.