Silent Tongue (1994)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Sam Shepard

Writer:

Sam Shepard (writer)

Release Date:

1 February 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

Justice can never be silenced.

Plot Keywords:

Medicine Show | Widower | Mute | Corpse | Kiowa Indian

Cast

Richard Harris	...	Prescott Roe
Sheila Tousey	...	Awbonnie / Ghost
Alan Bates	...	Eamon McCree
River Phoenix	...	Talbot Roe
Dermot Mulroney	...	Reeves McCree
Jeri Arredondo	...	Velada McCree
Tantoo Cardinal	...	Silent Tongue
Bill Irwin	...	Comic
David Shiner	...	Straight Man
Tommy Thompson	...	Medicine Show Band Performer
Jack Herrick	...	Medicine Show Band Performer
Bland Simpson	...	Medicine Show Band Performer
Clay Buckner	...	Medicine Show Band Performer
Chris Frank	...	Medicine Show Band Performer
Arturo Gil	...	Little Person Acrobat #1

Also Known As:

Le gardien des esprits (France)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

France | Netherlands | UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Spain:13 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Chaves County, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Belbo Films

Trivia:

The final film that features River Phoenix (he died one year earlier from heart problems due to drug abuse).

Quotes:

Reeves McCree: It shames me to be the son of a pig.
Eamon McCree: You'll grow out of it. Just thank your stars you weren't born a half-breed like your demon sisters.

Soundtrack:

Oh, Death

Phenomenal ghost story. Very theatrical in tone.

Sam Shepard, the writer/director of "Silent Tongue," is one of the big names in contemporary American theatre. So it comes as no surprise that his two feature films (also, "Far North") have a distinctly theatrical tone. General audiences may not have a taste for his style, but Shepard's films richly reward multiple viewings for the open-minded.

"Silent Tongue" is a ghost story which uncovers a disturbing sickness at the heart of the Old West. River Phoenix becomes mentally unhinged when his Native American bride dies in childbirth. This sends his father, Richard Harris, on a journey to try and find another woman for his son. Exhibiting tragically limited imagination, the father returns to the traveling circus where he traded horses for the first woman, and he attempt a second bargain for the woman's sister. In the end, the sister must confront the dead woman's ghost, and we learn the dark secret of their past.

Phoenix is eerily convincing as the mad Talbot Roe, and Richard Harris is uncharacteristic low-key as the world-weary Prescott Roe. Dermot Mulroney, unable to make his character's diction convincing, is perhaps the film's only casting error.