Silent Tongue (1994)

Director:

Sam Shepard

Writer:

Sam Shepard (writer)

Release Date:

1 February 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Western

Tagline:

Justice can never be silenced.

Plot:

Mad with grief after the death of his Kiowa wife, Roe awaits death under a tree with her body beside him. She begins to haunt him because he won't bury her. His father, who bought him the wife, thinks her sister might reason with Roe. |

Plot Keywords:

Sister | Grief | Tree | Native American | Prairie

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:

Old Jawbone

Underwhelming (and silly) Western, though Phoenix is terrific

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.