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Silent Tongue

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Silent Tongue
Directed bySam Shepard
Written bySam Shepard
Produced byLudi Boeken
Starring
Music byPatrick O'Hearn
Production
companies
Le Studio Canal+
Belbo
Alive Productions
Distributed byTrimark Pictures (North America)
Entertainment Film Distributors (United Kingdom)
Le Studio Canal+ (Overseas)
Release dates
  • January 28, 1993 (1993-01-28) (Sundance Film Festival)
  • February 1, 1994 (1994-02-01) (Theatrical premiere)
Running time
102 minutes
CountriesUnited States
United Kingdom
France
Netherlands
LanguagesEnglish
French
Dutch
Budget$8.5 million[1]
Box office$61,274

Silent Tongue is a 1993 American horror Western film written and directed by Sam Shepard. It was filmed in the spring of 1992 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28, 1993 but not released theatrically until a year later in 1994. It was filmed near Roswell, New Mexico and features Richard Harris, Sheila Tousey, Alan Bates, Dermot Mulroney and River Phoenix.

Plot

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The film is about a young man named Talbot Roe (Phoenix), who has gone insane over the death of his wife. Talbot's father, Prescott Roe (Harris) feels his son's pain and wants to find him a new wife. He goes back to the place where he bought Talbot's first wife, from Eamon McCree (Bates). He finds the dead wife's sister (Arredondo), who is a champion horse rider and Mr. McCree's daughter, which makes her only half-Indian.

Roe asks McCree if he could have his last daughter for his son, but McCree refuses. Then, Roe kidnaps her and tries to get her to help him, and she takes the deal for gold and four horses. But Talbot is not taking any chances for her. He is too afraid that she will try to take his wife's corpse from him. And for the last few nights, he sees the ghost of his dead wife. She wants him to destroy her corpse, but he refuses.

Cast

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Production

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Sam Shepard was inspired to write Silent Tongue after researching medicine shows and the gullible idea of a magic potion or cure all.[2] Shepard's script for Silent Tongue found its way to producer, Gene Rosow, with Shepard's editor, Bill Yahraus, telling Rosow the story at a Passover seder at Rosow's home.[3] Rosow was impressed by the story and took the project to Ludi Boeken of French production company Belbo Films who helped secure financing from Groupe Canal+ and Hachette Premiere.[3] Following the film's initial showing at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, Shepard re-edited the movie.[4]

Delay in release

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The film was shot in 1992 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28, 1993 but its release was delayed until early 1994, marking the penultimate film appearance of River Phoenix who died four months before its release. It was the final film to feature Phoenix for 19 years until the release of his unfinished film Dark Blood in 2012. [5]

The film opened in the United Kingdom on January 27, 1995 on just one screen, grossing £832 for the weekend.[6]

Reception

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On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 38% based on 16 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 4.9/10.[7] Peter Travers from Rolling Stone awarded the film 4/4 stars, calling it "a demanding chunk of Shepard frontier poetry that shuns pretty-boy posturing".[8] Film critics Siskel & Ebert both disliked the film and included it on their Worst of 1994 show; Ebert in particular claimed that "I've seen whole movies that seemed shorter than the last half hour of Silent Tongue" and ridiculed its plot.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Back Home . . . on the Range : Sam Shepard Returns West to Direct His New Film, 'Silent Tongue'". Los Angeles Times. July 16, 1992. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
  2. ^ Bryer, Jackson (2021). Conversations with Sam Shepard (Literary Conversations Series). University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496836618.
  3. ^ a b "TV producers go Euro". Variety. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
  4. ^ "Silent Tongue (1993)". TCM. Archived from the original on May 3, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
  5. ^ https://junegloom.medium.com/530-silent-tongue-b407db2fa3a3
  6. ^ "UK This Week". Screen International. February 3, 1995. p. 44.
  7. ^ "Silent Tongue (1994) – Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Flixer. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  8. ^ Travers, Peter (February 1994). "Silent Tongue – Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone.com. Peter Travers. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
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