Schweigende Zunge - Die Rache der Götter

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.

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.

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.

Well, I agree this movie works like those very obscured movies from Europe that leaves you with more questions than answers. But that's the appeal of it. I mean, it's very strange, but you have to understand that the story revolves within a surreal context that the creators want to transmit (just to mention, a talking corpse that you could interpret that works like the conscience of all involved). If you let yourself be immersed in that context, you'll enjoy this movie. It goes beyond that just a `Western' (don't be mislead but such a qualification). Many of the weird images that the movie shows will stick with you, and that, for me, it's a plus for a movie. Please, don't ever see it if you're only in the mood to see clear-straight message movies. Any kind of mood you're in though, you can only appreciate the good job done by all the actors, specially by River Phoenix.like a reminder that he was posed for better things than some of the movies that he made. If you're a River Phoenix fan (or simply a good actor's fan) you won't help by being moved by such a convincing performance, and think of what could have been. I give the movie a 7, and that in my book means a good movie that worths a try. You must be the judge, which means, you must see it.

I live in Roswell & I supplied MANY props for the movie, animal bones. I was known as the Bone Lady. We all hung at the Roswell Inn, River in the bar with straws hanging out of his nose, Richard Harris coming into the lobby in an English night shirt ( scrooge type ), Sam Shepard being rude while fondling a blonde .. not Jessica Lange. Most on the film were wonderful. John "Scully" Sullivan, artistic director (Lonesome Dove), the little actors, they all came to my house for a homemade meal. Richard Harris had a heart attack while filming here also! Was very hot out there for them. My "bones" ended up as the Buffalo Graveyard AND the burial tree. Have the coyote skull Richard signed for me. R.I.P.