Blast of Silence (1961)
Dark low budget Noir from the early 60’s. Mostly narrated (brilliant and poetic) it follows an assassin as he goes about starting a job at Christmas time in NYC. He slowly begins to lose his nerve and decides this job will be his last.
As the title clearly states this film is about silence: firstly he is looking for a handgun with a silencer to use in the killing. Secondly the narrator is heavily used as our protagonist doesn’t talk much. There is plenty happening below the surface, but he only speaks when spoken to for most of the film. He follows his target (a mob underboss), he haggles with the gun dealer (who collects rats) and falls for a girl he knew from the orphanage.
Real bleak, tight and moves quickly. Short too, like 70mins or something. I like a movie that doesn’t fuck around. You get the strong impression that Coppola and Scorsese both saw this in film school (echos in “the Conversation” and “Taxi Driver” are glaring).
heres the first minute and a half, check out this narration! Bonkers.
June 8, 2009 at 9:15 pm
That looks insane, I have to see it. Good old New York City, with it’s fancy women…and fancy hoodlums.