Blast of Silence

This has to be the bleakest movie ever made. Nothing I've seen comes close. It lasts a mere 77 minutes but seems twice as long. Identically filmed tracking shots of the hit-man, Frank Bono, walking along grey winter Manhattan streets as dozens of storefronts pass monotonously behind him take up 20 minutes. There's one static shot of Bono, starting as a speck, walking towards us from a full city block away that doesn't end until he literally almost runs into the camera. Add to these, two prolonged scenes photographed from Bono's car as he trails the man he has contracted to murder. These scenes kill about a half hour, leaving 45 minutes. From this you can subtract another 10 minutes during which Bono goes into a Greenwich Village nightclub and sits drinking at a bar while his prey hangs with a group at a table. In this sequence, the camera dwells mostly on a bongo-playing singer as he belts out two or three full-length beatnik songs, each as boringly dreadful – and pointless -- as the next. During all of the above not a single word of dialogue is spoken. Over most of the above is a relentlessly despairing and repetitive narrative voiced by a raspy actor speaking in comic book gangsterese. He provides Bono's boilerplate backstory and what's going through his mind as he endlessly walks and drives the streets of the city. Many, many allusions to hot hands/cold hands. So, now we're down to about a half hour of actual interaction and (dull) conversation between four (dull) characters, plus three (dull) killing sequences. The last shooting is filmed in the frigid Jamaica Bay wetlands during a perfectly bleak sideways-blowing snowstorm that is the perfectly bleak icing on the perfectly bleak cake. I know, I know. The movie is meant to be gritty and grim. It's noir, right? But what's its point? What of value is the viewer supposed to glean from this?

Blast of Silence_720p(480P)

source: Blast of Silence

Blast of Silence is interesting in many ways. There is a narrator telling the story of Frank Bono whom we see arriving at Manhattan Station. It is Christmas and Frank's job is to kill a drug dealer. The narrator tells us about Frank's birth (visiualized by the train rushing through a tunnel) and that Frank never had a father. The voice-over is not used - as in other movies - to tell a story without dialogs, it has it's own function. The voice-over, spoken by the nearly 60 year old Lionel Stander, is not Frank himself (around 30 years old), it is the father he never had and who only exists in his mind. Frank is preparing for the job, observing the dealer ("You have to be careful, Frank" says the man in his head). There are problems with the gun (Big Ralphie wants more money) and Frank has to kill him. This is not the main problem, Frank meets a former girlfriend and is thinking for a moment he could make a new start in life. But the woman was just friendly because he looked so depressed. Bono makes a mistake and tries to cancel the job ... The movie has a very realistic atmosphere, some public scenes in New York are shot with a hidden camera. The audience does not have feelings for Frank, but it understands that he is fighting with himself. He wants to be a better man and wants to lead a better life. It is just too late. When the movie starts with Frank arriving at Manhattan Station it is already too late.

Blast of Silence (1961) In some ways, the filming and the cool grey timbre of this film are so singular and evocative, you really have to watch it. In this way it reminded me of a gritty, New York version of the 1958 Elevator to the Gallows (set in Paris). They both have some of the most beautiful, evocative scenes of people just walking the streets of the city, day and night. In "Blast of Silence" you get taken to several parts of New York, unedited, shot with a simple but elegant intuition for the place. This is a movie by New Yorkers about New York. But the plot, about a lone killer on his last dubious assignment, is a strain. Beyond the convincing despondency and isolation of the leading actor (Allen Baron, from Brooklyn, who is also the director), the cast struggles to be relevant. The one other shining performance is the gun dealing and rat lover, played by Larry Tucker with a kind of relish for the unsavory dirty aspects of his part. Great stuff. If you accept that the story isn't much, by itself, and watch it for the scenes of the city, for the impressions of ordinary New Yorkers at the time of Kennedy's election, you will be really wowed. Right from the first shot, the low budget hand held camera on a train in a tunnel, going on and on until finally finding the light of day, to the last scenes in a a light, windy, driven snow in the Meadowlands, it's a thrilling, original ride. The filming has a gritty, everyman quality that seems to come right from art school without the affectation. It really is worth it just for the scenes, and the urban scenery.

Poorly staged recipe of 'how to be a hit man' with a plethora of errors. You will find yourself yelling at the screen because so many of the characters do stupid things. Sort of like the old 'poke the monster with a stick' level stupid.

The opening grabs out attention. A woman is giving birth, painfully. The movie itself isn't terrible but it is not good. The location shots are interesting and credible. But it's disgusting as often as it's scary or moving. The fat guy who sells the silencer, complete with his pet rats, is a refugee from "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" -- which I guess came after this, but my point is that he is a mawkishly conceived but ultimately sickening character. The voice in the voice-over: Mama mia! Was the budget so low they couldn't find a more attractive one? This purports to get inside the mind of a killer for hire. See, the woman giving birth was his mother. Then he was put in an orphanage. He is antisocial in the extreme and wants, like Miss Garbo (who surely never saw this movie) to be alone. It's simplistic yet not inaccurate. But as a whole, the movie just doesn't work.

I thought the movie used the voice-over very well. I like the idea of a character allowing us into his mind and/or thought process while he goes about his daily business, especially an interesting profession such as being a hitman. Overall I thought the movie was suspenseful as well, with me cheering on Bono in the last scenes. I recommend this movie for anyone interested film in general.

Gee, after the reviews I read, and knowing that Criterion usually points out pretty good material, I expected this late entry in the film noir genre to be a good one, or at least better than how it turned out. It took 45 minutes before anything of note happened! "Blast Of Silence" is the story of a hit-man assigned to knock off a mob boss on Christmas Day. At first, this 1961 movie has late '40s/early '50s written all over it, which is good news to film noir fans like myself. We get narration right off the bat, too, and a gloomy black-and-white look at New York City. I've read where narrator/killer's voice is too nasal and New York sounding for some people but, hey, it was realistic to me. Feel-wise, the only thing different from the '40s noirs were the cars. We see those long big-finned Caddies and the like that were the rage of the day: the late '50s and early '60s. Otherwise, this low-budget movie has a good noir atmosphere.. Anyway, while I kept waiting something dramatic to happen, we just follow the killer "Frank Bono" (Allen Baron) around town on Christmas eve, watch as he gets talked into a going to a party with old pal he doesn't like (actually, the lead guy likes nobody), and then gets involved with this girl. We watch him dance and then listen to his horrible singer go on for almost five minutes. This guy was terrible. He must have been related to the man making the movie to get all that air time. Finally, we get a cool scene involving "Frank" and "Big Ralphie," a very fat guy who we had seen earlier in the story. Ralph was going to make arrangements to get a pistol for the killer. The big boy got mouthy and greedy and Frank puts an end to him in dramatic form. Then it's "Dullsville" again until the very end. I've read where Baron, who not only starred in the movie but directed and wrote it, as well, wanted Peter Falk to play the lead but Falk committed to "Murder, Inc." That was a good move on Falk's part, as it turned out. Meanwhile, if you look at Baron's resume, you discover he wound up a better director than actor or writer.

Blast of Silence is a short tense jewel of the genre. The story of a lonesome hitter coming back to NY on Christmas Eve to perform yet another job. Except this time, with NY, there comes back a whole lot of personal moments too. I won't unveil the plot, it's actually very simple and straightforward, and that's precisely why I'm amazed the whole thing just works so smoothly -indeed chillingly. No need for double crossing, double minded gangsters: those unnecessary decoys uninspired directors use to try to spice up their movie and gain 5 minutes!! Here you know the guys are going to play by the rules i.e. bad and simple! And the suspense is kept at an incredible level just by the sheer darkness of the atmosphere and obviously by the decadent streets of NY which is shown in a very tough manner. Baron plays Bono and although not an actor, he gives a credible performance. Maybe because he doesn't really have to talk so much. Most of his thoughts are narrated by a great voice over (Lionel Stander -he was cut off from the cast due to McCcarthysm). Note Larry Tucker's cool performance who would go on to win a Golden Globe for Shock Corridor. Just for the quote because it hit me as an instant cult quote: "Baby Boy Frankie Bono". I'll admit nothing incredible in that, but listen to Standler say it and you'll understand!!