| Silence of the Heart | |
|---|---|
DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Robert Michaels |
| Produced by | James O'Fallon David A. Simons |
| Written by | Phil Penningroth |
| Starring | Mariette Hartley Dana Hill Howard Hesseman Chad Lowe Charlie Sheen |
| Music by | Georges Delerue |
| Cinematography | Isidore Mankofsky |
| Editing by | Peter E. Berger |
| Production company | David A. Simons Productions Tisch/Avnet Productions Inc. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | CBS Television |
| Release date | October 30, 1984 |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
Silence of the Heart is a 1984 television family drama film written by Phil Penningroth and directed by Richard Michaels for CBS Television. The film stars Charlie Sheen, Chad Lowe, Mariette Hartley, Dana Hill, Howard Hesseman and Silvana Gallardo.[1]
The film was considered groundbreaking for the time period and heralded a coming trend of films that dealt with teenage suicide, a topic previously not discussed in family film,[2][3] with an emphasis on the surviving family of a teenager who commits suicide.[4]
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Skip Lewis (Chad Lowe) is a 17 year-old boy who has been having academic problems; also, a girl named Andrea, whom he has been pursuing has told him that she has no interest in him. He tries to talk to his parents (Mariette Hartley & Howard Hesseman) about this but can't bring himself to, thinking that they won't understand. He commits suicide by driving his car over a cliff onto rocks. Now, his parents are in denial saying that his death was an accident. However, his best friend, Ken Cruze (Charlie Sheen) who was the last person he saw before his death, was told by Skip that he was considering killing himself and is feeling guilty that he didn't try to stop him. Skip's sister Cindy (Dana Hill) tries to bring her family out of denial so they can heal.
The New York Times wrote that "In any television project of this sort, the dramatization elements tend to be shaped by requirements usually associated with a how-to manual. This is the problem, we are told, and this is the way to cope with it." They noted that with San Mateo County's director of the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Center acting as technical adviser, the film's "dramatic clout gets lost in the authenticity shuffle." They praised the cast, writing that "the performances lift the production far above run-of-the-mill exercises", with special note made of the "powerfully wrenching" performances of Mariette Hartley and Howard Hesseman as the grief-stricken parents, and that both actors "add important new dimensions to their careers". They concluded that "Overall, Silence of the Heart manages to make all of its cautionary points while, in the process, being genuinely affecting. It represents one special form of the television movie at its best."[1]