Zum Schweigen verdammt

I saw this film over 5 years ago so I can't provide too much detail, but it has always stuck with me. It's sort of a semi-Gothic mood piece, extremely somber (like O'Keefe's character) and fragile (Fonda's). The film-makers exquisitely capture the feelings of resentment and bitterness that permeate a dying town where corruption casts a dark shadow over everything that goes on. O'Keefe has returned to the town after a long absence to attend, if memory serves, the funeral of his brother. He strikes up an ill-advised relationship with the brother's former girlfriend, who knows more than she's letting on about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the brother's death. In the process they both run afoul of the town's disturbingly ever-present police chief (played seedily and sadistically by an actor whose name I can't recall.)

For the most part, an achingly rendered tragedy with some remarkably vivid imagery, until it climaxes with an incongruously bloody and violent finale. Still, some of O'Keefe's (almost a grown-up version of his character in "The Great Santini") and Fonda's best, if little-seen and un-commented upon, work.