Silverado (10 July 1985)
directed by Lawrence Kasdan
starring Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, Kevin Costner, Brian Dennehy, Linda Hunt, John Cleese, Jeff Goldblum, Rosanna Arquette, Rusty Meyers, James Gammon, Ray Baker, Jeff Fahey, Amanda Wyss, Patricia Gaul, Thomas Wilson Brown
|
MPAA rating: Studio: Columbia Pictures, Delphi III Script: Lawrence Kasdan, Mark Kasdan Music: Bruce Broughton Running time: 127 minutes Tags: Action; Comedy; gambling; horses; jails; murder; race relations; rifles; saloons; shootouts; Western Tactical strength: [9/10]
|
Stuff just about every cliché from the Western movie genre into a single movie but do it with style, class, sensitivity, wit, and humor, and you have Lawrence Kasdan's Silverado. When I say "just about every cliché," I mean that Silverado includes a rescue from the desert, a posse chase, a couple jail breaks, rustlers, ranchers, farmers, a wagon train, a pack of bad guys in a hideout, bar fights, gambling, a cattle stampede, and, of course, several shootouts. Ok, so there's no bank or train robbery, but the pack of bad guys does steal the strong box filled with money from the wagon train. Clichés really only make us groan when used as a shortcut. When writers throw in elements that have know associations in the audience's mind and lean on those associations rather than building a strong story around those elements. The Kasdan brothers use the Western clichés because those elements occur in their well crafted story.
As with most well-crafted story lines, we have lots of interconnections. Emmett (Scott Glenn) has just gotten out of Leavenworth prison and plans to meet his brother Jake (Kevin Costner) in a city named Turley and move to California. On his way to Turley, Emmett comes across Paden (Kevin Kline), left in the desert by bandits with nothing but his underwear. Emmett and Paden ride to Turley and meet Mal (Danny Glover) in the saloon. Mal has returned from the slaughterhouses in Chicago to help on his parent's ranch in Silverado. By coincidence, Emmett and Jake have a sister in Silverado that they plan to visit before moving to California. Paden, still penniless, tags along for the ride. This covers about the first ten minutes, which introduces our main characters but leaves out the first shootout, jailbreak, and posse chase. To detail the rest of the movie would take pages of description -- the Kasdans really pack in the information. To summarize, our four main characters end up in Silverado where the sheriff (Brian Dennehy) owns the town saloon and takes bribes from the local rancher. As usual, the rancher wants to drive off the homesteaders from the wagon train. Emmett, Jake, Paden, and Mal each go about their own business for a while, but unite in the end to take out the bad guys.
Yes, the summary sounds like most Westerns, but the story works if you care about the characters. The Silverado script builds up the characters' relationships with each other, and we learn that these four men generally have good morals and go out of their way to help their fellow man without seeking any fiscal reward. The script also establishes the villain's nasty nature as we see henchmen try to run the homesteaders off their lands, kill Mal's father, attempt to kill Emmett, and kidnap Jake and Augie, Emmet and Jake's twelve-year-old nephew. With all these evil acts, we cheer for vigilante justice delivered at the hands of our four heroes.
Westerns and comedies don't get much better than Silverado. You get good crisp writing, witty remarks, great characters, and fun rough-and-tumble, .45-blasting action. The principle cast does an excellent job, and even the actors in secondary roles (such as John Cleese, Jeff Goldblum, and Linda Hunt) seem to really enjoy working on this film. I recommend Silverado for the library of any fan of Western movies.
