Silverado (1985)

DIRECTOR: Lawrence Kasdan

CAST: Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Kevin Costner, Brian Dennehy, Linda Hunt, Jeff Goldblum, Rosanna Arquette, John Cleese, Ray Baker, Lynn Whitfield, Jeff Fahey, James Gammon

REVIEW:

Silverado is director and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan’s homage to the classic Western, doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel—-it’s not a “revisionist Western”—-but serves up a high-spirited, joyous adventure clearly made with love for a genre that’s an increasingly hard sell these days. If you’re not a fan of the Western genre, it’s unlikely to appeal to you, but those who are may find much to appreciate.

A bit like a smaller-scale Magnificent Seven, the plot assembles four heroes. Crusty cowboy Emmett (Scott Glenn) is looking for his hellraiser little brother Jake (Kevin Costner), only to find he might have a date with the hangman’s noose. Along the way, Emmett picks up a couple traveling companions, Paden (Kevin Kline), who’s been left to die in the desert, and black cowboy Mal (Danny Glover), who gets run out of a town they spend the night in by the racist locals. After a few detours including a jailbreak, being chased by a posse led by Sheriff Langston (John Cleese), and helping a wagon train of settlers get their stolen money box back, the quartet finally makes its way to Silverado, but find it’s under the thumb of Paden’s old outlaw comrade Cobb (Brian Dennehy), now the corrupt Sheriff, who’s in cahoots with rancher McKendrick (Ray Baker), who’s run Mal’s father off his land. With the help of a couple allies including Mal’s sister Rae (Lynn Whitfield) and saloon manager Stella (Linda Hunt), the foursome ends up setting out to make things right.

While there’s nothing particularly original about Silverado—-it’s the simple and straightforward story of four cowboys who join up together, ride into town, refuse to knuckle under to the corrupt sheriff, and end up fighting for justice—-it’s infused with healthy helpings of style and energy that prove there’s occasionally nothing wrong with a familiar story well-told. The screenplay, by Lawrence Kasdan and his brother Mark Kasdan, delights in stocking the movie with Western archetypes: a taciturn loner, a gung-ho quick-draw kid, a crooked Sheriff, a shady gambler (Jeff Goldblum) with not one but two trick weapons (a knife in his boot and a gun up his sleeve), a feisty saloon madame, a villainous landowner, a wild-eyed trigger-happy henchman (Jeff Fahey), etc. A couple of these characters needed a little work; Rosanna Arquette as a half-assed “love interest” feels like most of her role ended up on the cutting room floor. Along the way, Kasdan makes sure to provide other necessities like the town in the middle of the desert with a church, a saloon, and a Main Street wide enough for the inevitable climactic shootout, and in the end there’s a High Noon-style face-off, complete with blowing tumbleweeds. The script is a little more socially conscious than some Westerns of old, with an African-American co-lead and touching, albeit shallowly, on racism, but overall Silverado isn’t far removed from the types of movies of decades earlier it’s paying loving homage to. Ida Random’s production design is convincing, Bruce Broughton’s score is suitably rousing, and John Bailey’s cinematography captures sweeping shots of wide open desert and prairie, and there’s a number of action sequences, including an opening shootout and later a stampede and climaxing in an all-out brew-ha.

The cast is in sync with the material. Scott Glenn’s taciturn gunslinger is contrasted by an exuberant Kevin Costner’s (at the time a new up-and-comer who had yet to reach “movie star” status) cocky kid brother. Danny Glover (who played a heavy earlier this year in Witness) maintains enough dignity to make Mal a sympathetic wronged man out for justice, while Kevin Kline, who might seem like an odd choice for a Western gunslinger, feels right at home. As our “big bad”, Brian Dennehy does what Brian Dennehy does best—-twirl his dastardly mustache with lip-smacking satisfaction—-and he’s backed up by a few secondary villains including Jeff Goldblum, Ray Baker, and Jeff Fahey. Arguably the standout in the supporting cast is Linda Hunt, whose pint-sized but feisty saloon owner steals scenes, and in other small roles we have what are essentially glorified cameos by a semi-fatuous John Cleese and familiar Western face James Gammon.

Rather than make any attempt to be a “revisionist Western” like Dances With Wolves or Unforgiven, Silverado is content to mostly be a slick regurgitation of classic Westerns of decades past, but if that does or doesn’t appeal to you, you probably know who you are. At heart, it’s more a slick filmmaking exercise resurrecting a mostly defunct genre, but it’s a fun, high-spirited romp that might give Western fans a rare new entry to appreciate.

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