leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (07/24/85)
SILVERADO
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
I recently reviewed Clint Eastwood's PALE RIDER here. SILVERADO is
this summer's other serious Western. PALE RIDER was a grim realistic
Western; SILVERADO is more in the tradition of the sprawling Westerns of the
1950's. In fact, it sprawls over 130 minutes and seemingly dozens of
characters and acres of plot. It would be unAmerican not to like a real
full-bodied Western like this. And more important, it would be dishonest
not to recommend a film with this much fun. Even the name conjures up
images of the old Westerns with place names for titles: TOMBSTONE, DODGE
CITY, SANTA FE, EL DORADO, EL PASO, RIO BRAVO, RIO CONCHOS, RIO GRANDE, RIO
LOBO, all the other RIO's and EL's (except of course EL ALAMEIN).
SILVERADO is pure pleasure, chuck full of good outlaws and bad
sheriffs. There are frightened settlers and friendly barmaids. There's the
town chippy and the slick gambler. There is even a small range war (one
farmer against a few cattlemen) and a medium-sized cattle stampede. And of
course there's shooting with derringers and rifles and ivory-handled six-
guns. In fact, script-writers Lawrence and Mark Kasdan have made every
effort to put as much as possible of the genre of the old Westerns into this
colorful reprise of the genre. This film's major fault is its excess.
There is almost too much story and there certainly are too many characters.
It is almost as if the Kasdans went through all the standard character types
and ordered one of each. As for too much story, the script really has two
stories. One is a sort of extended prologue that tells how the four heroes
become friends and team up on the way to Silverado. But once the four get
to the title town, it becomes pretty much a standard but enjoyable Western.
It tells its story with wit--not enough to make it really a comedy, but
enough to keep the audience interested when the pace slows--and style. At
least one point of its +2 rating (on a -4 to +4 scale) is for the novelty of
making a Western, but even in the 50's, this would have been a fun film.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper