reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (07/08/85)
By any standard, "Silverado" is a terrific Western. No apo-
logies, caveats, or or provisos are necessary. "Silverado" is
rip-roaring Western fun, not the West the way it used to be, but
a thoroughly plausible and adventurous West, a West suitable for
modern tastes. Lawrence Kasdan has never made a better film than
"Silverado", and it is more fun than Westerns have been since
Sergio Leone stopped making them. Kasdan has succeeded where
Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider" failed: he has found a modern
cinematic idiom for the Western. There literally has never been
a Western quite like "Silverado".
Kasdan's success is based on a very smart appraisal of which
trappings of Westerns past to keep and which to replace, and,
equally importantly, what to replace them with. The plot, once
it settles down, is very similar to that of "Pale Rider" and
several hundred other Westerns. A rich bad guy is using crooked
lawmen to oppress poorer folk, and a band of heros (frequently
compressed to one man, as in "Pale Rider" and "Shane", but here
at the manageable size of four) must rescue them and defeat the
villains. Kasdan's new story twist has been to trap up this
standard plot with a little bit of the rollercoaster effect from
"Raiders of the Lost Ark". The first hour or so is spent on ex-
citing, fundamentally unrelated episodes which serve to get the
heros together, exhibit their characters, and set things up for
the real plot. Nothing could be further from the kind of tight
dramatic structure that characterized the Westerns of John Ford.
Sergio Leone used to do the same type of things, but for very
different purposes. Leone was interested in mythology, which
Kasdan doesn't care about one bit. "Silverado's" characters
aren't meant to be archetypes and the story isn't meant to be
prototypical. Kasdan's second important innovation is to develop
the characters as real people with real problems, to as great a
degree as his swift pacing allows.
And Lawrence Kasdan, in conjunction with Mark Kasdan, his
brother, has done an excellent job with the characters. Kevin
Kline plays an ex-gunfighter with a disturbing tendency to care
about unpredictable things, even when his feelings prove incon-
venient. Scott Glenn is a simpler sort, who just wants to visit
his relatives in the town of Silverado on his way to California.
Glenn never looks for a fight, but won't back down when pushed
too far. Kevin Costnar, playing his brother, has the weakest
lead, a fairly stereotypical young hotshot. The last of the four
heros is Danny Glover, who, disillusioned with the big city of
Chicago, wants only to return home in peace to his family's farm,
near Silverado. Kasdan gives each of these men realistic charac-
teristics and backgrounds, not to mention good dialog. Each hero
has his own style of operating, which Kasdan cleverly employs
throughout the picture. Kline, Glenn, and Glover are very good,
especially Kline. Costnar has always rubbed me the wrong way, as
an actor, and his cocky part here doesn't help, but he's good
enough.
The Kasdan brothers haven't skimped on the supporting cast,
either, perhaps going a bit too far the other way. Brian Dennehy
gets to do the contrast of the summer, with his benevolent,
understanding alien in "Cocoon" and his chief villain here in
"Silverado". Dennehy isn't just a cardboard villain, though. He
has some commendable traits to go with his bad ones. Linda Hunt
is superb as a woman whose life is the bar she runs in Silverado.
She has three or four excellent scenes with Kline. Jeff Goldblum
has a medium sized part as a gambler. Rossana Arquette is the
victim of cutting. Her role as a farmer's widow is severely un-
derdeveloped due to the necessity to get "Silverado's" running
time down under two-and-a-half hours. The biggest surprise of
"Silverado" is probably John Cleese, unexpectedly playing a basi-
cally serious role as a sheriff more interested in peace than
justice. It is a measure of Cleese's acting ability that,
despite expectations, he is totally believable in the part and in
complete control, to such an extent that he can get a laugh or
two without causing his scenes to collapse in Pythonesque
memories.
Kasdan puts the cast through the script's energetic paces
with great gusto. There can be no doubt that the director, along
with everyone else, was enjoying himself greatly. In undiscip-
lined hands, this kind of enjoyment can reduce a film to an in-
joke, but Kasdan put all the fun on the screen for the audience
to see. His kinetic style is quite unlike the more lugubrious
pacing of "Body Heat" or the leisurely chat of "The Big Chill".
"Silverado" *moves*. Once in a while the constantly portentous
shots and camera angles unintentionally mislead me into expecting
something which didn't come, but basically Kasdan's speed is
under control. Kasdan also shows good sense on when to use the
traditional types of shots and when to break out with something
new, something not generally done in a Western. The bonding of
the old conventions with new styles is definitely Kasdan's
greatest achievement on "Silverado".
Also worth mentioning is Kasdan's superb use of striking New
Mexico locations. The mountains, plains, and deserts fill up the
wide screen. Kasdan has stated that he wanted to make a film
about when the West was still opening up, rather than one about
its death, the subject of so many Westerns of the past decade.
He uses the wide screen and beautiful scenery to give a feel of a
land full of potential, which had always been one of the lures of
the Western. The possibilities for evil exist, but they can be
defeated by good men and women who won't allow their new land to
be spoiled. This is the sort of message audiences want to hear
nowadays, not gloomy predictions of imminent decay. Kasdan also
cleverly uses men with a place, rather than men of mystery. Each
of the heros has a past or future in Silverado. They're not just
mysterious strangers who ride in, clean up the town for reasons
of their own, and ride out never to be seen again. Heros like
Clint Eastwood's Preacher in "Pale Rider" don't appeal to audi-
ences as much as they used to. The mysterious figure is practi-
cally an elemental force, and certainly not entirely natural. He
is wish fulfillment, while the heros of "Silverado" are real peo-
ple, not as puissant, perhaps, but more believable, and thus,
more dependable.
Technically, "Silverado" looks the way a $23 million film
should look. Kasdan's West is cleaner than we're used to seeing.
No muddy streets and broken down saloons for him. On the other
hand, it isn't the near-pristine West of the 1940s either.
You'd have to look long and hard to see an outhouse in a Western
of that era. The photography by John Bailey, particularly the
scenic shots, is also fine, with good use made throughout of the
wide screen. "Silverado" will definitely suffer on a television
screen, and should be seen in 70mm for full effect. Carol Lit-
tleton has done a very good job editing the film, in the tradi-
tion of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", but a bit less frantically.
Bruce Broughton provides a suitably heroic score.
"Silverado" is, if not "the ride of your life" as adver-
tised, a damn good amble across the prairies. Even if you think
you don't like Westerns, I'd advise trying "Silverado". It's a
first rate adventure. Columbia should have a big hit with it.
But what of the meta-question? Will "Silverado" revive the
Western as a genre? I think not. "Silverado" is the production
of lots of talent and hard work. Like "Raiders of the Lost Ark",
it can be copied only at peril. Simple trash like "Homberg: Gobs
o' Blood II" can, and will, be copied, with profit, by almost any
mini-talent. "Silverado", for all its excellence, doesn't chart
a clear way in which moderately talented people with moderate
budgets can make a Western which is likely to show a profit.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
soon to be reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiherandy@Shasta.ARPA (07/13/85)
Peter Reiher (reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP) writes: > By any standard, "Silverado" is a terrific Western. No apologies, > caveats, or or provisos are necessary. "Silverado" is rip-roaring > Western fun, not the West the way it used to be, but a thoroughly > plausible and adventurous West, a West suitable for modern tastes. > Lawrence Kasdan has never made a better film than "Silverado", and it > is more fun than Westerns have been since Sergio Leone stopped making > them. .... "Silverado" is a wonderful movie, but not all of it's modern western features are an improvement. Before Sergio Leone, the big battle at the end was marked by some cooperation between the good guys (and often among the bad guys as well, but it didn't help them). High Noon-types are an exception, but is is important to their plot that Cooper stand completely alone. Various other details keep it from being a great western, although it is a better movie than it is a western. (There are better Westerns that aren't as good movies and some that are better both ways.) The "elemental" bad guys die too easily, although this is also due to time constraints. (I didn't like the order they died either, but couldn't come up with one that was substantially better.) While "Silverado" may not revive the Western genre, there are at least two hooks for a good sequel; one of them is in the middle of the Cleese scenes. I would like to see some of these characters in another story. I'm going to see them again in "Silverado". -andy ps - I seem to be the only one that thinks Scott Glenn imitates David Caradine's role in Kung Fu every time he stops moving.
simpson@lll-crg.ARPA (Rea Simpson) (07/19/85)
In article <6843@Shasta.ARPA> andy@Shasta.ARPA writes: > >ps - I seem to be the only one that thinks Scott Glenn imitates David >Caradine's role in Kung Fu every time he stops moving. The guy I went to see this with said that Scott Glenn reminded him of Caradine a lot. I think that Kevin Kline looks and acts a lot like Robin Williams and the guy who played Kline's brother reminded me of John Ritter (sp?) a bit. ____ " ... and a friend or two I love at hand ..." ____ Rea Simpson Lawrence Livermore Labs L-306 P.O. Box 808 Livermore, CA 94550 (415) 423-0910 {dual, gymble, sun, mordor}!lll-crg!simpson simpson@lll-crg.ARPA