Silverado

My reaction to 1985's SILVERADO is favorable, but might've been warmer if I hadn't recently watched so many revisionist takes.  I grew up seeing and loving John Wayne et al. embracing the cliches, but in middle age I find the gritty points of view to be more honest and dramatically interesting.  Co-writer/director Lawrence Kasdan set out to revisit the sagebrush tropes and splash them onto the big screen in an era when Westerns had long since fallen out of favor.  A revival was hoped for, but didn't really happen.  By the mid '80s, audiences were more interested in sci-fi spectacles and sagas of horny teenagers. 

Kasdan had a successful homage to old noirs with BODY HEAT a few years earlier.  He did most everything right there.   SILVERADO is carefully scripted to include the elements so familiar and beloved to those Western aficianadoes in the "Greatest Generation" and maybe some of their Boomer offspring.  It might've been a tougher sell to Generation X.  To wit, I was strangely indifferent to this movie during its theatrical release and subsequent endless plays on HBO.  Not sure why, as I liked the actors.  It came along before I got into Peckinpah's and others' dirty, more cynical oaters.  Maybe it seemed, even to my teenage pop culture loving self, to be too sanitized, too safe.

Fair assessment.  Larry and his brother Mark don't really attempt to examine the Old West in any peel back the layers sorta way.  This is a movie more about movie Westerns than the Old West.  A sort of Greatest Hits of dusty trail storytelling.  Here, we have a pair of brothers named Emmett (Scott Glenn) and Jake (Kevin Costner) who return to the town of Silverado to help their sister and her family fight Ethan McKendrick (Ray Baker) and his toughs, who seek to drive folks off their land by dominating their cattle.  The brothers have been joined by Paden (Kevin Kline), a drifter who has a history with Silverado's corrupt sheriff Cobb (Brian Dennehy), and Mal (Danny Glover), a prodigal son whose father has also been harrassed by the McKendricks.

There are numerous story threads, all somewhat compelling.  The cast is fabulous.  Also on hand is Linda Hunt as Stella, who runs a saloon, John Cleese as Sheriff of the town of Turley, and Joe Seneca as Mal's father Ezra.  Even Richard Jenkins has an early role.  Unfortunately Rosanna Arquette and Jeff Goldblum are given very little to do and barely make an impression.  The latter seems completely out of place in this milieu. 

SILVERADO is a pleasant romp, one that should please that little-boy-who-couldn't-wait-to-brandish-his-cap-gun who may reside inside of you. A clearly delineated white hat/black hat standoff.  I just found it maybe a bit too middlebrow and finely scrubbed.  As if Kasdan and company were merely playing Western.  I guess there's nothing really wrong with that.