SILVERADO (1985)

The Wild West helped define American cinema. Expansive frontiers, saloon brawls, unwavering heroic sheriffs, and small-town shootouts were widely common on the big screen. However, the golden age of the western lasted until about the 1960s. What was a hundred or so western pictures each year turned into maybe a few dozen, many of which failed to capture the escapist entertainment and White-American patriotism of the genre. Perhaps the horrors of the real world became too prevalent for filmgoers. As Noah Gittell wrote for The Atlantic, “the ugliness of the [Vietnam War] rendered the often blindly patriotic tone of the western obsolete.”

However, audience interests ebb and flow, and, by the mid-1980s, filmmakers were returning to the action of the Western frontier. One of those films, Silverado, made by the highly successful writer of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), remains one of the greatest Westerns of the past 40 years.

Lawrence Kasdan directed, and co-wrote with his brother Mark, this story of a quartet of outsiders who band together to fight corruption in the small titular town, Silverado. The film begins with a trio of men ambushing Emmett (Scott Glenn) in his shack. After expertly disposing of the intruders through the walls and roof of his own home, Emmett takes one of their horses and sets off into the vast landscapes of the west while the opening credits roll. Emmett then rescues Paden (Kevin Kline), a man left for dead in the desert only clad in red long johns. Together they work to spring Emmett’s brother, Jake (Kevin Costner), from prison, who was thrown in jail for defending himself. Along the way, they run into an old criminal associate of Paden’s, Cobb (Brian Dennehy), now sheriff of Silverado, and help support Mal (Danny Glover) from the racist townspeople of Turley. What separates these four, now bound together by circumstances, is their strong moral standing in a place overrun with crime and chaos. These four heroes are the true moral heroes of the west.

The filmmakers did an incredible job of recreating the American west. The impressive set of Silverado, while remote, feels like a breathing location. The costumes, designed by Kristi Zea, are wonderfully attributed to these characters. And the cinematography from John Bailey captures the sweeping landscapes beautifully. Even the score by Bruce Broughton is crafted well. While it sometimes feels like it is too keen on emulating John Williams’ scores, the Silverado theme is grand. But it’s the film’s ensemble cast that really makes the film so memorable four decades later.

Kevin Kline is the perfect leading man. His character, Paden, is a very classic trope of a former outlaw turned good (very similar to John Marston in the video game Red Dead Redemption). He’s a very calm and collected individual. What makes Kline’s performance so good in this is his ability to convey the character’s inner turmoil of doing the right thing. For much of the movie, his decisions are made for him. Paden just lets others drag him along into their adventures. “Hanging around with you is no picnic,” he even says to Emmett as he willingly joins him on a quest to steal money back from the outlaws that stole it from settlers on the road to Silverado. Kline gives Paden great depth in this journey to find what his life actually is after leaving crime behind. Cliché? Yes, but acted with such conviction that it never feels lazy.

The rest of the central quartet is wonderfully captured by Glover, Glenn, and Costner. Glover and Glenn are the perfect encapsulation of the western hero; not only selfless in the face of danger, but also near god-like marksmen. Costner is a standout here. Having been fully dropped from the final cut of Kasdan’s previous film, The Big Chill (1983), Costner got a chance to make a name for himself in the genre that he’s most well known for. As the youngest, Jake gets to be the loose, exuberant one of the group. Costner’s more recognisable stoicism and calmness is nowhere to be seen as his performance of Jake plays into the tropes of the crafty, two-gun-toting wild card of the group. The chemistry of this group is strong enough to carry the film through.

Silverado falters a little in the editing. There feel like threads not fully dissected or just fully dropped, like a potential romance between Paden and a recently widowed settler (Rosanna Arquette). Having a large ensemble cast does mean some get lost to the cutting room floor. While some side characters get the chance to compete with the main cast, including Linda Hunt as the strong-willed bartender, Stella, and Dennehy as the callous, menacing villain of the film, other side characters don’t get the same amount of spotlight, like John Cleese’s talkative town sheriff and Jeff Goldblum’s gambling entrepreneur. Yet, with characters left behind, the pace of the film remains strong, rolling its way to a very exciting conclusion.

The third act of Silverado is exactly the type of pure fun entertainment that always remains in style. The scene between Mal and Emmett in their hideout after Mal escapes from jail plays like an action flick. Hearing his nephew is in danger, Emmett miraculously pulls off his head bandage, which was definitely not healing anything. I couldn’t help but think of Dwayne Johnson flexing his arm cast off in Furious 7 (2015). Then, when Emmett offers Mal a side shooter, Mal holds up dual rifles, stating, “this oughta do.” Such simple moments that border on cliché but remain hilariously authentic given the movie’s devotion to the genre. Kasdan’s third theatrical film may not be the most assured outing. In fact, some of the stunts and edits look clunky and cheap. But, Kasdan set out to make a classic Western, in the style of John Ford or Sam Peckinpah or Fred Zinnemann, adding in the sweeping score and action movie mainstays of the 1980s that makes it nostalgic and fresh at the same time.

Hitting the right tone of escapism and entertainment with an impressive who’s who cast of late twentieth-century cinema, Kasdan was able to create a film so easy to enjoy. Silverado is the kind of film that was the perfect evening watch on cable television. Kline, Glenn, Costner, and Glover hit some of their best work in the ensemble. At the film’s conclusion, Jake yells “We’ll be back” as the score crescendos and the credits roll. It’s almost like the film was made with the intention of a sequel or franchise in mind. Unfortunately, the film was not a box office success. On its opening weekend, Silverado came in seventh in the US domestic box office, well behind Clint Eastwood’s western, Pale Rider (1985), and that summer’s biggest blockbuster, Back to the Future (1985). 

Even if Silverado never made the studio’s targeted profits, it’s a delightful western that showcases the best of what the genre has to offer. In Scott Eyman’s biography of filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch, John Ford sang the praises of his colleague. “None of us thought we were making anything but entertainment for the moment,” Ford said. “Only Lubitsch knew we were making art.” In retrospect, Ford not believing his films to be art feels foolish. But his words highlight what made so many of his own westerns so memorable and what makes movies like Silverado timeless. The ability to make films entertaining is itself the skill of an artist. For Kasdan, one of the best screenwriters of the 1980s, he was able to create a film that hits that sweet spot so perfectly. The western genre didn’t die; it just needed a film like Silverado to capture that art and entertainment that made classics like John Ford’s films so arresting.

USA | 1985 | 133 MINUTES | 2.39:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

director: Lawrence Kasdan
writers: Lawrence Kasdan & Mark Kasdan
starring: Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, Linda Hunt, Brian Dennehy, Jeff Goldblum, John Cleese, Ray Baker, Lynn Whitfield & Rosanna Arquette.