Good 80's Films: Silverado

1985 Western
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan

Starring
Kevin Kline
Scott Glenn
Kevin Costner
Danny Glover
Brian Dennehy
Linda Hunt
Rosanna Arquette
Jeff Goldblum
John Cleese
Lynn Whitfield
Ray Baker
Jeff Fahey
Joe Seneca
Amanda Wyss
Patricia Gaul
James Gammon
Richard Jenkins

Writer-director Larry Kasdan is a man I paid attention to in the early 80's... real close attention.  His Body Heat (1981) was an audacious start... decadent, sexual and mysterious. William Hurt was at his most attractive and Kathleen Turner... are there words to adequately describe one of the great alluring, female film noir performances ever?  Perhaps what I loved most of all about this film was the mood it created.  It's not always an easy thing to do.  At any rate, I checked out what I could on this first-time director and determined to keep an eye out for his future stuff. I subscribed to the legendary trade paper, The Hollywood Reporter, in those days, so it was not difficult to stay informed.

Two years later my wait was rewarded with one of the best films of the 80's or any other decade, The Big Chill... one of those superb friendship films with dialogue that sparkled... words that came from a man who obviously had a good ear in addition to his other talents. And the film came with an ensemble cast of the highest order... Hurt again, his first collaboration with Kevin Kline and Jeff Goldblum, among others.  One thing this film proved is that this writer-director was quite comfortable in more than one genre.

After another two-year wait came Silverado, a salute to still another genre... the American western.  In 1985 the western had not been courting the favor it had in the days of the great movie cowboys who by this time were either dead or finding it uncomfortable to climb in the saddle.  Some westerns were produced but not that many were financial successes with the exception of The Man from Snowy River and it was an Australian film. 

The truth is Kasdan and his brother Mark were cowboys from their earliest years... at least in their heads.  (I hear ya.  My first horse was a broom and my second was my fancy red Schwinn bicycle.  Giddyup.)  They discussed how much they loved watching westerns and how well they felt they understood them.  They mentioned loving the general look... the terrain, the elements, often the hardship.  They loved the cowboy and his look... the hat, boots, spurs, guns.  They adored horses.  And the fights were great.  There was that vitality to westerns that struck their fancy.  They liked the issues... law and order, good v.s. bad, right and wrong, loyalties, betrayals.

They wanted to write about the code of the west... overcoming adversity and hardship, respect for the land, a people bonding together.  They sought to write a big western with bold and beautiful images whose heroes and villains were more than cardboard cutouts.  They envisioned lots of action complemented with scenes of caring relationships.  Probably as much as anything, they wanted to pay homage to the westerns of their youth.  This is how Silverado came to be. 

It wasn't difficult to assemble this large cast because all actors want to be in a western.  Digest that a bit, if you must, but it has long been a truism in the hills of Hollywood.  

Westerns need a hero and Kasdan gave us four of them.  Kline returned to the Kasdan fold and was joined by Glenn and Costner as brothers and Glover as a man who became a true friend after he saved all them from a posse.  

The opening scene, one of those images Kasdan wanted and one that I have long remembered... is in a dark mountain cabin with light pouring in through the walls.  The cameras survey all the cowboy gear in the dimly-lit room.  Shots are fired through the walls, nearly hitting Glenn several times and while diving around the room he is victorious in taking out the two varmits.  What a great welcome to the old west.

Another image that has stayed with me... Kline dressed only in his long johns and socks, passed out and baking on the desert floor.  He's had everything taken from him, but like all good cowboys, he mostly misses his hat and his beloved bay horse.  Glenn saves him from certain death.  Glenn helps him out and they travel to a fort outpost where they come across one of those who left him for dead.  But he, too, meets his maker.  At the fort Kline runs into Dennehy, an old friend of whom he's wary.  We're not sure why... yet.  

Kline claims his horse, gets some clothes and off the pair goes on their way to the town of Turley so Glenn can meet up with Costner.  First they come across a wagon train and Kline becomes smitten with Arquette.  In Turley the two new pals come across Glover who is facing discrimination at the hands of a bartender and the sheriff, Cleese.

They also come across Costner who is in jail for a killing he claims is self-defense.  Glenn and Kline plan to break him out before his next-day hanging.  In the meantime, Kline kills another of the men who left him for dead and Kline gets thrown in the same cell with Costner.  Now Glenn and Glover will break out both of them.

The four ride into Silverado in one of the film's iconic sequences.  I don't know what anyone else calls it, but to me it is the four horsemen scene.  One sees the foursome lined up on their mounts, all lined up as racehorses would be.  Then there is a miracle of a shot with only the horses' forelegs filling the screen. Then the camera is in front of the horses which provides the backdrop of  New Mexico's breath-taking Ghost Mountain.  These three shots... the men, the horses' legs and the mountain... repeat over and over and are accompanied by the film's trumpeting cowboy musical theme.    

The chief reason for the trip to Silverado is for the brothers to see their sister (Gaul).  Glover is returning to the town to reunite with his father (Seneca) and to reunite with his estranged sister (Whitfield) who works at the saloon.  It happens to be run by Dennehy, who, although he is also the sheriff, is decidedly a bad guy.  Kline, who needs employment, is hired to work alongside his manager (Hunt) who became an ally.

Individual story lines involve the four leads until the stories are seamlessly stitched together.  In addition to the bully Dennehy and his lawless deputies, there's a slimy gambler (Goldblum) and a corrupt rancher (Baker) and his army of thugs and an outlaw gang who are around to menace one or more of our heroes.    

Kasdan managed an exciting cattle stampede, superbly-crafted scenes of horsemanship, a tongue-in-cheek look at stealing a cache of money from the outlaws who stole it and a slam-bang, bruising finale that ends with a showdown between Kline and Dennehy out on the dusty street.  How old west do you want to get?  Surprisingly, there are no Indians.

The actors all acquit themselves quite well.  The cast is larger than Kasdan had ever managed before.  He actually had three actors return from The Big Chill... Kline, Goldblum and Costner.  Some may remember that Costner was famously the corpse but once there was more to his part, which was cut.  Kasdan felt an obligation to use Costner again... and as it turned out, one of these roles was perfect for him.  I always thought Costner was the best thing about Silverado and the role is certainly among the best of the actor's career.  Has he ever been this high-energy or funny?  It is an off-the-wall performance, a character delightfully full of himself.  

This was only Kline's fourth film.  He and Kasdan were already good pals, they could practically speak in code and they would work together again.  Kline is as low-key in his role as Costner was wacky in his.  Of the four leads, he didn't seem to slip as comfortably into his cowboy mindset as the others did.  Isn't he kinda uppity to fill the boots of a lowlife cowpoke?  Well, hell, I enjoyed him nonetheless although I still found his role was less colorful than the others.  

In general Glenn was too wooden for my tastes but if wooden ever worked well on the screen it was in westerns.  The laconic cowboy was alive and well in Scott Glenn.  His riding scenes as he and Baker face off against one another during the finale were great fun.

For Glover, Silverado was sandwiched in between two extremely memorable roles... the bad cop in Witness and the harsh husband of The Color Purple.  His character had the home fires burning because he had scenes with a father he adored and a sister who wanted nothing to do with him.  Whitfield as his sister and Seneca as his kindly father hit their strides.  I've always wished she had grabbed a bigger piece of stardom.

Kasdan, who would work with Glover again as well, wanted a black story line because he knew that blacks figured prominently in the old west and yet they are rarely portrayed in westerns.  

The 4'9" plain Hunt seems an unusual choice for Hollywood's standard version of a saloon manager but the fact is she likely looked more like the real thing than the buxom glamour girls usually filling these roles.  Kasdan obviously saw something in her that he thought would be perfect... and she is.

Dennehy is truly an incredible hulk and because of it can sure make me quake in my boots when he's being a meanie.  Ditto Jeff Fahey as a crooked deputy.  

Like all the great westerns, this one is immensely aided by  cinematographer John Bailey's lush rendering of the western landscape as well as the well-staged fight scenes.  Likewise Bruce Broughton's Oscar-nominated score is dramatic when it needs to be (a dynamic western theme) and soft for family scenes.

The only criticism I've ever had here involves Arquette.  She performed as she needed to but it was obvious that much of her role was cut out.  And what is left is oddly choppy and clumsy.  At first she was in the throes of a relationship with Kline and toward the end it was Glenn.  How that transition occurs ended up on the cutting room floor and what was left makes no sense.  Kasdan later said that they had too much movie and something had to go.  As far as I'm concerned, they should have cut Arquette's role out completely. 

Kasdan wanted to make a great western, one that speaks to its audiences.  With all the drama and death, it never forgets to be fun and entertaining.  I think he succeeded quite well.

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Yes, another good 80's film