Silverado (1985)

Watched 7/1/24 (The Internet)

Silverado is, for your money, one of the better ways to spend 2 hours with a post-‘60s Western. Trapped between the allure of the golden age’s Technicolor serenity and the 1980s’ fetishistic gun violence, writer/director Lawrence Kasdan was known in the ‘80s for putting a slightly new, reffreshing spin on antiquated formulas but didn’t really tweak this one at all—Silverado kind of just feels like a bastardized ‘50s or ‘60s action Western ala its 20% more violent tendencies. 

Raiders: Kasdan reinvents the Saturday-morning adventure serial as an action spectacular for the decade’s biggest director. Empire Strikes Back: Kasdan crafts, off of Leigh Brackett’s sturdy blueprint, a darker, more ominous, but ultimately more emotionally coherent sequel to the world’s most popular Campbellian fantasy. Body Heat: Kasdan reworks 1940s noir plot and dialogue into what must have felt like an atom bomb of sex and violence. Finally, The Big Chill: Kasdan’s hangout movie for a new generation with new philosophies, and the impetus for a young Kevin Costner to be jettisoned into the fold for Silverado. All four films helped make mega-watt stars out of their protagonists, with carpenter-turned-hero Harrison Ford being treated to two of those star-making parts. Oddly enough, the biggest problem with Silverado is that it tries to make four different people fit into the rogue gunslinger role that Kasdan so enjoyed writing for Ford, and the movie is thus diluted as a result.

With Silverado, the genre revival feels makeshift—and is less interesting for it. It deals in an overabundance of similar character archetypes with very little self-awareness in a script that often runs around extremely strained by its many plotlines. It runs the gamut of cool characters without enough differentiation to make them stand out. Still, it cements itself as ‘good’ off of the sheer audacity of its giant cast and the frequency of its well-staged shootouts, not to mention some of the prettier sets in an ‘80s tentpole for it all to take place.

Concerning Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, and Kevin Costner, there’s no shortage of good acting. All four of these are guys that rarely, if ever, turn in a bad performance. They’re just all kind of the same guy. Indiana Jones isn’t a terribly unique character, but he’s written to stand out from everyone else in his movies. That x4 is just watering down those four. Everyone fits, there isn’t a bad puzzle piece. It’s just that it’s often a puzzle of mostly the same color. Moments of genuine intrigue, such as vengeful motivation triggers and stoic taking of antagonism, rear their heads with enough attention to detail to make the characters feel real and easy to identify with; those same characters just get cut off from memorialization via the refusal by Kasdan to separate their ticks, looks, and cadences.

6.5/10