Flick Pick: Silverado

Silverado
(Columbia, 1985)

Today, a little break from the world of Bond to take note of one of the all-time great westerns, on the 29th anniversary of its original premiere. Together with his brother Mark, co-writer/producer/director Lawrence Kasdan delivers top-notch entertainment in the form of this epic love letter to every tumbleweed tale ever filmed, featuring one of the best film intros in any movie ever. Kasdan was fresh off of making The Big Chill, but in editing that movie down, had been forced to cut nearly every scene of a former stage manager turned actor, and leave his part on the cutting room floor. But the kid took it gracefully, so Kasdan made a part for him in his next movie, and his role in this flick made Kevin Costner a star, and yet another 15-year "overnight success". All the parts are well-casted, and co-stars Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, and Danny Glover each carry their share of the load in the telling of this tale. Nearly twenty years after its premiere, and the unfulfilled promise of the closing line "We'll be back!", I asked Kevin Kline if we'd ever get to see what happened to Paden and the boys. A slow smile, mixed with a look of wistful sadness crossed his face, as he noted "Lawrence Kasdan doesn't like to make sequels." (This would be the same Kasdan who co-wrote both the second and third Star Wars films, and is co-writing the next three as well. So I suppose we just need to find a way to get George Lucas and Disney interested in getting him to pick up the tale again where this one left off...) Do, by all means, make sure you see this in a widescreen version. The climactic shooting duel between Kline and villain Brian Dennehy was shot using every inch of theatrical 2.35:1 widescreen, with each actor at the extreme edge of the frame, and when it's shown on standard 4:3 format for TV, or standard aspect video, you only get to see one of the two at a time, with the other one cropped off to the side. It's difficult to think of a greater sacrilege one could commit on such a panoramic movie as this.