Silver City | Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss

Silver City | Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss | satire and commentary

DVDs:

Silver City

	Silver City Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss Sony Pictures, 2005 average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
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Grammatically challenged user friendly gubernatorial candidate Dicky Pilager has just launched a rosy campaign for the citizens of the New West. But things take an unexpected turn when the taping of an environmental political ad ends up with Pilager reeling in a corpse. Enter his ferocious campaign manager Chuck Raven who hires idealistic journalist turned rumpled private detective Danny O'Brien to investigate potential links between the corpse and the Pilager family's enemies. In the tradition of the great films noir Danny's investigation pulls him deeper and deeper into a complex web of influence and corruption involving high stakes lobbyists media conglomerates environmental plunderers and undocumented migrant workers.System Requirements:Running Time: 133 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396093218 Manufacturer No: 09321

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Low budget but good

This film grew on me.

I first saw it after it was advertised in "The Nation." It had just enough laughs--and mystery--to keep me interested.

Others have gone over the plot. Chris Cooper plays quite a good dimwit--actually no less articulate than the dimwit who now occupies the formidable house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

I disagree with those critics who say Richard Dreyfus's character, the dimwit's campaign manager, is not slimy enough. I thought he did a good job as a Rove-like snake, of no integrity whatsoever. In fact, in the "making of" bonus feature, Dreyfus says what I've been saying since I was a teenager (and I'm almost Dreyfus's age!): People essentially don't care [about much of what's going on] until they're affected by it. And then it's too late. Thanks for confirming my assertion of the last nearly 40 years, Richard!

Frankly, at first I thought Michael Murphy was too young to play Dicky Pilager's dad, but, when I saw it a few more times, he did all right.

I had a slight problem with the sherrif, Skaggs I think the character was called. He was apparently the one responsible for the lead character, Danny O'Brien, played by Danny Huston, getting fired in the first place. But by the end, the guy bordered on being Danny's political advisor. There was nothing Danny could do, so, the sherrif advised him, he'll have to reconcile himself to what's happened.

But I can live with that as the consequence of a lower-budget story.

Overall, I'm glad I have it. Sayles says in one of the special features that we are a story-telling species. That's obvious, from oral tradition of religious scripture to tales told by vikings which became epics. Those stories are important. I'll use this story it at the "salons" some friends plan to have. It's a great caricature of what we face with the neocons running the show so far. And until we realize that, things'll keep getting worse.

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satire and commentary

I put this movie alongside "The Candidate", "Bob Roberts" and "Wag the Dog" for pointed political commenary that is also entertaining.

Earnest attempt at political satire

I found the film very slow for the first half but it picked up a little and I managed to sit through it and actually enjoy it. I think the main problem is that John Sayles cares too much about the subject matter and loses the aesthetic distance it requires to make an enjoyable movie. I totally share his political concerns and only wish that this could have succeeded. He piles horrific offense on top of horrific offense and I got bogged down. The romantic encounters of the star, Danny Huston, with Darryl Hannah and Maria Bello, relieved the dreariness and made the film more watchable, at least for me.

The cast is excellent, and as others have mentioned, Chris Cooper does a pretty humorous version of the man we all love to hate, although I actually think he overdid it a little. I always enjoy Kris Kristofferson and would have liked to have seen more of him as the arch villain.

It's a film worth seeing, for the importance of the message. The last scene, of dead fish floating on the water, with someone singing America the Beautiful in the background brought tears to my eyes.

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Wait a minute. I thought this film was supposed to be a savage polticial satire?

When I first saw the trailer for "Silver City" I assumed it was going to be a political satire that was out to savage George W. Bush. After all, the trailer shows us Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper), a (1) conservative candidate from a (2) political family running for (3) governor in (4) the western state of Colorado whose political ideology is revealed in (5) torturous sentences that make no sense. There are five points of commonality between Dickie and the current occupant of the White House. The fact that John Sayles ("City of Hope") wrote and directed this 2004 film also seemed like a hint, and if you watch the "Making of" featurette on this DVD he comes out and says that "Silver City" is a response to what Bush has done as president. But since Dickie Pilager becomes a relatively minor character in this film, you cannot really say that Bush is only target. Then again, Dickie's campaign manager is named Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss), and that is within easy nudge-nudge wink-wink territory of Karl Rove, so maybe we just need to cast the net of Sayle's disdain a bit wider.

I watched the trailer for "Silver City" as soon as I finished watching this DVD because I was thinking that I had been the victim of some sort of bizarre bait and switch. But there is the bit from the beginning where Dickie hooks a dead body in a Colorado lake while filming a political ad, and the character of Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston) is featured prominently as the person investigating the murder. So it is my fault that I got all excited about Dickie Pilager being a political joke when the movie wants to go in another direction. The problem is that where the movie wants to go is rather convoluted and ultimately unsatisfying, especially if you already knew that politicals was a cesspool and that if a candidates lips are moving it is safest to assume they are lying.

What happens in "Silver City" is not so much a plot as it is a chain of relationships. O'Brien is the private eye investigating the case who used to be dating Nora Allardyce (Maria Bello), a reporter. She thinks there is a connection between the floating corpse and the election campaign. Nora is engaged to Chandler Tyson (Billy Zane), a lobbyist, who appears to know where the bodies are buried. Meanwhile, O'Brien hooks up with Madeleine Pilager (Daryl Hannah), Dickie's sister, whose illegitimate child derailed her Olypmic skating career. She would love to get sink her brother's campaign, which is being kept afloat by Wes Benteen (Kris Kristofferson), who apparently owns all the mines in Colorado and since he already has a Pilager in his pocked as a U.S. Senator (Michael Murphy), just needs that one's son as governor to cover the other half of his rear end.

Also running around in this film are James Gammon, Tim Roth, Mary Kay Place, David Clennon, Miguel Ferrer, Alfre Woodard, and Thora Birch, so there is no doubting Sayles' ability to assemble an ensemble cast. It is just that are of the piece and parts of "Silver City" end up constituting a whimper rather than a bang. Obviously my heightened expectations are coming into play here, because I was expecting a scathing political satire and what Sayles hath wrought is more of a sad acknowledgement of the way the world works. At one point a character allows that people have lost their ability to be scandalized, and that is probably as good an explanation as any as to why Sayles appears to be pulling his punches. However, my disappointment at the end result causes me to round down on this one. Fortunately this movie clearly clicks with some people and hopefully it will for you, but I am not to be counted in their number.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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