Lawrence Kasdan wrote Silverado with his brother Mark and they bring the same childlike exuberance to the script that we see when Kevin Costner’s character, Jack, jumps from the rafters of a barn into a roll in the hay. The third-time director saw 37 scripts rejected when he first came to Hollywood before he sold the screenplay for Continental Divide to Steven Spielberg. In 1979 he was recruited to finish the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back after Leigh Brackett died. Kasdan also wrote the last entry in the Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi, as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark. Kasdan wrote his directorial debut, Body Heat, in 1981. He went on to receive Oscar nominations for screenplays to The Big Chill and Grand Canyon and a Best Picture nod for The Accidental Tourist. Silverado was produced by Columbia Pictures and Delphi III Productions. The film premiered on July 12, 1985. Bruce Broughton composed the High Chaparral-worthy music which was nominated for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards along with a nomination for Best Sound. Kasdan dipped into his evolving repertory for the ensemble cast of Silverado. He pulled Kevin Kline and Jeff Goldblum from The Big Chill, which also saw Kevin Costner’s torso as a corpse. Kasdan wrote the part Jake for Costner because he was such a good sport about having his face cut from the final movie. Kasdan would return to the Wild West in cahoots with Kevin Costner in Wyatt Earp. Costner would put on the spurs again to ho-down with wolves. The Juilliard-trained Kevin Kline had been dubbed “the American Olivier” and nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Best Debut Performance Award for his role in Sophie’s Choice when he put on Paden’s black Stetson. Kasdan has worked with Kevin Kline in six films. Before he was Mel Gibson’s Lethal Weapon appendage, Danny Glover was a political activist-turned stage and screen actor and he brings his sense of righteousness to Malachi Johnson who’s “had enough of what ain’t right.” The few black cowboys that history remembers usually got famous for their roping and riding abilities in rodeo-type shows like Nat “Deadwood Dick” Love, Bill Pickett or Henry Clay, but Mal is a crack shot and real frontiersman, not in show business. Scott Glenn had a small part in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and did time as the ex-convict Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy before playing the ex-convict Emmett. Silverado is the name of the frontier town where the four new-found pardners find themselves. Although it doesn’t wield the same weight that New York City does in Woody Allen’s Manhattan, Silverado does have its own character, fun-loving and corrupt. A town where the outlaws make the laws. Brian Dennehy acted in Kojak, Lou Grant, Dallas and Dynasty on TV and in such films as 10, Semi-Tough and Foul Play and lied about his own Vietnam War service before busting Rambo’s balls in his breakthrough role as Sheriff Will Teasle in First Blood. He plays Silverado’s Sheriff Cobb like a kid in a candy store. In a rare appearance in a non-comedy film, Monty Python alum John Cleese doesn’t do any silly walks as the jurisdiction-shifting Sheriff John T. Langston, but only because it could prove to be “hard on the peace and hard on the furniture.” Jeff Goldblum’s first onscreen role was as Freak # 1 in Death Wish, starring granite-faced vigilante Charles Bronson. The future human fly and SNL-parodied Jeopardy contestant brings a sharp suit and cool wit to his role as Calvin Stanhope, whose mother calls him Slick. Rosanna Arquette said she wanted to do Silverado even if she got cut out because she thought it would be her only chance to do a Western. The inspiration for the Peter Gabriel song “In Your Eyes” plays Hannah, who has hard ideas about living. Linda Hunt earned an Academy Award for her role as Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously in 1982 before adjusting the world to suit her midnight star, Stella. Rounding out the cast is veteran actor and “Break it to me gently” songwriter Joe Seneca as Ezra Johnson, future Lawnmower Man Jeff Fahey as Deputy Tyree, Earl Hindman, best known as the unseen neighbor on TV’s Home Improvement, as J.T., Ray Baker as Ethan McKendrick, Thomas Wilson Brown as Augie, Lynn Whitfield as Rae Johnson, Amanda Wyss as Phoebe, Richard Jenkins as Kelly, James Gammon as Dawson, Sheb Wooley as Cavalry Sergeant and Pepe Serna as Scruffy, not the dog. Welcome to Heaven Kids all around the world play cowboy. They learned it from American movies. They learned about America from cowboy movies. Silverado lets the grown-ups play cowboy and they have a blast doing it. Dennehy’s Sheriff Cobb looks like he’s having the most fun of all the players. He wears the tin star and rules the playground with a cartoon chortle. When Sheriff Cobb fires Kelley, who runs the gambling in the saloon he owns, to make room for Paden, the glint in his eyes betrays his glee and the laugh he’s holding back because he knows he’s going to get to knock him around. Cobb finally shoots Kelley through swinging doors and welcomes a visiting gambler to town with all the smarmy affability of a casino greeter. Cobb is the king of the hill. An uncharacteristically pissy Emmett accusingly asks Paden, “You used to ride with that guy?” a bit too self-righteously because, by the Wild West code, Cobb didn’t do anything wrong; Kelly was going to shoot him when he wasn’t looking. Although, he did spill a drop of whiskey. Silverado’s good guys and the bad guys are playing out their childhood cowboy fantasies. Every scene, line and camera setup appeal to the kid with the toy gun. These cowboys perform the kinds of idealized feats that kids dream of and that can only happen on a playground or in the movies, like the opening sequence where Scott Glenn’s rifle does a triple flip into his fingers or shoots the spines off a cactus. These aren’t do-gooding buckaroos with bumbling sidekicks and the law on their side. These are unflappable cowboys with the camera at their backs. Den of Geek Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
