An excellent story, suberbly woven and excellently played - my only coplaint is that some of the one-line jockeys and extras were less than good, but on a whole a greast film.
"To love one's self is the beginning of a life-long romance." -Lord Arthur in "An Ideal Husband"
I happen to agree! My favorite Western ever and the music is the best too!
~Do that which makes you come alive!
I love the cast of this movie. I think Lawrence Kasdan's direction is fine. The problem I have is in the writing. This movie did not have the complexity I like in Westerns. I would have liked for Paden's dark side to have been fleshed out a little more.
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Maybe one reason the cast "worked" was that they weren't "all-stars" -- at least yet.
Kevin Kline had been in Sophie's Choice and The Big Chill, but had not yet had his Oscar-winning performance in A Fish Called Wanda.
Scott Glenn had been in Urban Cowboy and The Right Stuff, but mostly playing second fiddle to other leads.
Danny Glover had just been in Witness, but not yet in The Color Purple or Lethal Weapon.
Kevin Costner was virtually unknown.
I wasn't really disputing your point, it's just that I don't recall this being an all-star cast at the time (admittedly, I'm testing my memory), I think it would be more fair to describe them as "up and comers" at the time.
A bit of trivia about Kevin Costner's role. I heard some time ago that Kasdan had originally planned flashbacks of character Alex Marshall (the guy whose suicide brought the whole crew together) in "The Big Chill," and some of those were actually shot. They were cut from the final version, so all we see of Alex Marshall is the sewn-up slashes on his wrists as he is prepared in his coffin. Kasdan promised the actor playing Marshall that he would make it up to him with a more memorable role in his next movie, and he did. Alex Marshall was played by Kevin Costner.
shareA little humor on that story of all the "unknowns".
When I first saw Silverado on video, I told my dad, a real western buff, that he needed to see it. His question was "who is in it?"
And he said he had never heard of any of them except Brian Dennehy. Amazing the difference that a 20+ span of years can make.
He had not seen any of the movies that had any of the other actors in them, a generational gap, but he learned to know all of them, later,
And, he did like Silverado when he saw it!
yeah most of these stars were up and commers at the time i think, so it kinda attributed to the feel of the movie, it's kind of what Young Guns did a couple years later
"Oh Free,To be what I will, Oh Free,I`ll keep it up till,I`m Free,But I wont have nothing at all"
I disagree.
I thought John Cleese's casting was odd, but he pulled it off OK.
Rosanna Arquette was wasted in the film. She only has about three lines of dialogue.
Jeff Goldblum stuck out like a sore thumb. (His ridiculous first line didn't help.)
Kevin Costner was over the top.
And Danny Glover's acting was just plain bad.
The only performances I liked were by Glenn, Kline, and Hunt.
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19910506,00.html
Scientology: Cult of Greed
Kevin Costner was *supposed* to be over the top. This was his first major movie role and it essentially made his career. I still remember my first sight of him in the movie (way back when it first came out); I've had a major thing for him ever since.
Kevin Kline is terrific in so many of the roles he's had; in my opinion, this was one of his best.
The Best Performances in this movie came from Brian Dennehy (i think he should have got a Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor) and Linda Hunt. I love Kline, but i think he wasn't at his best here. Costner seemed to had great fun performing his first breakthrough performance; Glover actin in this movie has some ups and downs; Glenn was stiff like usual, but he's credible as the tough guy; beautiful and talented actress Rosanna Arquette was wasted, looks like she's only in the movie to give her good looks; Cleese was funny like always but only in a cameo and Goldblum was simply,awful! his acting and character had nothing to do with the story. In the supporting roles, Gammon was always effective; Fahey was ugly & nasty as a henchman should be; Jenkins (2009 Academy Oscar nominee) appears for a couple minutes in his debut role and Lynn Whitfield and Amanda Wyss were just... there. Veteran actor Joe Seneca was good in his limited screen time.
shareSure, I have some nit-picks and complaints of some of the acting and dialogue. But this wasn't supposed to be true, serious, realism here. It was a fun and action-filled western fantasy - and the good guys triumphed.
Did John Cleese and Jeff Goldblum look out of place? Did Rosanna Arquette have some cringe-worthy dialogue? Was Costner annoying? Sure, but all together, the whole thing worked well, and has been one of my favorites for years.