Product Description

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. Written and directed by John Sayles

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64824 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2005-01-11
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 129 minutes

Amazon.com
John Sayles tackles one of his most provocative projects in Silver City, a broadside on politics and campaigning. It's one of Sayles's multi-character tapestries, set during a tarnished governor's race in Colorado. Chris Cooper has kicky fun as a feather-brained candidate, whose nonsensical speeches deliberately evoke the 43rd U.S. president. He doesn't get nearly enough screen time, because the film follows a burned-out private detective (the awkward Danny Huston) as he tugs at conspiracies. Sayles's understanding of the connected relationships in the political world is keen, and his malignant ending scores points--though the issues are more convincing than the characters. A subplot romance between Huston and journalist Maria Bello is tired, and there's a rushed quality that undercuts the political barbs. The crowded cast helps it perk along. This is a companion piece to Sayles's City of Hope and Sunshine State, and proves his teeth are only getting sharper. --Robert Horton

From The New Yorker
A despairing film from John Sayles-an open-air, Colorado-style noir, in which a fallible but decent ex-investigative reporter (Danny Huston) rediscovers his soul but is unable to prevent a powerful local political family, the Pilagers, from polluting lakes, gutting regulatory restraints on real-estate development, and, in general, running roughshod over Colorado's tender beauty. Sayles's camera ranges with great mobility over political-strategy rooms and construction sites, but, dramatically, he meanders, never working up a full head of steam. The movie feels like "Chinatown" without the malice, the rigorous design, or the narrative epiphanies. Among its incidental pleasures, however, is Chris Cooper's brilliant imitation of George W. Bush holding a news conference. Cooper plays the Pilager scion, Richard Pilager, known as Dim Dickie, a brainless fellow running for governor. With Tim Roth, Maria Bello, Billy Zane, and, as a self-destructive Pilager heiress who sits around and practices archery, Daryl Hannah. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

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.

Possibly the best movie of '04
Silver City is another excellent movie from a director who has been focusing on an important topic for a while now: America. Not many people are willing to really explore and examine this topic for what it is because of its sordidness and complexities, and this movie deals with quite a few of those complexities: inarticulate politicans ready to bow down to corporate business and forget about everything else, immigration problems, environmental concerns, capitalism versus democracy, intelligence versus greed, you name it. Silver City offers excellent performances, great characters, and one meaningful scene after another, as well as a lot of Cowboy Junkies songs. Perhaps what makes this movie somewhat difficult for certain people is this: It makes you think.

An effective, but muddled satire on politics
John Sayles is always an interesting director who provides sharp and mature insights into contemporary society. Silver City - although convoluted and long - is definitely no exception. With a kind of left of center feel, Silver City makes a kind of quasi-political, and socially conscious statement about the multiple ways in which the rich and powerful stick it to the poor and exploited, which is probably true, except that this film gets so caught up in underdeveloped subplots, and is so side tracked by failed romances that it's hard to take any of it seriously. Environmental issues, worker exploitation, press compromise and dirty politics are all played out, but with so much going on, the film, at times, tends to get too didactic and too bogged down with its own self importance.

The story combines a murder mystery with a ruthlessly managed Colorado gubernatorial contest in what is obviously a hilarious parody of George W. Bush's oratorical limitations. A waterlogged corpse of an illegal immigrant is snared on environmental candidate Dickie Pilager's fishing line while he is shooting a campaign commercial. Pilager (a terrific Chris Cooper) - a simpleton and clueless son of a wealthy senator - is ordered off the shoot, while the local police investigate what appears to be a murder.

Pilager's first run for office is absolutely embarrassing. He's an ineffectual candidate who is parlaying a cow-manure empire into a campaign to become the governor of Colorado. He fluffs his lines, gives half-baked explanations on issues, and is generally so dumb and pliable that the local robber barons; a group of bent property developers - the state's real pillagers - back him to the hilt. A millionaire businessman (Kris Kristofferson) also hopes that having Pillager in office will buy him enough influence and access to do what he wants with the Colorado wilderness.

The film would probably have been more involving if it centered on Pilager but it takes an unpredictable turn, focusing instead on Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston) a disgraced investigative reporter turned private detective. Danny is hired by Dickie's vituperative campaign manager, Chuck Raven (a Karl Rove-like Richard Dreyfuss) to lean on three possible enemies if Dickie who may have put the body in the water. With such a huge cast of characters - most notably Danny's ex girlfriend Nora Allardyce (Maria Bello), a crusading journalist and Daryl Hannah as Pilager's disgraced sister - viewers may find there's just too many characters to follow.

With so much material and multiple plot lines, including Danny's attempts regain the social conscience that caused his downfall in the first place; the film feels more like a longer draft version of an original story that was never completely eliminated. Silver City does have moments of funny political satire, and when it stays focused it is an absolutely riotous look at the contemporary political process, but the ending is so oblique, unfocused and ambivalent that many viewers will be left with the feeling that they've missed something. Mike Leonard September 04.