Product Description

Get ready for some horse-ridin' gun-totin' whiskey-drinkin' fun in this digitally remastered collector's edition of Lawrence Kasdan's SILVERADO featuring a never-before-seen featurette with interviews from the cast and the filmmakers! The spirited Western stars Kevin Kline Scott Glenn Kevin Costner and Danny Glover as four unwitting heroes who cross paths on their journey to the sleepy town of Silverado. Little do they know the town where their family and friends reside has been taken over by a corrupt sheriff and a murderous posse. It's up to the sharp-shooting foursome to save the day but first they have to break each other out of jail and learn who their real friends are. Thanks to its authentic look and spectacular cast which also includes Rosanna Arquette John Cleese Brian Dennehy Jeff Goldblum and Oscar®-winner Linda Hunt (1983 Best Supporting Actress The Year of Living Dangerously) this exciting Old West adventure created a whole new generation of Western fans and earned its "modern classic" status.System Requirements:Running Time: 132 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396067097 Manufacturer No: 06709

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31733 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2005-04-05
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai, Korean
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 132 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Director Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) clearly set out to make an old-fashioned Western, but he couldn't help bringing a hip, self-conscious attitude to the proceedings. Silverado thus finds its own funky tone--sometimes rousing, sometimes winking. Four cowpokes converge on a little Western burg called Silverado; they're played by Kevin Kline (a distinctly modern kind of Western hero), Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, and the rowdy young Kevin Costner. Kasdan peppers the somewhat generic action with smart dialogue and a parade of quirky supporting players, including John Cleese as a sheriff who seems to have stepped straight from a Monty Python sketch into an Old West saloon. Bruce Broughton supplies the music, a real throwback to the glory days of thundering Western themes. One thing's for sure: Silverado's a lot more fun than the later Kasdan-Costner Western, Wyatt Earp. --Robert Horton

Amazon.com
Director Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) clearly set out to make an old-fashioned Western, but he couldn't help bringing a hip, self-conscious attitude to the proceedings. Silverado thus finds its own funky tone--sometimes rousing, sometimes winking. Four cowpokes converge on a little Western burg called Silverado; they're played by Kevin Kline (a distinctly modern kind of Western hero), Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, and the rowdy young Kevin Costner. Kasdan peppers the somewhat generic action with smart dialogue and a parade of quirky supporting players, including John Cleese as a sheriff who seems to have stepped straight from a Monty Python sketch into an Old West saloon. Bruce Broughton supplies the music, a real throwback to the glory days of thundering Western themes. One thing's for sure: Silverado's a lot more fun than the later Kasdan-Costner Western, Wyatt Earp. --Robert Horton

DVD features
There's a little bit to be desired and a lot of fun with this new deluxe edition of Silverado. The playing cards--emblazed with the new poster art-- make the package the width of three DVDs on your shelf. You could jettison the packaging and just keep the 2-disc keepcase if not for the nice 20-page scrapbook--it's just too large to fit in the keepcase, a bad bit of design. The good stuff includes a Superbit presentation of that film that is better than the original DVD (especially with the DTS track). Director Lawrence Kasdan gives up the commentary chair to three cowboys/movie historians/professors. They have a nice rapport and give balance to how great Westerns aren't necessarily made up of the facts. However, they descend into self-promotion by the end. The only other new extra is a 20-minute reminisce by Kevin Costner that is a must for the actor's fans. The well-conceived 1998 making-of is included, but the "History of the Shootout" is just a repackaged trailer package narrated by John Cleese. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews

Improvement over original DVD but needs more extras
A return to the classic western of yesterday, "Silverado" recalls the sprawling efforts of Sergio Leone and the old spaghetti westerns while recycling many of the motifs of the best efforts from Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann and John Ford. It's a pity that Kasdan hasn't rethought the film and added in additional footage. Perhaps the version we saw in theaters was the definitive version but given the wealth of material I doubt it. "Silverado" is greater than the sum of its parts with a number of strong performances from Kevin Costner, Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Brian Dennehy and others. Kasdan manages to echo classic films in this sprawling but exciting western adventure.

Emmett (Scott Glenn) has just been released from prison and is on his way to Silverado to visit with his family when he's attacked by a group of outlaws. He's initially unclear as to why they chose him but it soon becomes apparent that they're hired guns sent by Ethan McKendrick (Ray Baker) to average the death of his father. Along the way Emmett must spring his kid brother Jake (Kevin Costner) from the jail of Turley for a killing that happened in self defense. Emmett has a guardian angel in the form of Mal (Danny Glover) a butcher who is headed to Silverado himself to help out his parents. Emmett also saves Paden (Kevin Kline) a man left to die in the desert by outlaws who ambushed him. When Emmett arrives in Silverado he finds things haven't changed; Ethan McKendrick is still trying to dominate the town by installing his own sheriff (Brian Dennehy) a former outlaw who rode at one time with Paden. He realizes that as long as he stays in Silverado he and his family's lives are in danger.

A beautiful and rich looking transfer highlights this first ever Superbit transfer of "Silverado". This Superbit transfer sparkles and I didn't notice any digital or analog blemishes of note. The black level of the transfer produces deep, rich shadows and the vibrant colors haven't looked this good since the movie was released theatrically in 1985. There's some noticable grain at the beginning of the film but that's to be expected. This is the first edition to sport a DTS track and a 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack as well. The DTS track has slightly better dynamic range but it's virtually impossible to tell them apart otherwise.

Unlike the previous single disc edition of "Silverado", this edition has a number of terrific extras and has relocated the original "Making of" featurette to the second disc to maximize the bit rate for a better picture and sound. "The Making of `Silverado'" features interviews with Lawrence and Mark Kasdan discussing the origin of the film. Lawrence Kasdan has a series of precise images he wanted to portray and turned to his brother Mark to help him flesh out a screenplay that would allow him to keep those startling images and make a coherent story.

"A Return to `Silverado'" features Kevin Costner discussing his involvement in the film. Although Costner had heard stories about Kasdan writing the part of Jake for him to make up for having to cut him out of "The Big Chill", Costner was never told that by Kasdan himself. "A History of Western Shootouts" is little more than a promo piece for 10 of Columbia's westerns with John Cleese doing the honors as narrator in discussing "Missing", "The Professionals", "The Quick and the Dead", "A Man Called Sledge", "Old Gringo", "The Man from Colorado" and others. Running almost 9 minutes, it's not much of a featurette consisting of scenes from each film briefly described by Cleese. "Columbia's Top Westerns Trailer" consists of a montage of scenes from classic westerns put together to advertise DVD titles for Columbia. Once again, it's little more than a promo piece. Finally we get "Along the Silverado Trail" a historical commentary about this western. There's no commentary from any of the cast or Kasdan which is a disappointment and a bit of a surprise.

The reason to buy this is the upgrade Superbit transfer. It looks terrific here and the DTS track sounds especially good. There are only two extras worthwhile on this Suberbit Gift Pack and that's "A Return to `Silverado' with Kevin Costner" and "Along the Silverado Trail". Everything else falls into the category of promo pieces or filler. The 20 page booklet included is also quite informative but duplicates much of what is said in the "Making of" featurette. There's also a nice deck of playing cards included in this set.

Borrows Effectively From the Classics
In the well-made documentary that accompanies this collectors edition DVD release, the Kasdan brothers admit to being fans of the classic western films. They have incorporated many techniques of that genre in this fine film. The super cast includes Kevin Kline, Scott Glen, Kevin Costner, and Danny Glover as the four leads with Brian Dennehy, John Cleese, Jeff Goldblum, and Linda Hunt in supporting roles.

The film starts with a light flavor as we are introduced to the various characters but takes on an increasingly dark character as it rushes toward the foreseeable conclusion. This movie is meant to be a sort of compendium of all that is good about westerns and in that regard it performs admirably.

The DVD video quality is good but grain is noticeable in some scenes. Sound quality is quite good and the film was nominated for awards in that category. The aforementioned documentary is well worth watching and includes deleted scenes as well as insight from the Kasdan brothers and the actors. I would have liked to see more extras but this rarely happens with films from this time period due to the extra cost that would be involved.

All in all, a very good film presented in an attractive package that will appeal to DVD collectors.

The Best of The Modern Westerns
I'll tell you how much I like this movie. I bought the VHS and soundtrack no more than six weeks ago and upon discovering its DVD availability, I immediately hit "1-Click".

I can't think of another Western in the 15 years since this film was released that I enjoyed more, not even "Lonesome Dove", and that's saying a lot. I was praying that it would be released on DVD and it's nice to know my prayers were answered.

The cast is one of the finest of the mid-Eighties: Danny Glover, Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Jeff Goldblum, Linda Hunt, John Cleese, and Brian Dennehy. And these are just the principals.

Silverado is a sweeping Western demi-epic that takes some classic genre cliches and weaves them into a modern classic, emboldened by Bruce Boughton's masterful score. The master of this all is co-writer and director Lawrence Kasdan, who has given us some other gems like "Body Heat" and "The Big Chill".

This DVD release is great news and the only thing that could make me happier is to find that additional scenes featuring Rosanna Arquette, deleted from the theatrical release, appear somewhere on the DVD.