Silver City Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)September 13th, 2004
SILVER CITY
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Newmarket Films
Grade: B+
Directed by: John Sayles
Written by: John Sayles
Cast: Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss, Maria Bello, Danny Huston, Mary Kay Place, Daryl Hannah, Ralph Waite, Tim Roth, Thora Birch, Miguel Ferrer, Michael Murphy
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 8/2/04
School children may not know how to read any more, but ask any kids what they think of politicians, and somehow, without perusing the New York Times or The New Republic, they'll answer, "They all stink." Out of the mouths of babes. One gets the impression that John Sayles thinks the same way, as much of his 15-film output shows that instead of looking up to the bureaucrats and policy makers, he virtually worships the working person. His latest, "Silver City," is no exception. There's a straight line from his "Matewan" (the story of a bloody 1920 West Virginia coal miners' strike) to this story, though "Silver City" is more complex and requires viewers' close attention to details to see the interrelationships of a diverse Colorado population from a sheriff, to a couple of undocumented aliens, to a candidate for governor, to the head of a major conglomerate, and more. Filmed over a period of fewer than two months in mountainous Denver and in the highest incorporated city in the United States, Leadville, Colorado, "Silver City" is a film-noir nicely photographed by Haskell Wexler on location under a perpetually brilliant sun.
The noirish aspect is almost a maguffin, a plot point needed to motivate an investigation carried out under the watchful eye of Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston) who is hired to get to the bottom of a possible crime when the body of a Mexican is fished out of a lake with broken ribs and cyanide in his hair and skin. His gumshoe activities lead Danny into an intricate web of political ties, restoring the idealism of a man who had just been dumped by his girl friend as a loser, and who follows a trail of corruption not unknown in the present Bush administration.
Danny O'Brien, then, in the center of activities in the Colorado mountains where developers need a friendly governor to clear the way to the building of a cluster of residences to be known as Silver City. The person chosen behind the scenes by the head of a mega-corporation with tentacles in broadcasting as well as in building is Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper), a syntactically- challenged gentleman hand-picked to run for governor because he is perceived to be user-friendly, i.e. adaptable to a group about to rape yet another wilderness area.
"Dim Dickie," as he is known to the cognoscenti such as his pit- bull campaign manager, Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss),
knows all the right things to say, even if he does not express himself with the skill of a William Jennings Bryan–regularly throwing in meaningless abstractions such as "freedom" and "family values" to the applause of right-wing groups who know that "restore cultural equilibrium" really means "no handouts for homos." During Danny's investigations, he receives both help and outraged opposition from characters like Pilager's alienated sister Maddy Pilager (Daryl Hannah), the no-nonsense sheriff Joe Skaggs (James Gammon), the head of the Benteen corporation, Wes Benteen (Kris Kristofferson), a rabidly right- wing radio commentator, Cliff Castleton (Miguel Ferrer), and a pair of migrant workers, Fito Lopez and Rafi Quinones, who know more about the death being investigated than they'd ordinarily be willing to tell.
"Silver City" unfolds like a Robert Altman film, chock full of colorful characters, a few decent folks and a lot of plunderers together with their facilitators. While at first sight the picture does not seem to leap out of today's headlines, credit John Sayles for being cleverer than Michael Moore–who has opened himself up
to charges of biased and untruthful and propagandistic reporting by those who make a career out of looking for errors in the leftist documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11." By creating a work of fiction, names changed to avoid charges of attacking the Bush administration, John Sayles allows those of us in the audience who read progressive journals like The New Republic and The Nation, liberal newspapers like The New York Times, TV fare such as 60 Minutes and radio features like National Public Radio to connect the dots.
Sayles points his finger–the middle one–at you-know-who in the White House: a fellow who loves workers so much that he wants to privatize (that is, downsize) social security and Medicare; privatize the wilderness by allowing the timber industry carte blanche in the American West; oppose government help in negotiating better drug prices from the pharmaceutical industry; and generally give the big corporations their head to infuse themselves into fields regularly owned or highly regulated by the public sector. The final visual will probably be noted as the most stunning scene of the year, one that the public will remember some time after it forgets the intricate details of this film.
Rated R. 129 minutes. © 2004 by Harvey Karten
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