If "Silver City" has powerful attributes that makes you desperately see this film it's because of an talented ensemble casting of actors, and a quite instigating story written, edited and directed by the great John Sayles. But the movie delivers and fulfills our wishes? Half way through to some, a disappointment to others. To me, it wasn't appealing enough like "City of Hope", another ensemble of actors directed by Sayles.
With a peculiar and sometimes not much visual sense of humor, Sayles presents a satire on irresponsible but populist politics during their election campaign. The candidate in question is Richard Pilager (Chris Cooper), running for governor of Colorado, a man who never knows how to stay silent when he should since he never knows what's he talking about, often advised by his campaign manager Chuck (Richard Dreyfuss) what to do and when. During the filming of one of those promos Pilager fishes a dead man's body and the story goes on after finding who was the man, on investigations conducted by Danny (Danny Huston), an former reporter involved in a scandal, now working as a investigator for Chuck. Illegal immigrants; exploration of lands and profit versus lack of security of poor workers; Pilager family scandals; the construction of a place named Silver City; strange connection among powerful people; these and more are part of the complex and half interesting web of "Silver City".
The major problem with satires is to find the right way to do it, the perfect balance between comedy and drama, and more challenging than that is to make a big social denounce that is so funny to make you laugh and feel some desperation in seeing how things are so dramatical, so frightening. "Wag the Dog" and "Doctor Strangelove" are perfect examples of how satire must be made, they're funny and at the same time they make relevant, shocking statements of the current historical moment the artists lived. Sayles almost hits the spot. Making an comparison with one of the movie's characters, an archer (Daryl Hannah), the director throws the arrow, hits the target but not in the right point, in the heart. His ambition is an critic to the likes of George W. Bush, politicians who act like dumb in order to get sympathy for the crowd; man who are manipulated by the real powerful ones in charge of everything while he's just the face for the disaster; he's the one people blame. OK, we get that from scene one but if you have to make a satire on this you gotta push harder, make something fierce enough to shake some structures, make fun of everyone linked with this character, but the movie never does that. The very few mocked in this are Pilager and people of his campaign; the other character were treated like serious liberals that have one or two funny moments. And where's the tension (built from the fishing scene) we needed when everything Danny was investigating led to dangerous secrets but nothing substantial or deadly happened? If you're a Sayles fan you must remember all the thrilling parts of "Matewan" when we couldn't control our hearts, always thinking that the something is going to explode between the coal miners and their bosses. Tension was in the air! The same thing was supposed to occur here but it went too much soft, it wanted to be very light and funny. It goes well in making fun of people without being hysterical, it never goes for the stereotypes and that's great to see.
While the script is too talky, quite confusing, little tedious to make you sleepy, the acting cannot be blamed, all first rate performances with good and strong by Cooper (always excellent), Dreyfuss, Huston (really great playing the "hero"), Maria Bello, David Clennon, Tim Roth, Thora Birch, Miguel Ferrer, James Gammon, Mary Kay Place, Sal Lopez, Billy Zane, Michael Murphy and Kris Kristofferson. I advise you to watch if you enjoy all those actors and enjoy dialog driven films. It's a good film that goes to show an contradictory way some powerful people tend to make things, revealing truths on one side but covering it with thousands of lies under the rug on another side. It's a nice way to see why we can't trust in politics and the people who make it. 7/10
With a peculiar and sometimes not much visual sense of humor, Sayles presents a satire on irresponsible but populist politics during their election campaign. The candidate in question is Richard Pilager (Chris Cooper), running for governor of Colorado, a man who never knows how to stay silent when he should since he never knows what's he talking about, often advised by his campaign manager Chuck (Richard Dreyfuss) what to do and when. During the filming of one of those promos Pilager fishes a dead man's body and the story goes on after finding who was the man, on investigations conducted by Danny (Danny Huston), an former reporter involved in a scandal, now working as a investigator for Chuck. Illegal immigrants; exploration of lands and profit versus lack of security of poor workers; Pilager family scandals; the construction of a place named Silver City; strange connection among powerful people; these and more are part of the complex and half interesting web of "Silver City".
The major problem with satires is to find the right way to do it, the perfect balance between comedy and drama, and more challenging than that is to make a big social denounce that is so funny to make you laugh and feel some desperation in seeing how things are so dramatical, so frightening. "Wag the Dog" and "Doctor Strangelove" are perfect examples of how satire must be made, they're funny and at the same time they make relevant, shocking statements of the current historical moment the artists lived. Sayles almost hits the spot. Making an comparison with one of the movie's characters, an archer (Daryl Hannah), the director throws the arrow, hits the target but not in the right point, in the heart. His ambition is an critic to the likes of George W. Bush, politicians who act like dumb in order to get sympathy for the crowd; man who are manipulated by the real powerful ones in charge of everything while he's just the face for the disaster; he's the one people blame. OK, we get that from scene one but if you have to make a satire on this you gotta push harder, make something fierce enough to shake some structures, make fun of everyone linked with this character, but the movie never does that. The very few mocked in this are Pilager and people of his campaign; the other character were treated like serious liberals that have one or two funny moments. And where's the tension (built from the fishing scene) we needed when everything Danny was investigating led to dangerous secrets but nothing substantial or deadly happened? If you're a Sayles fan you must remember all the thrilling parts of "Matewan" when we couldn't control our hearts, always thinking that the something is going to explode between the coal miners and their bosses. Tension was in the air! The same thing was supposed to occur here but it went too much soft, it wanted to be very light and funny. It goes well in making fun of people without being hysterical, it never goes for the stereotypes and that's great to see.
While the script is too talky, quite confusing, little tedious to make you sleepy, the acting cannot be blamed, all first rate performances with good and strong by Cooper (always excellent), Dreyfuss, Huston (really great playing the "hero"), Maria Bello, David Clennon, Tim Roth, Thora Birch, Miguel Ferrer, James Gammon, Mary Kay Place, Sal Lopez, Billy Zane, Michael Murphy and Kris Kristofferson. I advise you to watch if you enjoy all those actors and enjoy dialog driven films. It's a good film that goes to show an contradictory way some powerful people tend to make things, revealing truths on one side but covering it with thousands of lies under the rug on another side. It's a nice way to see why we can't trust in politics and the people who make it. 7/10