SILVERADO [1985 / 2009] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] Get ready For the Ride of Your Life! A Dangerous Place, in a Lawless Time . . . Till Four Friends Risked All To Make Things Right!
Get ready for some horse-ridin,' gun-totin,' whiskey-drinkin' fun in this digitally remastered collector's edition of director Lawrence Kasdan's SILVERADO, featuring a never-before-seen features with interviews from the cast and the filmmakers! The spirited Western stars are 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!
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1985 Venice Film Festival: Win: Young Venice Award [Special Mention] for Lawrence Kasdan. 1986 Academy Awards®: Nominated: Best Sound for David M. Ronne, Donald O. Mitchell, Kevin O'Connell and Rick Kline. Nominated: Best Music for an Original Score for Bruce Broughton. 1986 Casting Society of America: Nominated: Best Casting for Feature Film in a Drama for Wallis Nicita. 1986 Casting Society of America: Nominated: Best Casting for Feature Film in a Drama for Wallis Nicita. 2005 International Film Music Critics Award: Nominated: Best New Release/Re-Release/Re-Recording of an Existing Score for Bruce Broughton (composed music) and Douglass Fake (produced album)
FILM FACT No.2: The film was shot primarily on location in New Mexico. In 1984, Lawrence Kasdan and Mark Kasdan and crew were out scouting a remote area of New Mexico by helicopter, hoping to find the most suitable place to build the town of Silverado. The location manager appeared at the property of local natives Bill and Marian Cook. At that time they wanted to build only two to three structures, offering Cook a "casual number" as a location fee. It just grew from that into a big budget movie and the Silverado set was built," Marian Cook recalled. The set was appropriately dressed and filmed for towns in four different states, depending on the view from the streets, mountains, prairie or the Galisteo River. In an interview with actor Scott Glenn related how casting profoundly influences directing. In reference to different actors working together, Scott Glenn mentioned how he "really liked" Kevin Costner, and how he thought Kevin Costner was "easy and comfortable" to be around. Scott Glenn exclaimed, "There is real magic going on with that performance." Scott Glenn spent his time kidding around with Kevin Costner addressing him by saying, "hey movie star!" during that earlier stage in Kevin Costner’s career.
Cast: Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Rosanna Arquette, Rusty Meyers, John Cleese, Jeff Goldblum, Linda Hunt, Joe Seneca, Ray Baker, Thomas Wilson Brown, Jeff Fahey, Lynn Whitfield, Amanda Wyss, Richard Jenkins, James Gammon, Sheb Wooley, Earl Hindman, Pepe Serna, Matthew Hotsinpiller (uncredited), Brion James (uncredited), Richard Lester (uncredited) and Bob Morgan (uncredited)
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Producers: Charles Okun, Lawrence Kasdan, Mark Kasdan and Michael Grillo
Screenplay: Lawrence Kasdan and Mark Kasdan
Composer: Bruce Broughton
Cinematography: John Bailey, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 (Super Techniscope)
Audio: English: 5.1 Dolby TrueHD Master Audio
French: 5.1 Dolby TrueHD Surround Audio
German: 5.1 Dolby TrueHD Surround Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Swedish and Turkish
Running Time: 132 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Columbia Pictures / SONY Pictures Home Entertainment
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘SILVERADO’ [1985] is a sweeping, glorious-looking western that is at least a full generation removed from the classic western film genre. Lawrence Kasdan, who produced, directed and co-wrote the film, definitely came up with its wonderful title and simple approach from a present-day standpoint, and the result is an energetic revival with some significant differences in scale. ‘SILVERADO’ is sufficiently modern to make its landscapes bigger and embody the ideals of the classic American western in the way that reflects and encapsulates other movies, something Lawrence Kasdan has refined it into a modern art form, with an eye to the modern audience and its fleeting attention span and makes ‘SILVERADO’ with big and vast panoramas, frequent gunfights and a large assortment of handsome, loner-type heroes, to make a more starkly beautiful western that have gone before previously.
‘SILVERADO’ is a throwback to a Western that doesn’t bother trying to reinvent the western genre into a new form and embraces all of the old clichés and formulas of the good olden days, rehashing them with popular stars for a new generation that didn’t grow up on them, and especially for the old-timers to reminisce. ‘SILVERADO’ celebrates these elements of the mythology of the West and enchants by reviving our memories of galloping horses, blazing guns, and sunsets over mountains, and cowboy hats made for vagabond kings.
The lives and destinies of four men are intertwined in this rousing sage brush saga. Emmet [Scott Glen] is a strong-and-silent stoic just released from prison; his brother Jake [Kevin Costner] loves the ladies and gets high on danger; Mal [Danny Glover] is a black range rider who wants to reconnect with his family; and Paden [Kevin Klein] is a drifter who on the surface seems self-centred but underneath is a loveable teddy bear with a caring heart.
All of these men are drawn together by their opposition to the spoilers in Silverado: an unscrupulous and malevolent sheriff [Brian Dennehy], who owns the local tavern, and the McKendrick clan, a greedy and gruesome family of no-goods whose chief aim in life is tearing down the dreams of common, hardworking folk in the town and surrounding countryside.
‘SILVERADO’ restores some of the gloss to the Western genre of old. The cinematography by John Bailey is totally first class, the rousing composed music score by Bruce Broughton adds texture to the drama, and fine supporting performances are put in by Linda Hunt as a classy and compassionate bar manager, Jeff Goldblum as a nasty gambler, John Cleese as a worldly-wise sheriff, and Rosanna Arquette as a sturdy pioneer woman. ‘SILVERADO’ is a Western which will cause you to kick up your spurs in elation! ‘SILVERADO’ is a fun time for those that enjoy Westerns, as well as for fans of the cast, who are all especially appealing in their respective roles. All in all some of the best scenes involve the classic western showdowns and of course, the rowdy saloon scenes. Many shots, of liquor and gunfire, help to make this film a delightfully entertaining film.
Not only does the script provide a very solid, eventful and easy to follow plot, as well as a host of believable characters, but the characters are made even more believable due to the solid acting talent, of the surprisingly big name cast. Every one of the actors mentioned above gives stellar performances that perfectly fit the script, and world, for which they were written, and while they may not all be original characters or exceptionally original portrayals like Brian Dennehy who is essentially a replay of the sheriff he played in the film ‘First Blood,’ but in cowboy clothes, who are all solid and completely believable. Direction is also not original or spectacular, and the set design, and showcases all of the traditional elements expected of the genre to an exceptionally high standard. Their effort makes for a pleasure of a film viewing experience. With an impressive cast and production values to boot, ‘SILVERADO’ is indeed one of the most enjoyable western films released in 1985. This is a nicely made Western with an excellent cast. I would recommend this film to anyone who likes Westerns. I would also encourage fans of any of the actors to check this one out. The action is great, and it’s not overly violent. Make sure to set aside a little time, as this one runs over two hours. The locations chosen for this film are awesome. The cinematography is also wonderful throughout the film; especially the camera work takes advantage of nicely created action sequences and all of the sets available. Overall, this is a wonderfully made western genre film from the visual aspects, and also features an excellent Oscar® nominated film score by the brilliant and talented Bruce Broughton. Overall, the technical aspects of the film are nicely done and deserved all the Awards and Nominations. Highly Recommended!
Blu-ray Image Quality – SONY Pictures Home Entertainment presents you this stunning Blu-ray disc in a spectacular enhanced 1080p encoded image, with an equally impressive 2.40:1 aspect ratio which shows off this western genre as one of the best-looking Blu-ray disc from SONY. Colours throughout the film give predominantly brown hues that reflect the dusty leather saddles, the wooden rifle stocks, worn out jackets, and the sandy terrain which gives lifelike clarity. Bolder colours like the red of an American flag in one scene or the green shrubbery in the middle of an otherwise barren landscape in another, offer a superior clarity of colour. The terrain that's dotted with gravel, dust, and weeds, takes on an absolutely lifelike appearance with the transfer resolving each and every speckle on the ground with precision. There is no sign of noise reduction, smearing, waxy faces, or any such atrocities with this one. The transfer is simply exquisite, taking on a first-rate cinematic look and feel that's a prime example of just how fantastic a format Blu-ray can be.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – SONY Pictures Home Entertainment rides onto this Blu-ray with a very strong and outstanding 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack experience that really enhances this western genre film and especially the film's opening seconds it becomes clear that this audio track means business, especially with the relentless loud gunshots ring out all around your speakers, making you feel you are at the centre of the action, that gives you superb clarity, especially with the later shootouts feature bullets whizzing and ricocheting through the back half of the soundstage, and many shots are accompanied by an appropriately loud hefty thud. Also not to be outdone, is the marvellous and fantastic presentation of the title sequence's music film score by the very talented Bruce Broughton, to really give you the feeling of a rousing, good old-fashioned Western theme music to give you realistic atmosphere; especially with a few saloon scenes deliver a superb sense of environmental ambience and the outdoor shots often feature the sounds of nature floating throughout the soundstage, especially superior dialogue reproduction. So all in all a totally brilliant audio experience all round.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary: Along the ‘SILVERADO’ Trail: A Western Historians’ Commentary: Here we are introduced to Frank T. Thompson who is a noted Writer, Filmmaker and Film Historian, Paul Andrew Hutton who is an American cultural historian, author, documentary writer, and television personality and is also the professor of history at the University of New Mexico and the executive director of Western History Association and Steve Aaron who is a Professor of History at the UCLA and also the Institute for the Study of the American West at the Autry National Center, and have all that come together to speak on "the last of the old style Western film genre," and especially here to talk about Lawrence Kasdan’s film ‘SILVERADO,’ and the forerunner of the modern style Western of the 21st Century, which also is about its time which it is set, but they also comment that it is also a 1980s Western film genre, which at the time was dead in the water, but has with this film been resurrected by director Lawrence Kasdan, but when you start to hear the strains of the main music theme at the start of the film by composer Bruce Broughton, you know you are in classic territory and the gold standard of a western music score. They talk about the authenticity of the cowboy hats and especially the one worn by Sheriff John Cleese, which is 100% accurate. We hear that in the original old western times, women were never allowed in a saloon bar, because of all the men would get drunk and this also relates why the Old West was so violent and all that violence came out of the saloon bar culture, and also the reason why people in the old west did not have perfect teeth, unlike what you see in the film, because the drunken me were always brawling and especially with all the punches flying about because as I said they were always drunk. When you see Danny Glover in jail they talk about the different bars you see in two different jails, especially the first jail you see Kevin Costner locked up, here the bars are square and were the original style of a western jail, but with the second jail with the straight bars and this is a much modern interpretation you see in Western films. They also talk about the subject of getting everything totally historically accurate, but in other historic westerns they do not bother with the accuracy at all to get it right, which they all do not understand the logic. At one point in the film around Chapter 12, they start getting very boring and extremely pedantic in going on and on about the period in the old west whether people wore long or short hair or whether at one time people wore no beards or moustaches, to me this was a just a totally pointless exercise in rhetoric boring information I want to hear about, as people in general are not at all interested or want to be informed, as I personally could not care less, and that unfortunately is the trouble with these three people, they think people think like them, well sadly they are totally wrong and they should get a life, because us the people who watch these films are not at all interested in the academic boring obsessed information, and from then on the whole conversation gets totally and absolutely obsessive boring accuracy on hat thing happened in the old western genre, which again is such totally boring accuracy rhetoric. As a final comment to this audio commentary, I thought at the start the three commentators held out so much hope and interesting information, but again at Chapter 12 this is when the whole thing went downhill to total yawn dropping boredom and to me personally this audio commentary would have been improved 100% if Lawrence Kasdan and Mark Kasdan had done the audio commentary, and to totally top it all, the three people involved with this audio commentary had the most ghastly boring American accents that totally bored me senseless.
Special Feature: A Return to ‘SILVERADO’ with Kevin Costner [1985] [1080i] [1.78:1] [21:01] Here we get featured Kevin Costner and recalling his love of the Western film genre, the character he played in ‘SILVERADO,’ the quality of the script, the work of his fellow actors. As we get into the interview Kevin Costner we get a personal insight why he wanted to appear in the film ‘SILVERADO,’ and really tells that when he went to see the film ‘How The West Was Won’ which started his interest in this sort of genre. But what also encouraged him was how the director Lawrence Kasdan wanted to portray the Western film genre in a special way and a totally different slant. What also encouraged Kevin Costner to be in this film is that he has worked with this director in the film ‘The Big Chill’ [1983] and loves his style of working. Although Kevin Costner’s part at the beginning of the film was like a young adolescent and also very childish and at first did not like his character, as he was all over the place, but eventually as he got his stride into the film he could see his character was slowly maturing and could finally see why the director wanted to play this type of character. But what also made the film so ideal for Kevin Costner is because of the brilliant script that was so well written by Lawrence Kasdan and Mark Kasdan. Kevin Costner also praises the fellow actors he worked with and especially Kevin Kline who he thought was brilliant, a totally talented gifted actor and worked well with his hands. Kevin Costner talks about two specific scenes that really stood out for him and talk a great deal about them that were really great moments in the film, but one scene in particular stood out as they had to shoot this particular scene 15 times and the final one shot was the one you see in the film that satisfied the director and to find what this special scene was, you will of course have to watch this interview to find out. One interesting comment from Kevin Costner is about another certain scene where he has hidden behind the bar from the gunman, which he actually dreamed of the night before where he wears no boots and you see him silently climb over the bar in his socks to surprise the two gunmen looking for him and was very pleased the director to allow him to perform this scene as described. As we hear the end of this personal interview, Kevin Costner says that it was the most funniest and good time movie he has ever worked and been involved with the film, and he says he has gone on to have other great thing happen in his life and especially personally, and again this movie ranks right at the top for him, especially the experience and an opportunity to be a in a Western of this calibre, great characters and friendships that were forged and especially his character in the film ‘SILVERADO’ was definitely the pinnacle of his acting career by far, even better than other aspects of his acting career especially in films like ‘No Way Out’ and The Untouchables,’ and that is why his character in ‘SILVERADO’ will be the film that made a lasting impression on him personally and cannot thank the director enough to be allowed to be part of a film that set the bar on being one of the best Western film genre so far and ranks up there as one of the best to come out in a very long time. This special Kevin Costner personal interview is a very solid piece that covers all the expected angles, and we also get to see some rare footage of behind-the-scenes footage and also throughout we get see clips from the film.
Special Feature: The Making of ‘SILVERADO’ [1985] [480i] [1.37:1] [37:01] Here Lawrence Kasdan the director for the film ‘SILVERADO’ talks about here in this comprehensive special documentary, where both cast and crew members recall the making of the film. Also featured are short deleted scenes and an explanation behind the non-glorified approach to violence. We also hear Lawrence Kasdan talk in depth about when he was growing up and being taken to see a Western film for the first time and instantly falling in love with the genre and from then had vowed he wanted to make a Western film that had all the elements that makes a cracking good Western, plus a great story, wonderful open landscapes and a brilliant way of portraying the real life of a cowboy character and of course as Lawrence got much older and into making films that is when it was muted about making a Western film and his brother Mark Kasdan encouraged Lawrence to bring his dream to fruition and make that film of his dreams and especially the ‘SILVERADO’ film and the iconic western movie town was originally built as a set for the film ‘SILVERADO’ in 1985 which at the time was filmed in the middle of winter and was extremely cold, which took roughly 96 days to film and the town is situated in the Eaves Movie Ranch is situated in 105 Rancho Alegre Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA and took several months to build. The town has since been expanded and updated. The buildings are no longer street facades, but are usable structures. It is an old "wild west" ghost town, waiting to be discovered. The western town is frequently leased for films and television productions. Many notable films, including ‘Lonesome Dove,’ ‘All the Pretty Horses,’ ‘Cowboys and Aliens,’ ‘Wild, Wild West,’ ‘3:10 to Yuma,’ ‘The Missing’ and ‘Thor’ among others, have been filmed there. We get to view extensive rare behind-the-scene filming and also lots of rare personal black-and-white images of the actors and crew on the set of the ‘SILVERADO’ film. There is great praise for the composer Bruce Broughton for the main theme music score which after the film was released was for about 13 years was played at the start of all American Football games when the teams entered the arena. We also hear that when the ‘SILVERADO’ film was released there was talk of a sequel that had been muted for five years after the initial release of the film, but sadly nothing has been decided as they were worried the original four actors would not be available through different circumstances, which is a shame, as when I finished watching the film in the cinema I always pondered about how good a sequel would be, to actually see how the four main characters had progressed in their lives, but Lawrence Kasdan, even though he has written scripts for films like ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘The Return Of The Jedi,’ he was not very keen to do a sequel and on top of all that he believes you make one good movie and then move on. But as to the ‘SILVERADO’ film, the scenario was that they wanted to make a Western film that was optimistic and one that is ebullient, that was cheerful and full of energy of a Western film genre. And so ends this fascinating special feature on the making of the ‘SILVERADO’ film and especially all who participated in this nice little documentary. As a nice little bonus, we get to see some short clips of the Premiere of the ‘SILVERADO’ film at the Chinese Theatre, where you see the main stars mingling with everyone attending the Premiere. Contributors include: Lawrence Kasdan [Writer/Director/Producer], Mark Kasdan [Co-Writer/Director/Producer], John Bailey [Director of Photography], Ida Random [Production Designer], Kevin Kline [Paden], Danny Glover [Mal] (archive footage), Linda Hunt [Stella] (archive footage), Carol Littleton [Editor], Scott Glenn [Emmett] (archive footage) and Bruce Broughton [Composer].
Special Feature: BD-Live: This feature on Blu-ray discs that allows new content to be downloaded to the Blu-ray player. Features include movie trailers, automatic firmware updates, featurettes, games, and more.
Finally, ‘SILVERADO’ gets more fun to watch with each viewing and I even viewed it twice in 1985 at the cinema, and by now I have seen it so many times that it’s solidly among my four-star favourites. If you don’t like Westerns, you should definitely check out the film ‘SILVERADO’ and let writer-director Lawrence Kasdan show you why he does in this unabashed celebration of the film western genre. If you do like Westerns, you and Lawrence Kasdan have something in common, and you should have as much fun watching this western film as Lawrence Kasdan had making it. ‘SILVERADO’ starts off very slowly, establishing its characters and situations one by one, gradually picking up speed and mass like a snowball rolling down a mountain. By the time the credits roll, we have had a whirlwind tour of virtually everything you can do in this Western film. The ensemble cast includes a remarkable line-up of stars, not all of whom were at the time the big names they are today: Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, and Kevin Coster who perform in a thoroughly enjoyable, goofy performance, who are the four principal characters, plus John Cleese, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Dennehy, Rosanna Arquette, and Linda Hunt among the supporting cast, whose performances are excellent across the board, and director Lawrence Kasdan manages his large cast about as well as possible. In general, the film ‘SILVERADO’ holds together remarkably well. The sprawling story is sturdy and well-crafted, the dialogue razor-sharp, the action rousing and cleverly choreographed, so all in all it is a brilliant Western film and up there with some the other top notch Western films. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
