If you’ve never seen a Western, Silverado pretty much has it all. Four lead characters guide us through nearly every Western plot with a heavy dose of comedy from Lawrence Kasdan still at his peak from writing Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Original Star Wars sequels. The stacked cast includes Kevin Kline, Scott Glen, Danny Glover and a star-making turn from Kevin Costner with a playfulness he’s never shown since.
If you’ve seen a lot of Westerns, this puts a number of wrinkles into the formula. My favorite is John Cleese as a sheriff who announces, “as you may have guessed I’m not from these parts.” There are a lot of unusual casting choices: Jeff Goldblum as a gambler named Slick, Linda Hunt, James Gammon who sounds like gruff John Wayne, Jeff Fahey, Rosanna Arquette and Brian Dennehy who is so good you wish he had a dozen more opportunities to play in this genre sandbox.
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