ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

JOHN SAYLES is almost the last apostle of complexity in American cinema. Other directors are dumbing down and playing to audiences who like their moral choices in black and white. Sayles is trying to depict a world of pragmatic options, good intentions, long struggles, flawed heroes and disarming villains.

His view of the present is informed by an understanding of the past, and his best films offer an insight into the state of the American nation. Silver City was released in America to coincide with last year’s Presidential election, and is a meandering account of a Bush-like gubernatorial candidate in Colorado.

Oscar-winner Chris Cooper is the dim-witted Dickie Pilager and Richard Dreyfuss is his control-freak campaign manager, Chuck Ravens. When Pilager snags a dead body during the shooting of a campaign commercial, Ravens hires private eye, Danny O’Brien (Danny Huston), to make some discreet enquiries into the identity of the deceased.

A bumbling, Columbo-like figure, Danny finds himself uncovering a web of corruption, death and dishonour.

Commenting on the cynicism of American politics, the inadequacies of the media, environmental abuses, and the way the biggest crooks always cloak themselves in the flag of patriotism, Sayles packs a lot into the film and is guilty of losing focus.

It lacks the intensity of films like City Of Hope and Lone Star, and invites comparisons with Chinatown that don’t flatter it. A little sluggish and a little shapeless, Silver City is still recommended to Sayles’ fans and to all those who appreciate films of scale and substance, regardless of their shortcomings.

General release, selected cinemas
Director: John Sayles
Stars: Maria Bello, Chris Cooper, Danny Huston, Richard Dreyfuss, Daryl Hannah, Danny Huston
Screenwriter: John Sayles
Certificate: 15
Running time: 128 mins
Country: USA
Year: 2004

© Allan Hunter, 2005