PHP Film School Crash Course: The Western Silverado

PHP Film School is where you learn by watching. Checking out some of the great films and seeing what you can take from them for your own. Now it may seem a little like taking your younger cousin to the prom to say you can learn about Westerns from an 80's western but that is exactly what can happen by watching Silverado.

Lawrence Kasden takes elements from many of the classic Westerns from teh heydey of Westerns and rolls them in to one.

You have elements of the Magnificent Seven. The Four Main Characters take on a wicked land baron and his hired guns and the odds are against them, however, they heart, talent with a gun, and wits wont let them be defeated.

From the first scene Kasden jumps right into it. Before one word is uttered Scott Glenn takes out four assassins in a little one room shack. Even the horse that sticks around in the opening scene becomes a major plot point later on. When Glenn looks out the front door of his cabin and sees the wide open land of canyons, rivers, and snow capped peaks, you are staring at the John Ford's West that became so famous in John Wayne movies like the Searchers.

The score is straight up a Magnificent Seven clone.

Each Character is important in their own way. Besides Kevin Kline's gambling quick gun, Scott Glenn's tough guy, Kevin Costner's kid who isn't scared of anything and Danny Glover's rifle toting meat packer who is looking for what is right, you have John Cleese's no nonsense Sherrif, Brain Dennehy's hired gun, Jeff Fahey's crazy killer, and Jeff Goldblum's card shark with a knife.

Every great Western needs action. Six shootouts of various types definitely give you that. Characters that you care about. Silverado is every bit the buddy movies of El Dorado, Rio Bravo, or Son's of Katie Elder to steal from the Duke's movies. The Humor of a McClintock is evident in a shootout in the streets of a Fort with Kevin Kline wearing nothing but his underwear. Most of all, the great Westerns always do a great job of making the wide open land of the American West look beautiful, dangerous, and unconquerable. There are multiple towns, scenes, weather patterns, and a sense that the area belonged to nobody except those that belonged nowhere.

When studying the great Westerns, do not forget to check out this classic.

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