tigerrick Reviews

Silverado (1985)

I Love a Good Western, but THIS ONE?!

[5/10 · 11 November 2009]

I don't know, maybe I'm just getting curmudgeonly in my old age. I love a good western flick as much as the next man, but when Silverado aired this morning, it just went "clunk".

Perhaps what got under my skin is that it's just dripping with modern political correctness, a glaring anachronism for the time period portrayed. When John Cleese's character says "I don't much care for that word" in response to someone uttering the "N" word in a bar, I just lost it. (My late great aunt used the "N" word in polite dialog well into the 1970s, to her it was just a descriptive word with no baggage attached. I can't imagine that folks had similar heightened racial sensitivities in the late 1800s!) Of course, all of the real evil villains in Silverado are white males. All the heroes and heroines are persons of color, female, physically handicapped, or if they're cursed with being Anglo and male, they have some endearing internal conflict or past victimhood to excuse their gender and paleness. Yawn. It's really getting trite.

How I yearn for the cowboys heroes of the old genre, simple unconflicted stories where good triumphed over evil, the bad guy had a black hat for easy identification, and the hero got the girl in the end and rode happily off into the sunset. John Wayne and John Ford, you are missed terribly these days.

Wild Bill (1995)

Better than average western, with some very nice touches.

[8/10 · 9 April 2007]

I wasn't expecting much from this one, but Walter Hill's direction credit during the opening title sequence sucked me in - and I was glad it did.

A very capable cast and an interesting cinematic style gave this film a unique flavor, although some of the characters bordered on unbelievable at times.

Loved the interaction between Wild Bill and Calamity Jane on the saloon table, although the conversation seemed too modern for the late 1800s. But overall, the film was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, especially when compared with some of the lesser films available at the time.

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (1991)

Uneven direction or bad editing? No flow to the story line.

[4/10 · 9 April 2007]

What should have been a good story with a capable cast was actually hard to watch for me. Each scene seemed to be performed without any regard to the ones previous or following, and HD actually calls Jolie "Jolly" at one point (and no one caught such a basic mistake, which could have been easily corrected in post production audio work).

The ending was predictable, and disappointing in its execution. Once the final scene was underway, the acting ended, and the audience was never treated to anything like a finale that would've tied up the loose ends.

Unfortunate, given the talent available (and the cameo by Mickey Rooney).

Sheesh.