Review of Silver City

Introduction

Chris Cooper plays Dickie Pilager, who is running for Governor of Colorado and whilst shooting a political advert to show his environmental credentials, fishes a corpse out of a lake. This provides a huge PR headache for Pilager and his team, led by Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss). Raven hires a private detective, Danny O`Brien (Danny Huston), to see if Pilager`s enemies were involved.

During his investigations, O`Brien encounters illegal Mexican migrant workers, Pilager`s sister (Daryl Hannah) and a billionaire media tycoon (Kris Kristofferson).

Dickie Pilager is a semi-literate reformed alcoholic from a family of politicians with a campaign manager who tells him where to stand and what to say, so no prizes for guessing on who John Sayles based Pilager.

Video

A fairly unspectacular anamorphic transfer, with decent contrast and colour definition. There is some surface grain, but nothing serious enough to detract from the overal visuals.

Audio

A horribly muddy and quiet Stereo soundtrack which had me straining for the dialogue whenever it competes with background sounds. There are no subtitles to help.

Features

Trailers for `Silver City`, `Guy X`, `Super Size Me`, `The Woodsman` and `The Secret Lives of Dentists` plus a web link - be still my beating heart!

Conclusion

Watching `Silver City`, I was never sure whether it was supposed to be an out and out satire in the guise of `Wag the Dog` or `Bob Roberts`, or whether John Sayles was aiming for a serious film noir like `Chinatown` or `The Big Sleep`. It begins as a satire then moves into noir territory, but is interspersed with scenes of a satirical nature which did nothing to clarify the matter.

The film is generally fairly involving and interesting, yet seems flabby and badly paced, verging on boring in some parts. Danny Huston puts in one of his least convincing performances, in a badly-written role, and although Chris Cooper`s tongue-tied politician is an interesting and funny character, he is underused, as is Kris Kristofferson in more or less the same role that Danny Huston`s father played in `Chinatown`. Dickie Pilager is obviously supposed to be George W. Bush, yet lampooning `Dubya` is not so much like shooting fish in a barrel, as a trout in a pint glass and has been done far better by the likes of Jon Culshaw, Rory Bremner, Will Ferrell and even Bush himself!

The theatrical release of `Silver City` came during the 2004 US presidential election, so it was obviously designed to embarrass the incumbent and cause him political damage. It was released on DVD in the UK in 2005 with commentaries, featurettes and both DD and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, so why it warrants a re-release now, with only a stereo soundtrack and paltry extra features is a mystery.

Finally, can distributors please stop putting these dreadful anti-piracy warnings on DVDs? This has not one, but two - they seem to serve no purpose but to annoy those who have spent good money on the DVD.