Silver City

*

Another Bush-whacker from the Independent Nation of Hollywood, but this one leaves me wondering, “What are all of these people going to do if Bush loses?” With no conservative at the helm for story material the stock of independent producers will plummet like a mob informant in the East River, or like John Sayles newest release, Silver City. While I respect much of what this writer/director has done in the past I have to pen this column as a WARNING - BOREDOM, TEDIUM AND JUST PLAIN BAD MOVIE AHEAD!

During the Clinton administration there was a national average of three-hundred hours, per day, conservative talk-radio spewing, anti-Clinton rhetoric. Now there is a constant stream of political diatribe from the progressive movie industry that is being produced at a dizzying pace, and some of it is very good, not this. Silver City leaves you with the feeling that Sayles arose from bed one morning and decided he had better cash in his liberal chits before the election. Single handedly he invents a totally new genre - the preachypolmysrocomdocdrasatnoir. The only thing this isn’t is a SciFi/Western, but .... you just can’t think of everything before your first cup of coffee. Sayles, who can be both deft and witty falls far short with spurts of pie-in-the-face humor and all the dramatic deftness of tying Polly to the railroad tracks.

The story opens with gubernatorial candidate Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper) being prepared, at the edge of a beautiful mountain lake, to film an environmental TV commercial. Because he is so incredibly stupid he can’t remember what to say, Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss), the astute but Darth Vader-like campaign manager, must be there to direct him. Suddenly, while casting his fishing line into the pristine water of the lake the candidate hooks a hand. No, not his own but one attached to a body floating in the water. Raven deduces that this may be a plot by the evil opposition, and this becomes the impetus that propels the story forward. From here, investigator and past left-wing journalist, Danny O’Brien (Danny Huston, son of John Huston) is hired to contact three suspects for damage control. During this journey (for which he was badly cast) O’Brien eventually discovers why the dead man ended up in the lake, but because the whole story flounders in a morass of plots, endless plot threads and badly cast characters without meanings ... we don’t really care.

The cast of thousands also includes Daryl Hannah, Michael Murphy, Kris Kristofferson, Maria Bello, Billy Zane, Mary Kay Place, Thora Birch and the always incredible Tim Roth. Player power abounds here and I left thinking that this could have been a close, but forgivably more humble rendition of China Town. If the story teller would have concentrated on a very defined political message, instead of the “everything we do as western man is evil and bad,” and thrown in a more defined mystery element this may have been a credible outing.

Most of the time this column is dedicated to great movies, every once in a while I have to post warnings. So here it is - WARNING!

1. Republicans - go see Sky Captain, and NEVER entertain the thought of watching this movie.

2. Independents - stay home altogether and only rent this if Nader becomes the next President.

3. Democrats - only see this if John Sayles is invited to your house for cocktails.