http://www.silvercitythemovie.com/main.htmlFrom John Sayles, one of the essential, iconoclastic voices of American independent cinema, comes Silver City, a film that is equal parts scathing political lampoon and sun-stunned neo-noir detective story.
Set against the backdrop of a mythic “New West,” Silver City begins with grammatically-challenged, born-again, “user-friendly” gubernatorial candidate Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper), scapegrace scion of Colorado’s venerable Senator Jud Pilager (Michael Murphy), shooting an environmental television ad. Filming of the candidate’s “bucolic fishing thing” is rudely interrupted, however, when Pilager casts his line into pristine waters only to snag a battered, cyanide-laced corpse.
Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss), Pilager’s ferocious campaign manager, is uncertain whether this is an accident or an especially grisly prank meant to derail the Pilager campaign. Whatever it is, Raven is determined to get to the bottom of it, and hires Danny O’Brien (Danny Huston), a formerly idealistic journalist turned rumpled private detective, to investigate potential links between the corpse and the Pilager family’s enemies.
That list includes: Cliff Castleton (Miguel Ferrer), a rabid right-wing radio host; Casey Lyle (Ralph Waite), a former EPA crusader whose life was ruined by Senator Pilager; and Maddy Pilager (Darryl Hannah), the candidate’s free-spirited sister who has spent much of her life tarnishing the family’s reputation. “Let them know they’re being watched,” Raven instructs Danny. “Don’t be subtle.”
In the tradition of the great film noirs, from The Maltese Falcon to Chinatown, Danny’s investigation inexorably pulls him deeper and deeper into a complex web of influence and corruption, here involving high stakes lobbyists, media conglomerates, environmental plunderers, and undocumented migrant workers.
The search also reunites Danny with important figures from his past including Mitch Paine (Tim Roth), his former editor and friend from his journalism days who now runs a muckraking political website, and Nora Allardyce (Maria Bello), the great lost love of Danny’s life, currently covering the governor’s race for a mainstream newspaper and engaged to the mercenary political lobbyist Chandler Tyson (Billy Zane).
Over the course of the investigation, Danny’s own long-extinguished sense of moral outrage is rekindled as he begins to connect the dots, intuiting a chain of responsibility that circles back, ever more dangerously, toward his own employers.
With its pitch-perfect dialogue, unerring sense of place, and slashing satiric strain, Silver City offers John Sayles’s timely and toxic look at the state of the union on the eve of the 2004 Presidential election.
Silver City is written, directed, and edited by John Sayles. The film is produced by Maggie Renzi; the director of photography is Haskell Wexler, and the composer is Mason Daring. The cast includes Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss, Darryl Hannah, Maria Bello, Danny Huston, Thora Birch, Tim Roth, Kris Kristofferson, Michael Murphy, and Mary Kay Place.
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