Learning from Movies: SILVERADO

In 1985, film critics were talking about a revival of the Western, in part because of Silverado.

Turned out they missed the point completely.

What Silverado actually proved was that people will watch a good movie, 76% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, where 75% like it) regardless of its genre.

If you’re unfamiliar, Silverado was directed and produced by Lawrence Kasdan. He wrote the movie with his brother, Mark (family Jon, Jake, and Meg Kasdan have bit parts).  It starred Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, and Danny Glover. The supporting cast included John Cleese, Rosanna Arquette, James Gammon, Brian Dennehy, Linda Hunt, Jeff Goldblum, Lynn Whitfield, Jeff Fahey, and Brion James.

The town of Silverado is even more famous than the cast. Built for the film, it returned in Young Guns, Wyatt Earp, Last Man Standing, Lonesome Dove, All the Pretty Horses, and Wild Wild West. To the list of sins committed by the last, you can add burning down the town. An accident started a fire, and burned the place down before anyone could do anything about it.

I think the best trivia I can relate about the movie is how Kevin Costner got his part. Lawrence Kasdan also made The Big Chill. In that film, Costner played the deceased friend whose funeral draws everyone together. When the funeral home is dressing the corpse, that’s Costner – even though you never see his face. In fact, all the rest of his part got cut out of the final film. Kasdan felt so bad about it that he offered the part of Jake in Silverado to Costner as an apology. It was a career-making moment.

Saddle up and get your popcorn, pilgrims. Lessons and inspiration after the break.

• Minding your manners is always worthwhile – especially when you’re dying of thirst in the wilderness.
• “I always figure you might as well approach life like everybody's your friend or nobody is; don't make much difference.”
• When you’re lost in a desert, you go whichever way your transportation is going.
• “Had a gal do that to me. Didn’t make her my wife.”
• People will mock you for whatever you care about, even a dog. They are not your friends. When you protect whatever you care about, the people who join you are your friends.
• Never show your money. There’s plenty of good people in the world, but that doesn’t mean there are no bad ones.
• The people who say they trust you cannot be trusted.

• Sun Tzu was right: “So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.”
• “I don’t tolerate this sort of thing. It’s hard on the peace, and it’s hard on the furniture.”
• It’s more productive to ask questions and think before you act, than it is to make assumptions and start a brawl.
• “I decide what’s right in this jurisdiction.”
• Sometimes the man who seems to be missing is hitting everything he’s aiming at. He just doesn’t want to shoot you. Don’t tempt him any further.
• “A good, smelly, saloon is my favorite place on Earth.”
• When you leave someone for dead, you’re just asking for him to come back, and looking to get back whatever you took.
• Back when we had no other way to identify ourselves, keeping our word was a lot more important. Similarly, people sometimes judge us by our associates. Be choosy about who you ride with.
• A common foe can unite people, but it’s who we are that makes (or breaks) friendships.
• Yes, children, there were African-American cowboys - and women.
• The first law of the West, that bastards have brothers, has a corollary: So do the good guys, and sometimes they have more friends.
• “You know, hanging around with you is no picnic.”
  
• People are the only thing worth learning about, the only subject worth studying.
• “I want to build something. Make things grow. That takes hard work. A lifetime of it. That's not why a man comes to a pretty woman. After awhile I won't be so pretty. But this land will be.”
• You ever seen what a Henry rifle can do in the hands of someone who knows how to use it? You don’t want to be on the receiving end of finding out.
• Bullies will push people around and take everything they can, right up until someone stands up to them.

• Leave family out of it, or you’ll find out what your enemies can really do.
• Don’t draw a weapon, much less point it at someone, unless you’re 100% prepared to use it. All who hesitate are lost.
• Don’t practice so hard for a fight that you don’t notice it riding up to you.
• "Now, I don't want to kill you, and you don't want to be dead."
• "Be careful. You're in it now, and it's gonna get mean."
• “Cobb's using me to stop you. So good people are being hurt because of me. That makes me mad. Some people think because they're stronger, or meaner, that they can push you around. I've seen a lot of that. But it's only true if you let it be. The world is what you make of it.”
• Stick to your strengths – whether that’s rifles, quick draws, or riding.
• “I’ve got a job.

Here’s to the good stuff. May it last a long time. Last one at the Midnight Star buys!