Silver City (2004)

Overrated and overhyped

The first must-see film of the year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

John Sayles directs "Silver City", a well meaning but dumb attack on George Bush, powerless media types, morally bankrupt politicians, campaign managers, fear-mongers, government spin-doctors and evil corporations.The film takes the format of a classic noir (now a tradition incapable of mapping our increasingly complex world), our investigative hero uncovering dark truths as he progresses through Sayles' labyrinth, but everything is handled in a clunky manner, points made directly and obviously, the audience forced to sit back and passively take Sayles' lowbrow sermonizing.Sayles has always been a humourless director, so no surprise that his attempts at satire fall flat here. It also doesn't help that postmodernism is slowly killing off the critical function of satire. Today, all reality is already "satire", such that a whole new type of abstract distancing is required (which is why one of the few effective satires of today, "South Park", literally has to reduce its targets to cardboard cutouts).3/10 – One of Sayles' worst. Actor Chris Cooper, always wonderful in Sayles' films, makes some of it bearable, but it's not enough.

Possible Spoiler ahead: I had never heard of this film, but I was attracted by the ensemble cast of well known actors and was surprised to find it was a quite funny satire. It was also good to see the character actor James Gammon in a longer than usual part as the pragmatic Sheriff, in fact his talk with Danny at the end wrapped up all the loose ends, but not in the usual whodunit fashion - the Sheriff countered every solution with an alternative ending.I like films which do not have the traditional happy ending where the plot is solved and everyone lives happily ever after. Life is not like that. Life is ambiguous. Sometimes the wrong side wins, the bad guys don't get what is coming to them and the good guys lose out. It all depends on how you view it. One of Britain's morning newspapers had a headline the morning after the 2004 election "How could 34 million voters be so dumb?" Yes, that is all it took to re-elect G. W. Bush!

This movie is not as good as Passion Fish or even Lonestar, but it makes a point about how politics works in this country...and that is what Reinzi and Sayles were looking to bring to us in telling this story. Think of it as a metaphor for what has been and continues to take place in American political life and in our collective reality.The lead character, Danny, is kind of a loser and that is what makes it so difficult for the viewer to connect with the character; lost job, lost wife, lost girlfriend, another lost job, not to mention lost opportunities along the way. Danny serves a purpose, but what is it? Is he a metaphor for the hopelessness that has come to permeate the American experience? This is a tragedy play for sure and foretells the tragedy that is becoming more real for us day by day. The fact that Danny has makes no real lasting impact over what he discovers serves to illustrate what we as individual Americans will face when we attempt real change.John Sayles' movies don't have happy endings, or what we understand as such. Life goes on...albeit a little changed...for the characters in these movies. In Passion Fish and LoneStar in particular we know that love will eventually triumph, although that is not presented to us as what will happen. As for the characters in Silver City, well...that is Danny, you and I, and America. The point made is what will be our future if we allow politics to continue as it does in the American reality? We all know why this movie was made when it was; it still makes its point today, probably more so...since we are now reaping the 'benefits' of eight years of Republican rule....oh when will we learn?! It matters little who of the two candidates running for president today will be victorious in November 2008...the 'boss' remains the same and it is nameless and faceless, although we all know who the 'boss' is. Systems are like organisms; they don't want to die and they will do anything they need to...to survive. But maybe someday...

Apparently the film has a harsh anti-Bush message... If it does (I didn't get it), that's all it is. It's boring and useless, period.It's too serious at times to be a comedy, too slow to be a thriller, not funny, not gripping, not exciting, not film. It's too everything to be the opposite, and vise versa. I was amazed at how bad a film could suck. Don't even think of watching it.I have watched literally hundreds of films, and never have I been so obliged to write a warning on IMDb. Avoid at all costs. You have been warned.Even "The Making of..." is painfully boring. It's just people talking gibberish with loads of inside jokes infront of a camera, sort of like a home movie. There even is a part where a guy takes you on a tour of the food that was consumed on the set by the film crew. Still, beats the movie I guess...