Movie · 1985 · Western, Action, Drama · 2h 13m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 5.0/10 (84.4K ratings)
Four strangers become friends. Four friends become heroes. On the road to Silverado.
Overview
Four unwitting heroes cross paths on their journey to the sleepy town of Silverado. Little do they know the town where their family and friends reside has been taken over by a corrupt sheriff and a murderous posse. It's up to the sharp-shooting foursome to save the day, but first they have to break each other out of jail, and learn who their real friends are.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.0/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.51/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 78%
Metacritic: 64
TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Lawrence Kasdan
Production
Columbia Pictures
Cast
Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, Kevin Costner, Brian Dennehy, Rosanna Arquette, John Cleese, Linda Hunt, Jeff Goldblum, Ray Baker, Lynn Whitfield, Joe Seneca, Jeff Fahey, Brad Leland, Marvin J. McIntyre, Sheb Wooley, Jon Kasdan, Todd Allen, Kenny Call, Bill Thurman
Curator Review
Verdict
A handsome, crowd-pleasing western revival with big stars, strong craft, and enough shootouts and camaraderie to carry its familiar story. It’s not especially deep, but it delivers the classic pleasures of the genre very well.
Best for
fans of traditional westerns
viewers who like ensemble adventure stories
people looking for glossy 1980s studio filmmaking
audiences who enjoy corrupt-town showdowns and gunfight payoffs
Skip if
you want a revisionist or especially original western
you need tightly paced storytelling
you dislike familiar hero-vs-corrupt-town plots
you prefer grit over polish
Overview
Silverado is a polished, old-school western that clearly wants to revive the genre’s big-screen swagger. Lawrence Kasdan stages it with confidence: wide landscapes, clean action geography, and a rousing score give the film a sense of scale that feels lovingly classical rather than cynical or modernized.
Worth noting
What makes it work best is the cast. The film runs on personality, with each of the four leads bringing a distinct energy to the ride, and the supporting players add a lot of texture. Even when the script leans on familiar beats, the performances and visual craft keep it moving with real charm.
Bottom line
Its weakness is also its familiarity. The story is sturdy but rarely surprising, and the movie can feel more like a well-executed tribute than a fresh statement about the West. Still, if you want a handsome, entertaining western with gunfights, friendship, and a real sense of movie-movie confidence, it’s easy to recommend.
Top Letterboxd reviews
russman (2.5★) · 338 likes
Jeff Goldblum looks so out of place in a western
Sean Fennessey (3★) · 281 likes
In the conversation for one of the coolest casts ever assembled. Looks gorgeous. Spirited performances. Iconic sounding score. Costner playing hard against type as a dippy wild card. And yet, the script, by one of the greatest and most eccentric of the classical screenwriters, is oddly generic. Feels like a series of incidences and character descriptions instead of a movie with something to say about its genre or history. Lots to recommend, worth seeing, but you can almost grasp a better version of this movie.
Joe A (3★) · 213 likes
I don’t want to kill you and you don’t want to be dead.
A bit drawn out, but even so, the sweeping set pieces and swelling music are enough for me to find immense joy in watching these friends uphold whatever law still exists in a mostly lawless land.
Agree with others that Jeff Goldblum looks awkward in a Western.
Ben Hibburd (3★) · 146 likes
"Silverado" is a gorgeous-looking Western. The costume and set design, along with the locations, give the film an authentic vibe; Lawrence Kasdan's Western very much looks the part. However, its script and fairly benign characters make this film a tedious chore to sit through.
"Silverado" is a typical Western setup. Four strangers (two being brothers) band together to take down a corrupt sheriff and his posse of thugs that are harassing the townspeople of Silverado. It's very familiar ground, and… more
Justin Peterson (3.5★) · 145 likes
(The Average Joe’s Movie Club Cast)
(Criterion Laser Disc Collection)
Silverado bolsters a star-studded cast with gorgeous western cinematography, but why do so many of these movies just boil down to a couple of gunslingers riding in to clean up a corrupt town.
"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… more