Silverado

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
From top-left to bottom: Paden, Emmitt, Mal, Jake, and Stella (inset)

Posse Member: Let's go, he ain't hittin' nothin'!
Sheriff Langston: You idiot, he's hit everything he's aimed at!
Posse Member: Well, they ain't out of our jurisdiction 'til they reach the flattop!
Sheriff Langston: [rising in his saddle, until his hat is shot off] Today, my jurisdiction ends here.

Silverado is a Reconstruction of a Western film genre. Released in the theaters July 1985, it starred many well-known (or soon to be well-known) actors, including Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Dennehey and John Cleese.

The basic plot: In 1880, four men travel together to the city of Silverado. They come across with many dangers before they finally engage the "bad guys" and bring peace and equality back to the city.

Tropes used in Silverado include:
  • And Your Little Dog, Too: Lampshaded when corrupt town sheriff Cobb indicates to Paden that he'll harm the dwarf female bartender if Paden moves against him, even though Cobb acknowledges she has nothing whatsoever to do with their dispute. He does however know Paden (whom he used to work with when they were robbers) got caught while protecting a wounded dog he'd previously claimed to despise, so figures the threat will make Paden back off. It works at first, but the bartender figures out what's happened and talks Paden into fighting Cobb anyway.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Cobb and McKendrick.
  • Catch Phrase: Paden has "Bad luck." Mal has "That ain't right."
  • Chase Scene: A horseback high-speed chase between Emmitt and the Big Bad during the climax.
  • Dirty Cop: Cobb as the sheriff.
  • Clueless Deputy: See Smart People Play Chess for an example of how this is used.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: The outlaw Dawson is a hard man to fool; if it wasn't for the element of surprise, things could've gone very badly for Emmitt on The Infiltration.

Dawson: I think there's only a couple of guys up there, and this asshole's one of them!

  • Deadpan Snarker: Particularly Paden, Emmitt, and Stella, but everyone gets in a few.

Paden: They just jumped you out of the blue, huh?
Emitt: I had to get up anyway.

Jake: Told you, practice on a horse that's not movin'.

Dawson: You bring a posse to my best hideout, and you ask me if I mind?! Mister, I don't know any of those names. You're about to die.

  • Just Got Out of Jail: Emmitt just served five years in prison for killing a man in self defense.
  • Miss Kitty: Stella, "The 'Midnight Star' herself."
  • Nice Hat: When Paden is introduced, he is lamenting the loss of his black hat with a pretty silver band on it.
  • Noodle Incident: When Cobb tells the story of how Paden's reaction to Tyree's Kick the Dog moment (actually, he shot the dog, but that's another trope) got him arrested, Paden's reply has to be a joke. Either way, how did he get out of jail?

Paden: It evened out in the end, though. They locked me up. The dog sprung me.

  • No One Could Survive That: Three times. To wit:
    • When Paden is introduced, he has been left to die of exposure in the middle of the desert by a group of bandits. None of them are happy to see him.
    • Immediately prior to the climax, some mooks get between Emmitt and any chance of a reload while he's practicing his sharpshooting, and trample him repeatedly with horses. Mal treats him for his injuries.
    • Jake and Emmitt's nephew is mourning the apparent death of Jake, whose acrobatic nature is highlighted throughout the movie.

Emmitt: [stifling laughter] Jake... fell off a horse.
[later]
Paden: Where've you been?
Jake Playin' dead.

Paden: You're wearing my hat.
[Bandit slowly reaches for his holster]
Paden: Your fingers better not be ticklin' my ivory-handled Colt.

Emmitt: [after Cobb shoots a man for embezzling] You used to ride with that guy?

  • The Sheriff: Langston as the honest variety, Cobb as the Corrupt Hick variety.
  • Showdown At High Noon: Cobb and Paden, although the time of day is never mentioned.
  • Smart People Play Chess: Sheriff Langston plays chess with himself, showing that he is intelligent and Surrounded by Idiots. He plays with a deputy sitting across the board from him, but turns the board around after each move to play both sides.
  • Smug Snake: "Slick," played by Jeff Goldblum.
  • Stock British Characters: John Cleese plays a British Bobby Sheriff in a small frontier town.
  • What Happened To The Mouse Dog? Paden is asked repeatedly by his old riding buddies what became of the injured dog that drove him out of banditry. When Stella asks, he says simply, "She left me," jokingly making it sound like the end of a romance, and continuing to evade the question.
  • The Wild West: A reconstruction of classic frontier America during the Wild West era.
  • Young Gun: Jake