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Silver City (2004)

tomatometer

48

Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 125
Fresh: 60 | Rotten: 65

Heavy-handed and often dull.

43

Average Rating: 5.3/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 23

Heavy-handed and often dull.

audience

33

liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 2,662

My Rating

Movie Info

Celebrated writer and director John Sayles turns his eye to politics in America in this drama. The son of respected Colorado politician Senator Jud Pilager (Michael Murphy), Dicky Pilager (Chris Cooper) is a charming but half-bright man with a bad habit of mangling the English language and a decided lack of political correctness. Dicky is also in the midst of a hard-fought campaign to become governor of Colorado. Dicky's campaign manager, Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss), is a ruthless sort who

R, 2 hr. 13 min.

Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Comedy

John Sayles

Jan 11, 2005

$0.9M

Newmarket Films

Cast

All Critics (132) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (60) | Rotten (66) | DVD (8)

Sayles must have felt the need to weigh in on the last election. But if he was going to do it, a little more planning, writing -- and especially casting -- would have helped.

November 19, 2004 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The plot of Silver City is movieish in the extreme, with filthy abandoned mines subbing for the bars and alleys of urban noir, but it's no more than mild cheese.

October 6, 2004 Comment
New Yorker
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Though there's nothing wrong with moral outrage, it doesn't always aid the telling of a complex story. More subtlety might have worked better.

September 30, 2004 Full Review Source: USA Today | Comment
USA Today
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Sayles has assembled a large, eclectic, talented cast.

September 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Comment
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Sayles' prolix narrative, weighed down with subplots and characters and canvassing many social ills, dilutes the impact of a work that should nevertheless still make an impact on thoughtful viewers.

September 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Long, windy, diffuse in its message and blunt in its satire.

September 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Drama is too intense for kids and young teens.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Too close to reality to be effective as satire.

April 22, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Cooper does a terrific job, mimicking Bush's speech and mannerisms as well as his tendency to ramble and go off script with hilarious consequences.

July 23, 2005 Full Review Source: ViewLondon | Comment
ViewLondon

Sayles wraps a gripping murder mystery around a rather unsubtle political satire.

May 22, 2005 Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | Comment
Shadows on the Wall

Sayles traces how rumor, conjecture, and outright lies seep into the [political] discussion and drive it.

April 14, 2005 Full Review Source: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema | Comment
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

At its core, Silver City is a biting tirade on the current anti-enviromental policies of the Bush administration.

January 12, 2005 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

[A] promising but inconsistent mystery.

November 18, 2004 Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | Comment
Orlando Weekly

You can admire Sayles' intentions all you like, but it's hard to defend the film as an artistic accomplishment.

October 20, 2004 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | Comment
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Sayles is at his best when he has something more substantial to say than 'Bush sucks.'

October 16, 2004 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Chris Cooper is art; the supporting cast is good, but the film is completely bogged down by actual lead Danny Huston.

October 14, 2004 Full Review Source: Cinerina | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Silver City

When watching this film and you see the great Chris Cooper playing a dim-witted politician, you won't be able to help relating it to real life. But this movie goes beyond satirising our incompetent President, it goes beyond just dark humor...it's making a social statement on different levels. The environmental issue is

July 18, 2006
flickfever

Super Reviewer

"Silver City" starts out badly for Colorado gubernatorial candidate, Dicky Pilager(Chris Cooper) who is a son of a current U.S. Senator(Michael Murphy) and none too bright. While filming a campaign ad, supposedly showing off his fishing skills, Pilager reels in something quite unexpected - a dead body. His chief

August 22, 2005
Harlequin68
Walter M.

Super Reviewer

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