SILVER CITY

Year: 2004
USA: Newmarket Films
UK: Tartan Films
Cast: Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss, Darryl Hannah, Maria Bello, Danny Huston, Thora Birch, Tim Roth, Kris Kristofferson, Michael Murphy, Mary Kay Place, David Clennon, Alma Delfina, Miquel Ferrer, James Gammon, Sal Lopez, Luis Saguar, Ralph Waite, Billy Zane, Denis Berkfeldt, Cajardo Lindsey, Rodney Lizcano, Charles Mitchell, Paul Rohrer, David Russell, Gary Sirchia, John C Ashton, Elizabeth Rainer, Donevon Martinez, Benjamin Kroger, Roslyn Washington
Director: John Sayles
Country: USA
USA: 129 mins
UK: 128 mins
USA Rated: R for language
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and sex references
USA Release Date: 17 September 2004 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 22 July 2005

Synopsis

From John Sayles, one of the essential, iconoclastic voices of American independent cinema, comes SILVER CITY, a film that is equal parts scathing political lampoon and sun-stunned neo-noir detective story.

Set against the backdrop of a mythic "New West," SILVER CITY follows the far from perfect political campaign of Senator Pilager (Chris Cooper). Pilager is a nervous, inarticulate and grammatically challenged candidate for local governor, pushed into the race by his domineering father, a venerable Senator.

Whilst shooting an environmental television ad, filming of the candidate's "bucolic fishing thing" is rudely interrupted, when Pilager casts his line into pristine waters only to snag a battered, cyanide-laced corpse, threatening to ruin his entire campaign in the process. Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss), Pilager's ferocious campaign manager, is uncertain whether this is an accident or an especially grisly prank meant to derail the Pilager campaign. Whatever it is, Raven is determined to get to the bottom of it, and hires Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston), a formerly idealistic journalist turned rumpled private detective, to investigate potential links between the corpse and the Pilager family's enemies.

In the tradition of the great film noirs, from THE MALTESE FALCON to CHINATOWN, Danny's investigation inexorably pulls him deeper and deeper into a complex web of influence and corruption, here involving high stakes lobbyists, media conglomerates, environmental plunderers, and undocumented migrant workers.

With pitch-perfect dialogue, unerring sense-of-place, and a slashing satiric strain, SILVER CITY offers John Sayles's timely and toxic look at the state of the union in the wake of the 2004 Presidential election and features a top notch Hollywood cast.