In 1985, Jeff Goldblum made a small but memorable performance in Lawrence Kasdan's super-fun western, SILVERADO! Come for the Goldblum discussion, stay for this gradually becoming a Scott Glenn Appreciation Podcast!
[00:00:00] Ha ha ha! That is one big pile of shit. This could be it. We may be in some multiverse where I don't even exist. Don't knock rationalization, where would we be without it? Yes, yes. Yes, without the use. To take them, take them out, take them down, do your... do your stuff. Life, uh, finds a way.
[00:00:30] Hello and welcome to episode 22 of The Complete Works, a deep dive into the career and films of actor Jeff Goldblum. My name is Mike Smith and joining me on this journey into the wondrous world of Goldblum is my friend, co-host and fellow Goldblum maniac. Mike Decrecio. How are you doing today, Mike? I'm doing great. I'm really honestly very excited to talk about today's movie because you gave a little bit of a spoiler, I guess, on our Twitter, on the Twitter account, on the at Goldblum pod Twitter account.
[00:01:00] So I'm very excited to talk about today's movie. Yeah. When I, uh, when I finished watching this movie, which was at like midnight on Saturday, I, uh, I tweeted out, uh, the gif of Lady Gaga going like amazing, stupendous, like thought provoking, talented, whatever. And it's the best never been done before. Uh, and I said, this is a preview of Emma Smith film blog, trying to get all of his words out for, uh, for Silverado when we cover it this week. So, uh, yeah, to, to say I'm excited about this movie is, uh, is an understatement. We're gonna get to that in a second.
[00:01:29] Today we're talking about Westerns. And if you were alive from roughly the early thirties to the late sixties, chances are you probably saw a lot of them. There were a lot of Westerns made during that time. They were the dominant form of entertainment for decades in Hollywood. Uh, they provided thrills, memorable characters were sort of blockbusters before blockbusters were really a thing. And as a result, Westerns ended up being a pretty huge influence on the next generation of filmmakers, even after the genre had fallen out of favor.
[00:01:56] So there's a lot of examples from over the years of filmmakers who've achieved success using their clout to get a Western off the ground. Tarantino had Django Unchained and the Hateful Eight. Uh, the Coens had True Grit, the Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Scorsese's working on one right now called Killers of the Flower Moon, which sounds amazing. Yes. It's going to be Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, both the Scorsese dudes coming together. Uh, so I'm pretty excited about that. Uh, basically though, Hollywood used to produce dozens of new Westerns a year.
[00:02:24] Now we're pretty lucky to get one major Western film a year, but there was a little bit of a mini resurgence in Westerns in the mid eighties. Uh, sometimes it would be a comedy like Paul Bartel's less than the dust or, uh, John Landis, his three amigos. Right. But, uh, sometimes I see you smiling as I mentioned less than the dust. Which you talked about. I can't believe you name checked less than the dust of all the movies. I'm so pleased. Yeah. You, uh, you talked about that movie a while back on like Michael, Michael, the movies and like a discussions or something.
[00:02:54] I think you, do you own the vinegar syndrome? Yeah. I do. Yeah. It's one of my favorites. That's great. Uh, yeah. Lust in the dust, three amigos, those kinds of comedy movies. Sometimes a studio would position a Western as a big blockbuster movie. This same year, Clint Eastwood returned to the genre for the excellent Pale Rider, uh, which is a great movie. But, uh, the movie we're talking about today sees Jeff Goldblum reunite with his big chill director, Lawrence Kasdan, for 1985's Silverado.
[00:03:20] This is a crazy town, Emmett.
[00:03:53] I think we ought to just get out of here. I don't know if this is your horse. You can see this horse loves me. I'm making a big mistake. That's what I told him. If I brought a pretty lady like that into a place like this, I'd stay close. I think you got a point, Emmett. Maybe I better stay here with her. We're gonna give you a fair trial, followed by a first class hanging. I had enough of what ain't right.
[00:04:21] Some people think they can push you around, but it's only true if you let it be. I don't want you to get hurt. You want one of these? This oughta do. Let's get out!
[00:04:57] Okay, now remember, the big chill was a huge hit for Lawrence Kasdan. It made a ton of money, the soundtrack was huge, and it was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Couple that with the fact that the dude wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark and two Star Wars movies, and studios would pretty much give him whatever he wanted at this point in his career. Especially if what he wanted to do was kind of a big, old-fashioned adventure movie in the mold of Raiders of the Lost Ark. And that's where Silverado comes in.
[00:05:25] A movie that is very much indebted to the history of Westerns while playing through the tropes with modern filmmaking techniques and a ridiculously good cast. Like the big chill, Kasdan stacked this thing with the best of the best young actors at the time, a few of which had been established for a bit, a few of which were making their film's debut, and one in particular who would really break out because of this movie. Now, Mike, we mentioned before that you think you had seen Silverado, right? I think it was last week we were talking about it,
[00:05:53] and you weren't sure if you'd actually seen Silverado or if you were conflating it with movies like Young Guns and Tombstone. So now that you watched it, have you seen Silverado before? You know, I'm still not sure. When you were talking about if you were alive from the 30s to the 60s, you saw a million of these. And I was going to say, and then if you were alive from 1985 to 1990, you also saw a million of these. So I think so, probably.
[00:06:19] I had probably seen Silverado, but I think I was more thinking of Young Guns because that's like the Brat Pack version with like Emilio Estevez and Keith Sutherland and all those guys. But I had probably seen Silverado before, but now I definitely have. And now you for sure have because we're talking about it on this podcast. And of course, Jeff Goldblum is in the movie. Not much of it, but he's certainly there. Oh yeah, for sure. He does exist within the movie. He plays Calvin Slick Stanhope,
[00:06:48] a gambler who wanders into town about 75 minutes into the movie with shady motivations. You kind of get the sense that Kazdan needed the role filled. He called up Goldblum after the big chill and was like, hey, you want to dress up as a cowboy for a week? And that's kind of what happened. I want to wear this big fur coat. And he and of course, Goldblum has been no stranger to weird wardrobe throughout these movies. So he was like, yes, I'm yeah, that's incredible. So we're against Goldblum in a little bit.
[00:07:14] But the main focus in the film is on four men who take on the corrupt sheriff of Silverado. The first one we're introduced to is Emmett played by Scott Glenn, a three P reunion right here between Nashville and the right stuff. So there you go. After that, it's paid in a former outlaw gone straight, played by Kevin Klein. Also a big chill reunion. Then there's Mal Johnson, a black man who gets kicked out of town and he's played by Danny Glover. And this is his breakout year, too, because he had this and the color purple both in 1985.
[00:07:43] And then a couple of years later, he would have Lethal Weapon. So kind of a big movie for him. And then finally, there's Jake Emmett's brother played by Kevin Costner in his star making role. This is the like the first like major Costner movie, really. And then after this, after this is like the domino effect of just like he goes from this to, you know, I think it's the untouchables like two years later. And then it's, you know, Bull Durham and Field of Dreams and Dance with Wolves and all these movies like this is like the one that kind of kicks things off.
[00:08:09] And apparently it only happened because Kazdan felt bad about having to cut Costner out of the big chill. Oh, my God. So he offered him this movie to make up for it. You know, it's wild. I did not picture at all like young Kevin Costner in the big chill. I pictured like modern day old man Kevin Costner when we were talking about him being the potty. And yeah, you know what's weird is I had the same reaction.
[00:08:36] I think because I think of Kevin Costner as an older actor for whatever reason, I guess because like, you know, I didn't I guess I was like born around the time like Robin Hood Prince of Thieves came out, you know, so it was so where I was like really watching a lot of movies and stuff. If I saw Kevin Costner, he was always it was like swing vote. Kevin Costner, you know, right? It was like that kind of movie that he was in. But man, he had a terrific run back in the late 80s, early 90s, for sure. And now, of course, he's Jonathan Kent in Man of Steel is his most iconic role where he gets sucked up by a tornado for no.
[00:09:05] He's just so he can. I guess. Yeah, it's a very strange movie. But yeah, Kevin Costner, this is like his star making role. He's incredible in this movie, and we're going to talk about that a lot, I'm sure. From there, you've got Brian Dennehy, who actually just passed away recently back in like April. And of course, he was the in first blood. He was the sheriff in that movie. He's the villainous Sheriff Cobb who Payden used to ride with Rosanna Arquette from After Hours and Pulp Fiction. She plays Hannah, a woman riding into town.
[00:09:32] Monty Python's John Cleese is here as Sheriff John Langston. And this is actually where he and Kevin Kline met and why Kevin Kline was cast in A Fish Called Wanda a couple of years later, which is pretty wild because that Kevin Kline's performance in A Fish Called Wanda is one of the best performances ever put to film. It's incredible. And it's crazy that they just met on the set of Silverado. This is this is the start of that. Yeah, he's in it for like five minutes. Yes, it's great. And then we get Fish Called Wanda two years later. Yeah, years later. Pretty awesome.
[00:10:02] Then you got Linda Hunt who had just won an Oscar a few years earlier for the year of living dangerously. She plays the bartender Stella. She's also the narrator in the God of War video games looking at her Wikipedia page. It's pretty cool. I don't think she was in the new one. I don't think there was a narrator for the new God of War. But like back in the PS2, PS3, they had a narrator for those. It was her. And then there's little Augie Hollis, Jake and Emmett's nephew. He's played by Thomas Wilson Brown, who would go on to be one of the kids in Honey, I Shunk the Kids. He was one of the titular kids who got shrunk. Wow.
[00:10:32] Jeff Fahey of Lost and Robert Rodriguez movies. He's in a lot of those. He shows up in this film in his film debut as Tyree, one of Cobb's henchmen. Lynn Whitfield of HBO's The Josephine Baker Story plays Ray Johnson, Mal's sister. Amanda Wyss of movies like Fast Times of Ridgemont High, Nightmare on Elm Street and Better Off Dead plays Phoebe. Richard Jenkins recently Oscar nominated for The Shape of Water. He plays Kelly, a guy who works for Cobb at the bar. This is his film debut also. Earl. Yeah, right.
[00:11:00] Earl Hindman Wilson from Home Improvement plays JT, Jake and Emmett's brother in law, the husband in that family. And Pepe Serna plays Scruffy, which makes this a Buckaroo Banzai reunion, too. So that's a cool little connection there. Plus, Sheb Woolley plays a cavalry sergeant. He was an actor and singer appeared in movies like High Noon, but also performed the Purple People Eater song back in the 50s. And legend has it.
[00:11:26] He is the actor who recorded the original Wilhelm scream. No way. That is what it says on Wikipedia page, Mike. Holy shit. So there you go. There's a lot of people in this movie is it is what we're getting at. I feel like we've had a lot of these in the last few episodes where it's just like, oh, everybody who's ever made a movie is. Is it the movie we're talking about today? That's great.
[00:11:49] But yes, incredible cast for Silverado, which was written by Lawrence Kasdan and his brother, Mark Kasdan, who hasn't done a ton of stuff, but also worked on Lawrence Kasdan's Dreamcatcher in 2003. The Stephen King adaptation, which I had not seen. Heard it's not very good. And it was directed by Lawrence Kasdan two years after the big chill and three years before his next movie, The Accidental Tourist, which was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.
[00:12:13] This one was also well received and got a couple of Oscar nominations, one for best sound and one for best original score, which I don't know what it lost to. Actually, I think it lost to Out of Africa and I've never seen Out of Africa. This movie should have won. There's no there's no world in which the score for this movie doesn't win every Oscar from 1985 onward. It's incredible. So Silverado had a budget of about twenty three million dollars made about thirty two million dollars. It's not a smashing success, but it did make its money back.
[00:12:41] It opened right in the middle of the summer on July 10th, 1985, taking seventh place in the box office that weekend. If you weren't seeing it, maybe you were seeing one of the other movies opening up, one of which we actually talked about on Mike might go to the movies a few weeks back. It was Joe Dante's Explorers, which I made you watch for that. Oh, where'd that place in the box office? I believe I don't have that on hand. I think I'm trying to remember. I think it was like five, something like that. It was it was higher than this movie, I think. Or maybe it was. I don't know. It was it was in the top ten.
[00:13:11] I can tell you that much. It was no 19 with fuckery bonsai. Right, exactly. Or you could have seen what seemed like the end of George Miller's Mad Max series. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome also opened on the same day in 1985. Wow. So there you go. Or more likely you were seeing the number one movie at the box office, which is in its second week of release. Back to the Future. And just and of course, we were seeing that also in the top ten that week. Rambo first blood part two cocoon pale rider, which I mentioned before.
[00:13:41] St. Elmo's fire and the Goonies. It was a packed summer of 1985 right there. Damn. The IMDB plot synopsis for Silverado reads a misfit bunch of friends come together to write the injustices which exist in a small town. So, Mike, I'm going to ramble about this movie for a while. But first, let's get to you. You think you may have seen this movie at some point in your life. You're not exactly sure, but you definitely saw it this weekend. So what were your thoughts going into the movie and what were your overall thoughts once you finished?
[00:14:11] I mean, going into it, I had known or had heard about this movie is, like I said, kind of being that revival Western era thing like Tombstone and like Young Guns and stuff like that. So I had pretty decent expectations that it was at least going to be fun because I love Tombstone and I guess Young Guns is also very good, but I don't really remember. So I was just going, I was went into it just like ready to have a fun time. And yeah, man, what an absolute delight Silverado is.
[00:14:38] This is kind of feels like the exact movie that I need in 2020 where everything is a waking nightmare and everything is awful for every second of every day, except the two hours and 10 minutes you get to watch Silverado and just have so much fucking fun. We get my man Scott Glenn gets top billing. Love that. I'm so glad that this has turned into an accidental Scott Glenn complete orcs also. Yes. I did not realize like when we when we decided to do a Jeff Goldblum podcast, I didn't realize it would also turn Scott Glenn into one of my favorite actors.
[00:15:08] Right. I'm vindicated by Vertical Limit. Yes. I mean, it's so much fun and it's cool to see him just be in the starring role because so far we've seen him in Nashville and the right stuff where he's just like one of the small ensemble guys. So it's cool to see him get a full on lead role. And then the ensemble comes together when we get, you know, the the band together, basically, and we meet Danny Glover and he gets added to the group.
[00:15:34] And then we free Kevin Costner from jail and there's this big jailbreak sequence. And that's so much fun. And then it does the thing that, like, if any movie does this, I'm in 100 percent. And it's just a group of people riding a galloping across the plains with swelling orchestral music behind them. Yeah. Fuck. Yeah. I mean, like 100 percent. Sign me up. I'm there. And this movie does that so many times. And the score, like you mentioned, is absolutely incredible.
[00:16:01] It's it's it's so it's just reminiscent enough of the Magnificent Seven score that I had to go like pause the movie and look up the Magnificent Seven score. Yeah. Be like, did they just use the same thing or was it the same guy? And I don't think it is. I don't think it's the same composer. It's not. And it's just it's just close enough to be like evoke that feeling. Yeah. And it's just a fun little action romp. I feel like maybe it drags a little bit in the third act, like before we get to the the final showdown segment. But otherwise, like it's I'm there and it's so much fun.
[00:16:30] I love Silverado. And this is one of my favorite movies that I've we've done so far now. Yeah, I am. I'm completely with you. I think Silverado fucking rules. It's such a fun movie. And I was going into it. I guess I didn't expect the amount of fun I would have with Silverado because I was looking at Letterboxd a little bit before the movie. And I had heard this the movie like just kind of mentioned as like an aside on the Blank Check podcast a few weeks ago. I forget what they were talking about, but they like just started mentioning Westerns.
[00:16:57] And then somebody mentioned Silverado and like one of them thought it was kind of boring or something like that. I thought it was like just OK. And I was like, OK, well, I'm going to watch this like kind of dusty old Western from the 80s. It might not hold up as well. And, you know, I went to Letterboxd and it was almost like it's not that it's badly received. It's just it's a very muted reception. It looks like among the film nerds there. It's like a lot of two and a half or three star reviews and that kind of thing, which is insane because this is the most fun movie ever made. It's it's a masterpiece. This movie looks great. Sounds great.
[00:17:26] Features some of the most talented people of the 80s just having a total blast on screen. It's nonstop fun. And I was pretty much in from moment one when Scott Glenn has like his opening gunfight from inside a shack. It's like completely silent. Yeah, just suddenly like boom shots are firing and all this stuff. And then he leaves there and then and then it's just the title comes up and it's Silverado and the orchestral score starts swelling. It's just him riding along the vistas and it's it looks amazing.
[00:17:52] And I'm exactly the same way as you. As soon as like I see just people riding a horse like in the middle of a Western setting, more like a big orchestral music playing. I mean, that's all you need. That's that's like the movie could have been two hours and 10 minutes of that's like of like people riding and like joining up with each other. And I would have been like, OK, with it, I still would have given like a four out of five. And yeah, this movie is terrific. And the score is so good. Like the first like 45 minutes, especially which are like before you even get to Silverado,
[00:18:19] like there's like as the first 45 minutes happened, I was like, is this movie just going to be like a series of adventures that these characters go on? Like without much of a plot because I'm down. This is great. I am. I was having so much fun that first like 45 minutes and then the plot kind of kicks in and it's still really great. Like it's I really enjoy the rest of the movie. I think those first 45 minutes are just like the most fun I've had watching a movie in a long time. Yeah, I mean, just the this fun like secret.
[00:18:45] And I had that same thought as you where it's like, oh, it's going to end when they get to Silverado because like they meet that guy in town. That's like getting the wagon train together. My family's moving to Silverado and then OK, bye. And like he just leaves and we don't talk about Silverado for another 25 minutes. Right. And and then they, I think, break Kevin Costner out of jail and that whole thing. And then they meet the wagon train again and like, oh, we got to go to Silverado with them. And there's a fun adventure there. That's probably my favorite.
[00:19:11] Like in that opening half when they tracked the gang down to the hideout. And Scott Glenn has the fake posse, quote unquote, like that whole scheme to stampede their horses away and all that was great. But yeah, I was like, oh, they're going to get to Silverado and then the movie will end and like that's their new life. And then no, we get this. Then you hit the pause button and there's another half hour or another half of the movie left in the progress bar. So it was a pleasant surprise, you know? Definitely. Yeah, it is really just like an old fashioned Western that like harkens back.
[00:19:40] I think it's like early John Wayne movies, the John Ford movies. And I think at this point in time, it was like the revisionist Western that was more popular, like the more morally gray, like characters and that kind of thing, like the kind of stuff that Clint Eastwood would typically do. And this just feels like, oh, man, it's heroes and bad guys. Let's do it. And like, yeah, it's basically the movie. Like the characters are relatively simple and like thinly drawn, but like they're so charismatic to it. And it's also part of the appeals that every performer has given it their all out there.
[00:20:08] Everybody on screen is having a blast and it like translates off screen like when you watch it. And that's fantastic. And especially Kevin Costner, who we mentioned before. I think what I think what was partially so appealing about that performance is that, you know, I am used to the modern day Kevin Costner, who was a relatively, I think, stoic performer, you know, or at least in stuff like Man of Steel or something like that. Like he's still great. He's very charismatic and other things. And he's actually really good in draft day. You ever see draft day? I don't think I have, actually. That's a surprisingly solid movie.
[00:20:37] I saw it like, you know, around the time it came out. I haven't seen it since, but like it was pretty good. But like he's very good in that and like he's in Molly's game and like he kind of pops up in like smaller things here and there. Now he doesn't do lead performances as much as much anymore. But like this being like his breakout role, like you can just see him like just loving every second of this. Yeah. Like his character is so much fun and he brings a lot to it. So yeah, he is great. The whole ensemble, I mean, Kevin Klein and Scott Glenn and Danny Glover, like all four of them together are terrific.
[00:21:05] I love seeing John Cleese pop up for a few minutes just like I'm the shut up around these parts. Like I'm British. That's OK, though. And you know, all that stuff. I think Linda Hunt is the bartender is really great. And, you know, Brian Dennehy is like a really fun menacing villain as the as Sheriff Cobb. So there's just so much stuff going on in the movie. And I think I do think some of it feels incomplete. I think the female characters are pretty underwritten. It's also very obvious that like everything involving Rosanna Arquette's character was cut out of the movie.
[00:21:33] Like, yeah, there had to be more there. Like because they set her up like, you know, it's a thing where it's like the beginning of the movie. Like they she and Kevin Klein kind of like lock eyes and he rides with her and she's like, I'm pretty, but I want a life for that. That kind of thing. Yeah, it's like a whole speech. And then we don't see her again for two hours. And then at the very end of the movie, she shares a scene with Emmett with like Scott Glenn. And it's like, well, I think the romantic thing was between her and Kevin Klein. And then suddenly, like there's just nothing.
[00:21:59] And then suddenly she's making like sort of like a romantic goodbye to Emmett at the end of the movie. It was very weird. Yeah. Yeah. I wish I wish she was a little more fleshed out, I guess. And and it's very strange in general, too, because like her fiance or husband, somebody, whoever the guy that she's with in the wagon train, like rides with them because he doesn't trust them. Yeah. He ends up dying when they recover the money from the gang with the fake posse bit. And then Kevin Klein's just like, oh, let's be a thing now. And she's like, OK, I guess. Strange. Yeah.
[00:22:28] And then like, you know, she owns the plot of land now in Silverado where they get to. And OK, see you in another hour when we come back to the end. Right. Which is sad. Yeah, it's a little weird. And I think there is stuff like sort of around the edges of this movie where, yeah, let's see. It feels like maybe there's a lot of stuff shot that got cut out, which I mean, which makes sense. The movie's already two hours and 10 minutes long. And it really just wanted to focus on like the adventure and the fun that we're all having. And it works really well. But I think there is like a lot of stuff that like feel it could have been fleshed out more.
[00:22:56] And that's kind of the main thing. I think it's also possible there was a lot more Jeff Goldblum that was supposed to be in the movie and then just isn't. Yeah, his character is one of those characters. There's a couple in like even Danny Glover's sister there. I don't remember the character's name. Ray. Yeah. Ray, who's another one of those characters that sort of like is there for a couple moments, but like feels important to the plot, but it's kind of not really in it. And and then disappears and then comes back when it's important again. And it's like, what? Who?
[00:23:27] I'm kind of I kind of lose track in some of the outer rings of the ensemble in this. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it's a movie where once you break down some of the story elements like it's it doesn't do quite enough to get you to certain points. But like it's just such a fun ride, man. It's yeah. You know, anytime you start to think about like, hmm, I'm not sure if this makes sense. Then characters will be riding against the sunset with the score playing. And it's like, this is the best movie ever made. Yeah.
[00:23:52] So speaking of Jeff Goldblum, we mentioned like maybe there was some stuff left in the cutting room floor, but he is in the movie and he plays. I'm not sure if I would say a significant role in the movie, but he's in it for sure. I think he's one of those characters that kind of shows up and is like, hmm, this guy's going to be important. And then he's not as important as you think he's going to be, but he's still kind of important, you know? Yeah. I mean, he his character. I mean, he kind of shows up like you said. He's just this gambling guy, professional gambler that wants to like run a game at the saloon or something like that. Yeah.
[00:24:22] And that's kind of his introduction to the cat to the story. And he has the great introduction and like I forget exactly somebody gets like thrown out the window or shot out the door or something. Right. So to the saloon. Yeah, that's a Cobb fires Kelly, the guy who works at the saloon, Richard Jenkins. And then Richard Jenkins like leaves and then tries to shoot Cobb through the door. But then Cobb shoots him and kills him. And so it's Kelly like Kelly like lying down on the floor or on the ground. And then Goldblum shows up in his big fur coat.
[00:24:49] And he's like, oh, where's a place to gamble around these parts? I think that's the direct quote. Yeah. Whose idea was it to put you in the fur coat? Well, in fact, Christie Zia did a great job with the costumes. You know, she's wonderful. But Larry Kasdan and Christie and I went into Western Costumes, the big place in Hollywood where all the costumes come from. In fact, on my last birthday, just when they were in pre-production and we were looking at things.
[00:25:19] And there was a drawing of me, in fact, with kind of a cape on. They knew they wanted me to be kind of city-fied in some way and elegant in some way and tough in some way. And I said, I don't know. I think this character might be kind of animal. There's something kind of wild about this character or something. And he said, well, I don't know. Christie said, well, I've got this coat. He said, yeah, nobody wears a fur coat in this movie. I said, that maybe sounds like they brought out this deer skin coat that's jaggedy and gray. I put it on and said, it was right.
[00:25:48] And you said, welcome, slick. That's right. And then he's kind of just like there having a game like a poker game throughout the rest of the that kind of third act, whatever, second half of the movie. But he's kind of like pivotal to the plot in some way because he like double crosses them. Yeah. But sets up a fake meeting. But really, it's the sheriff that they're meeting instead. And other than that, he's kind of not really around.
[00:26:11] So he feels like he's going to be important because like he has this kind of grand entrance, you know, stepping out of the crowd around a dead body to enter the story. Seems like, oh, man, this guy's going to be important. But otherwise, he's not really in the movie. Right. But so when I asked you, what did you think of Jeff Goldblum in the movie? What would your response be, Mike? I mean, he's really good for the very few scenes that he's in. It's fun. It's fun.
[00:26:33] Like, you know, we talked about the kind of outlayed his wardrobe where he's got the big fur coat and the hat was like one side folded up like he's in Australia, which is wild. And he's very good at that as that kind of like a smarmy, like skeezy gambler guy. Like you can kind of never really tell what he's getting that. And then there's that one scene. I forget exactly what's going on where there's like not quite a standoff. But like he's reaching to his boot to pull the knife and like all that stuff. Yes. You know, the Schrodinger's knife.
[00:27:03] No, not Schrodinger. Oh, Chekhov's knife. Forgot. Chekhov's knife. There we go. Chekhov's knife. That knife is for sure there. Chekhov's knife. But otherwise, like, you know, he's not I mean, he's fine. And he's got these big like button chop sideburns going on. So it's it's fun. Like I think a lot of everything in this movie is just fun enough for me to not really care that it doesn't quite make sense. Yes. And that is a pretty good way to describe it. Yeah, I think in terms of function, he's like a mini boss we get to before the main bad guy.
[00:27:33] If we're playing a video game, you know, like he's one of cops. He's kind of one of cops. He's a man. He has a personal connection to Ray Mal's sister. They're sleeping together or it's implied that they're sleeping together anyway. And Goldblum's main role of the movie is just to look cool and stay silent, which which he does pretty well. I would have liked to see him actually use the knife they set up him having before race deals it. Like, I mean, I think the payoff to the knife is really great because Goldblum gets stabbed with it himself. Like Matt, like Mal's like takes it instead of his own knife.
[00:28:02] But I would have liked to see Goldblum actually use the knife he has at least once before before Ray has to steal it. But but even so, the payoff is worth it. Yeah. And I noted down, is that the the second onscreen death for Goldblum? Because I remember we we we called out the first one, but I can't for the life of you remember what movie it is where we actually see him die. Is it Sentinel? I don't think it's Sentinel. It's not Sentinel Sentinel. He's just like a photographer who's like, hmm, something's wrong with the person.
[00:28:29] And then that's yeah. It's got to be a body snatchers, right? That would be the one. Is it body snatchers? Do we actually see him die in that movie? Well, we see him. Hmm. Yeah, no, we do. Because at the at the very end of the movie, after he's already been snatched, there's the the scene where they're like Goldblum shows up with Leonard Nimoy and then Donald Sutherland. They all get into a fight and they stab. I think they stab Jeff Goldblum, right? Yes. Yes, you're right. So it's weird that both of the death scenes that we've had so far have involved stabbing Jeff Goldblum with something.
[00:28:57] Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. No, they like he like injection with something, I think. Yes. Yeah. So this is the only since the second like actual onscreen death, because like we said, we weren't counting the like one Bronson punch knockouts as deaths. Right. In St. Ives. Right. Yeah. That's yeah. Svensson. Right. And special delivery. Well, I think the patented smash Goldblum into the wall move might have actually killed them. Who knows? Both since it's a really strong guy.
[00:29:25] But as far as like confirmed onscreen deaths, body snatchers and now Silverado, we got the count up to two for for Jeff Goldblum right here. And I guess. Yeah, I guess he does die at the end of the fly. Right. Spoilers for that movie. Spoilers for the fly. We didn't get there yet, Mike. Sorry. Sorry, everybody. I know everybody's like watching along with the podcast. Right. And they none of them have seen any of the movies we're talking about. So that was going to be one of the right. We're looking forward to. And I ruined it for them. So my bad.
[00:29:54] But as far as far as roles that fit into the roles that we've seen so far for Goldblum, I mean, yes. Second onscreen death. Anything else that you wanted to throw out there, Mike? I mean, we talked about Big Chill already. I mean, it's kind of stuff we already talked about in the intro. You know, Big Chill and the right stuff and Buckaroo Banzai where it's just another large ensemble character or cast that Goldblum is a memorable small but very memorable part of. So it's fine. I like it's very interesting.
[00:30:23] Like we have talked about every time we talk about this, comparing it to Cage where it's like immediately leading man, like leading roles. Right. And and for Goldblum, he's, you know, has a few of those here and there. But for the most part, he seems to be most well used as like one of the guys on the periphery in the ensemble. Yes. Yeah. He's definitely much more of an ensemble guy than the Nicolas Cage was, which is weird because they're both very distinctive actors.
[00:30:46] But like once Nicolas Cage became a leading man, like it's always like this is Nicolas Cage, like in every like he's always got to be front and center of almost everything he's in or at least like a very significant supporting role. You know, and then with Goldblum, it's like, OK, Goldblum's like become a pretty big actor now, but he's still popping up for five minutes in Silverado. Like, you know, yeah, he's still a guy busting into the doorway yelling. It's called Sputnik. Right. The right stuff. Exactly. So, yeah, but this is Goldblum's very first Western.
[00:31:15] I'm not sure if there's any more to follow, but he is. This is kind of the first one. So that's cool. It's a fun connection with Buckaroo Banzai, I guess. I was just going to say that. Yeah, he's just as cowboy and Buckaroo Banzai. And I think both movies actually do share a little bit of DNA because both have this kind of like very old fashioned sort of wholesome interpretations of popular genre with like a big group of good guys fighting a big group of bad guys and all that stuff. So I think they both work in that function. But his character is also a gambler, so sort of a California split connection there.
[00:31:44] He wasn't the gambler in California split. He popped up for three seconds and just said, like, hmm, where are they? And then left. But it is kind of a connection thematically. Plus, it's his second period piece after The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which doesn't exist. A legend period piece. A legend period piece. I guess it's a third if you count Nexod's Brenna Gillage. But that movie is only like 20 years before it actually was made in. So it's like, let's call it two and a half.
[00:32:11] OK, but so Silverado, Mike, what are the moments or scenes that stood out to you in this movie? Um, I mean, first off, I want to shout out Brian Dennehy, who went to my high school. You had a cool Peter Weller at your high school story last time. So, yeah, Brian Dennehy, I think I forget what, in the 40s or something like that, because he was actually pretty old when he passed away.
[00:32:33] But yeah, I think it's the conventional like myth was that at the time, the drama slash theater club had a very hard time getting people to be in the in plays. Because my high school is also an all boys high school. So it's very like macho bullshit. So he was on the football team and the football coach at the time instituted a rule that if you were going to be on the football team, you also had to be in the school plays. And it was a real high school musical situation, a real high school musical situation. And it gave him the bug.
[00:33:03] And there you go. So you're welcome. The world for apparently for Brian Dennehy, for that football coach, I guess, is responsible for for Brian Dennehy's acting career, which is pretty crazy. I remember when Brian Dennehy died, like I felt bad about it. But the first thing I thought of was the joke in South Park, bigger, longer and uncut when there's when they're singing, what would Brian Boytano do? And then in the middle of the song, like the guy walks out and is like, who the fuck are you? I'm Brian Dennehy.
[00:33:32] No, no, no, no, no, no, Brian Dennehy. You get the fuck out of here. OK, bye. Well, you Brian Dennehy's a great actor was in a ton of great movies. I mean, he's in Silverado. He's in First Blood. But I always think of that first when I think of Brian Dennehy. Oh, man. What a shame. Yep. I know. But yeah. So moments that stood out to me. All of it, basically.
[00:33:54] But like I did say that my favorite bit, I think, is that when they get to the meet up with the wagon train eventually by accident or whatever. I don't even remember how they find them. And they have to go like save the money box from the gang that, you know, betrayed them and all this stuff. And there's the they had to come up with this scheme. It kind of reminded me of like maybe think of like Thor Ragnarok where they do the like get help bit with Loki and Thor. Yeah.
[00:34:22] Scott Glenn like rides in gallops in and is like, oh, man, I'm being pursued by a posse and all this crazy stuff. And then it's just Kevin Kline and Danny Glover up on the ridge with rifles. They trick all the guys into, you know, letting them stampede their horses and all that stuff. And that's that was just so much fun. And it felt a lot like what you've we've kind of been talking about that, like 1930s serial feel that a lot is like vignettes have throughout this movie. Yeah. I mean, the first like 45 minutes are like five, like a series of like five different disconnected shenanigans that are just happening.
[00:34:52] Like happening like the first, you know, you have that original gunfight with Emmett in the shed, which is completely just like you never find out who he's fighting or who's shooting at him. You just like he's in the gunfight and then he kills the guy. He gets the horse in the drive off and then they ride off, I guess, because it's a horse. Yeah. And then, you know, he finds Kevin Kline paid and just lying on the desert floor left for dead. And it gives us some water and they ride together and then they go into town. And then it's, you know, paid and sees the guy who stole his horse in town.
[00:35:19] He gets the kill bill sirens going on in his head when he sees it. Which that whole bit is amazing when he tries to buy the gun with the coin that he gave him. Yeah, he tries to buy a gun, but like the gun that he wants is too expensive. So he has to buy the cheapest gun they have and it's a piece of shit. And he goes out there and he's still in his underwear. He's still like his long johns. Yeah, he starts shooting at the guy. The guy's shooting back the bullet hole that goes like straight through his underwear, like in the crotch area. Yeah, really great.
[00:35:47] And then finally he kills the guy and they're like people in town like what the hell's going on here? And there's like this guy stole my horse. Like how can you prove it's yours? It's like, well, can't you see it likes me so much and that kind of thing. But they end up proving it. And that's that's also where we're introduced to it to Cobb. Cobb shows up first there. And, you know, he's kind of introduced to someone like paid and used to ride with as an outlaw, but apparently has since found a legitimate job. We don't find out what that job is yet. But he's like, oh, if you want a job, you can ride with me. And Payton's like, I'll pass Cobb.
[00:36:16] And then from there they ride into the next town. They're in a saloon and Mal is there, Danny Glover. And the bartender won't serve him because he's black. These guys try to jump him and Danny Glover kicks all their asses. And it's great. And then Sheriff John Cleese shows up and tells him he needs to leave town. That's his name in the movie. It is literally as soon as he walks in, everybody in the bar looks up and goes, is that John Cleese? So it's such a great moment. It is great.
[00:36:44] Somebody taps him on the shoulder and tries to do a Monty Python line and he's like, quiet. Not now. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. But yeah, so John Cleese is there and he basically tells Mal he needs to leave town and just like not cause any trouble and stuff like that. And so he meets Emmett and Payton because they're new to town and there he's like he wants to know everybody who's in town. And they lead him to Jake and its brother, Kevin Costner, who is in prison and is about to be hanged for killing a man in self-defense. Supposedly self-defense. It's a little bit gray.
[00:37:14] I think he just kissed the guy's girl or something. The guy got mad and all that stuff. And so they're there figure like, well, I guess we got to break him out of jail now. And then Payton gets himself thrown into jail with him. I think one of my favorite one of my favorite moments in the movies when they break out of jail, actually. Yeah. And it's and Jake is hiding in Payton's coats and the guard shows up and they like just like a third fist comes out from the middle of the coat and punches the guard out. It's incredible. Yeah. They did three kids in a big overcoat that basically.
[00:37:44] It's perfect. It's so great. It's all shenanigans. They break out of jail and it burns down the hanging station and they ride out of town. The posse is on their tail. Someone shoot at the posse from behind some rocks and it's like, oh, they got to turn back. Who's doing this? It's now it's Danny Glover. And he's shooting off John Cleese's hat and all this stuff. And it's great. And then the four of them all ride triumphantly with the theme song playing. And it's at that moment. I was like, is this the best movie ever?
[00:38:12] That was when I wrote the note that any time a group of people ride in a straight line across the planes with orchestral music, I'm in. It is the best. And that's when they come across the wagon train of Silverado whose leader stole their money. So they do that whole sequence that you were talking about before. They get the money back. The other guy gets shot. It's all a lot of fun. That's the first 45 minutes of the movie. And it's all like just a series of disconnected adventures that these characters like go on and meet each other on and all that stuff. And then they finally make their way to Silverado.
[00:38:40] So that's like that first 45 minutes are basically like just pure perfection. If what you want out of the movie is just like nonstop fights and riding with horses. If if it had ended, if it had been like so they get to Silverado and then there's 20 minutes and then the standoff and this movie was like 75 to 80 minutes long. This would absolutely be the perfect movie of all like best movie ever. 100 percent. No questions asked.
[00:39:07] Yeah, but that's kind of that's kind of the part where I felt like maybe it drags a little bit because they get to Silverado and there's like a little we have to kind of establish roots and it kind of goes on a little long like, you know, setting up the stakes and the conflict between the two families. And I can't remember their names of that have like this feud and who killed who's dad or something. And it turns into this whole thing. And then, you know, Cobb, the crooked sheriff.
[00:39:30] But if it didn't have all that or it was seriously truncated and it was like a half hour left after they get to Silverado instead of another hour. Yeah, absolutely. But my favorite this would have been like my favorite movie of all time. I mean, it definitely it definitely slows down and takes its time a little bit. But I was still like just so into it, I think because there is still a lot of it. There is a lot of a lot of action sequences or a lot of like almost action sequences, a lot of tension that happens. All the character moments are really great. But they when they make it a separate Silverado, they all go their separate ways.
[00:40:00] Mal goes to find his father paid and leaves with Hannah Rosanna Arquette, who has her one scene and then disappears in the movie forever. And then Jake and Emmett go find their sister and her family. Jake and Emmett, their goal is to go off to California and like make their fortune and gold or whatever. But they want to see their sister like one last time before they go. So and so, you know, they all kind of do their own thing. Payton heads the bar. We meet Stella. My favorite exchange in the movie comes from this scene, actually, when he's in the bar and he's like, now this is what I call a saloon. And she's like, thanks.
[00:40:30] That's what I call it, too. Yeah, I mean, I don't get me wrong. This section of the movie just brings it down from a five five to four stars. It's not that it's bad. It just would have been perfect. Yeah, I mean, it is like, you know, we're establishing all the characters and there's a lot of characters in this movie. So you got to take a lot of time to establish them. But I think Stella, the bartender, is a highlight of the movie. Like as far as the female parts go in the movie, almost all of them are severely underwritten. But I think she is really terrific in her role. Like she's just a short bartender.
[00:40:59] She's like, you know, four feet tall or whatever. She has like the little platform behind the bar as she walks up on to get up there and stuff. It was really cool. And that's when Cobb reenters the picture. And it turns out he owns the saloon and he's the sheriff. That's where you find out that information about him. And that's when he fires Kelly from the bar, offers the job to Payton. And then Kelly shoots the doorway, trying to kill Cobb. Cobb kills him and Goldblum arrives. And we talked about that before. But it's, you know, Goldblum's kind of showing up out of nowhere.
[00:41:28] And it's like, man, this is going to be a big part of the movie. And he's like in it for sure. But he's not like, but he's not as pivotal of a role as I think is set up as when he first shows up. Yeah. I mean, like we said, it's kind of cool to have him just kind of like be around where he's just kind of like having the poker games. And there's a couple of times where they have this like there's like this recurring bit where he's like having a poker game and then something happens.
[00:41:54] And like everyone just clears out of the saloon and he's left there holding his cards, which is pretty fun. But he's definitely seems like he could have or should have been more involved. Yeah. So Goldblum's here. Meanwhile, while while all this is going on, Mal has reunited with his father. He tells him that his mother passed away and stuff like that. And they're just trying to like reconnect and stuff. But then it turns out some of Cobb's men, they decide to kill Mal's father. Like it's the eye patch guy and whatever.
[00:42:21] Yeah. A lot of the other motivations for stuff, I think, are like they're a little all over the place. But like once it happens, like, all right, Mal needs his revenge now and we're in for that. So he finds a sister, Ray, tells her the news of their dad's murder. Turns out she and Goldblum are intimate or at least they're living in the same house together. It's implied that they are sleeping together. And so Goldblum shows up and like introduced himself to Mal and Mal just kind of stares at him like, hmm. Yeah. All that. And then Goldblum leaves. And then, well, all that's going on because everything's happening at the same time in this movie.
[00:42:51] So bandits ride in, break up like a Hollis family party before like Jake and Emma are supposed to leave for California. And so Jake and Tyree almost get into like the major fight in the saloon. That's when Goldblum is reaching for his knife and Peyton breaks it up. And it's like, man, you're a sellout. You know, you're you're working for Cobb now. You square like that kind of thing. Yeah. I mean, the whole thing is it's very typical Western where it's, you know,
[00:43:15] one person claims to have ownership of the farm, even though the families of the other family has lived there forever. So like it's this whole thing. At least that's going on with Mal's family. And then with Emmett, it's like he killed somebody's dad. So that's why they raid the party. Like it's this whole, you know, classic feud American Western stuff. Yes, you're right. And I and I what I do like about this, what they do with Goldblum in the sort of like breakdown of the fight between Jake and Tyree.
[00:43:44] When Goldblum is reaching for the knife, it's pretty unclear like which side Goldblum is about to try to help with the knife at that moment. Like Goldblum is like the wild card where everyone's like lines are pretty clearly drawn throughout the movie, like where they sound the good of the bad guy side. Goldblum's like a little iffy for a while. You don't know whose side he's actually on. And so when he's reaching for the knife, like he could be helping Jake and, you know, taking out Tyree or whatever, but he could be helping Tyree taking out Jake could be whatever. So Goldblum is reaching for the knife, ultimately does not grab it.
[00:44:13] But it does set up the fact that he has a knife, which comes into play later in the movie. Also, just want to mention the movie also sets up like a nice little character moment where Augie, the little kid, he's like kind of tagging along with Jake at one point during the movie. And he like wants to ride with him in town and he's practicing his jumping off the balcony and like landing on a horse move. Yeah. And he and he keeps missing the horse like he misses it.
[00:44:36] And then at the end of the movie, when Augie is coming out of the building and they like have to jump out of the building and land on a horse, he does it. He successfully lands on the horse. It's a nice little character growth for Augie right there. So I appreciated that. Yeah, I like all the I like all the stuff with Jake, with Kevin Costner's character that he's just like.
[00:44:57] An acrobat for some reason, somehow like he's always like flipping around on barns, like beams in barns and like jumping off of roofs and shit and just. Yep. OK, yeah. I mean, why not? Yeah, exactly. He's just he's just he's basically Legolas from Lord of the Rings, but in like the old west. He's old west Legolas in this movie, which is perfect. I like I want to like I want to watch a spin off about Kevin Costner's character in Silverado.
[00:45:25] Unfortunately, that doesn't exist. And I'm sure like he's probably too old to do that now. But like, man, that'd be so great. But yeah, I also wanted to highlight there's there's one scene where I think it's like Cobb and Stella and Jeff Goldblum. They're all at the bar. And Cobb tells the story of Peyton, Kevin Klein and how he was riding with him one time. And, you know, there was this dog that was chasing them and Cobb shot the dog and Peyton stopped everything and went out to help the dog. And as a result, he went to jail for it and all that stuff. It's just like a nice little like a Brian Dennehy sells it so well.
[00:45:54] Like he just it's a great, like menacing story. And it's not even menacing because it's a story about how Kevin Klein like saved a dog. But the way the way Cobb tells it is like he has like a sort of respect and a sort of disdain in his voice for it. And then, you know, Peyton kind of shows up while he's telling the story like behind him. And then Cobb realizes it and continues telling the story anyway. Just a really great, really great scene. So I like that a lot. Yeah. Brian Dennehy, man. Did I mention he went to my high school? No.
[00:46:24] Yeah, he's he's such a great actor. And I love he's just like such a presence like him just standing at the bar being mean is like terrifying. Yep. Yeah, he's really great. But so we're kind of getting into the end game of the movie now. Emmett gets captured by Cobb's men, but Mal shows up at the last second and rescues him, which is another really great triumphant moment where the Emmett's like surrounded by four guys. And then Mal shows up like pew, pew, pew, pew. And then, you know, they all died. I think I just described every scene in this movie.
[00:46:54] Actually, that's every single one. Yeah. So while Emmett recovers in a cave, that's when Mal goes back to town and he and he talks to Ray and like tries to get her to help. And so she brings in Goldblum and he trusts Goldblum to allow him like passage to get to a meeting to, you know, figure out how to get rid of Cobb. But it turns out Goldblum betrayed him. And right. And in fact, he got that he got to Cobb instead. He gets ambushed behind the church and thrown in jail.
[00:47:21] I think supposedly Goldblum was supposed to go get paid in for help, but he never did. Dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun. And so that's when you find out officially that Goldblum is bad news in this movie. Then meanwhile, the the family, the Hollis family, there's Jake and Emmett's sister and her family. They're taken hostage. They shoot JT, the husband, Wilson from Home Improvement. They burn the house down and they kidnap Augie, the kid.
[00:47:47] And so that's going on. Ray sees Goldblum gambling like she like she realizes Goldblum betrayed them. And so she goes, she goes and like sits next to him while while he's gambling. And she touches his legs like kind of seductively. And then she reaches down and grabs his knife without him realizing. So that kind of comes into play because then Ray breaks Mal out of jail by stabbing a guard. But the guard also shoots Ray at the same time. Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. And then and then Mal stabs him from the cell.
[00:48:17] So so Ray is shot now, but the guard is down and Mal's able to get out. And so Stella, the bartender, hides Ray in a small shed and Mal goes to get Emmett. And it's time to go save Augie, kill Cobb, do the thing that you do in all old school westerns. Yeah, I mean, that that that whole sequence is very good. We also that's where Goldblum dies, I believe. Right. He that comes in a little bit later, a little bit later. That's later. Oh, OK. Yes. But yeah, that moment when they're just kind of like all riding across the across the plane.
[00:48:47] Oh, no, actually, I'm mixing it up because this is when they stampede the horses into the into or stampede the cattle into the like farmstead. Yeah. And damn, that scene that scene is so much fun, too. It's great. Yeah. So Emmett and Mal and Payton, they all like Emmett and Mal are riding off. Then Payton shows up like kind of halfway to the ride. And he's like, I'm here, guys. It's like, yeah, we're going to get the gang back together because they think Jake. Jake has been kidnapped. Also, Jake is supposed to be in a barn house or whatever.
[00:49:13] And they all ride off to save Augie and Jake. So they free a bunch of the cattle. It's a stampede. There's a lot of shooting. Emmett's like making his way through the house. And he's John Wick just that scene at the end of that is the best when he dives through the window. Oh, man, it's great. And he finds Augie and Augie tells him that Jake died, that his horse fell off a cliff. And the very next scene, you see Jake and he's alive. It's like the movie, like, tries to make you think Kevin Costner died for about five seconds.
[00:49:43] I don't think it even tries because Augie says that to Emmett and it's like Jake fell off his horse and he just starts smiling. And yes, oh, we know. We all know what that means. And then he like like he does some acrobatic, you know, backflips and kills a guy in the barn or whatever. Yeah, he swings down like Robin Hood. I think it's like Peyton's in the barn. He's like cornered and stuff like that. And the guy's about to shoot him. And then Jake swings down from the rafters on a rope and just like kicks the guy down.
[00:50:12] And it's the best. It's great. Yeah. So, yeah, for about five seconds, you think there's a possibility that maybe Jake died, even though there's no way it would have happened off screen in this movie either. You know, it's like he's a character that would need an onscreen death. But it does it does try to make you think that for about a split second. I think it does like it's like a half hearted attempt to make you think Jake might. Right. I think. Yeah, because because Emmett does smile a little bit like a little bit of a knowing smile where he's like, there's no way Jake fell off his horse. Yeah.
[00:50:41] But but it does like try to make you think that for about a few seconds and then he's back. And that's I think sort of the the ethos of the movie is that there's no point where it's like the good guys are going to lose this thing. You know, there's there's no there's no point where it's like, hmm, I wonder if they'll get out of this jam because, you know, they will. It's that kind of movie. But it's so satisfying and so well done on every level. And I was like, yeah, fucking Silverado, man. This is great.
[00:51:05] Yeah. I mean, that moment, like I said, where he kind of sees Augie in the guy in the room with Augie, like has the gun to his head kind of thing. He like shuts the door on him. Yeah. So Emmett goes into the bedroom next door and then we were inside the bedroom with the guy with the gun on Augie. And he's like, what do I do? And it just dives through the window and blows him away. And it's the fucking coolest thing of all time. And I love this movie basically is what I'm saying.
[00:51:31] Right. Exactly. So so go. So now Goldblum goes to look for Ray. Right. Like now, like this is all happened and they have to go back into Silverado now, like from the barn. And Kyle and his men are getting ready for like the final standoff and Goldblum's there. And I think he's looking for Stella and he has like no leads on her. So he's like, I'm gonna go look for Ray and he got and he does. And then while he's looking around, he sees Stella coming out of a shed and he's like, hmm, interesting. So he goes inside the shed, finds Ray and he kind of like has his gun drawn. And he's like, I'll just stay with you for a while until Stella arrives back or something like that.
[00:52:01] And so that's going down. So everybody like reenters the town. I think one of my favorite action beats in the movie is Jake at the saloon. He he Kevin Costner drops down from the roof and shoots two people at the same time. One of them is Tyree. Like, so it feels like a major, a major moment. Yeah. Which is really great. That's that's that's my jumping through the window moment in the movie. Yeah, I think. Yeah. The moment before that that I wanted to talk about or wanted to mention as another like fist pump.
[00:52:29] The fuck. Yeah. Moment is when they like they're at the ridge, like outside of Silverado. And I think Peyton, Kevin Klein says, like last one to the morning star buys and they all just like take off at a gallop into town for the big final showdown. And I was just like, fuck. Yes. Let's go. This movie has so many of those like fist pump moments. Like, yes, this is great. So Mal goes back to Ray and finds Goldblum waiting there.
[00:52:55] And so Danny Glover, Goldblum getting a knife fight, which is actually this the second time we've had a Goldblum in a knife fight in two weeks between this and into the night. Oh, yeah. You're right. So we have that going on, too. So that's something. But yes, they get into a fight and Danny Glover stabs Jeff Goldblum with his own knife. So Goldblum's down. And that's a very it's a very satisfying death scene, I think, when it happens there, because now you're like, fuck you, Goldblum. You betrayed the good people and stuff.
[00:53:24] How could you? You're one of the bad people. That's the level of morality that the movie is is playing with. But but yeah, there's only two teams in this movie. Exactly. And we all know exactly who's on his team. Yep, exactly. But yeah, so Goldblum's down. Emmett gets shot in the leg during his fight. But there's one point where his horse jumps and kicks a guy in the head. And that's really great. And then, you know, all the action stuff is happening, all the shooting and the pew pews.
[00:53:50] And then finally it's Peyton versus Cobb in the street while Stella watches. So it's like the kind of the final showdown. And it's like they both know how this is going to go down and they lift their guns. And it's Peyton kills Cobb. That's that's the there you go. It all kind of ends right there. Yeah. I mean, who doesn't love a duel? There's out of nowhere just a million tumbleweeds. Yes. In in the middle of town during this scene. And I'm in. I love it. I'm here. I'm all for the aesthetic.
[00:54:17] Yeah, definitely. I remember when I first moved to Montana, like I I realized that I had seen tumbleweeds and like westerns and stuff. You were aware of the platonic idea of tumbleweeds. I was aware what tumbleweeds were. I assumed they had like died out in the eighteen hundreds. They had gone extinct. They had gone extinct. But in fact, you see tumbleweeds every once in a while here in Montana. Like it's a thing. Wow. It turns out it's a thing. I mean, it is it is an old west state.
[00:54:46] You know, there's a lot there's a lot. There's a lot of like places in Montana that are like old west mining towns and things like that. You can kind of go visit like tourist attractions now, but it's kind of a kind of a cool thing. And I was definitely haunted. Yeah. I mean, that's also part of the appeal of them is that they are like haunted ghost towns or whatever. I'm sure it's Silverado where it's the silver to take place in Colorado. Is that where Silverado is? I feel like it's Colorado, but I don't know if they ever say.
[00:55:10] OK, I feel like I feel like Colorado was definitely mentioned at one point in the movie, but I'm not sure if they say that Silverado specifically is there. I remember when before I had watched Deadwood, I had no idea that Deadwood was a real town in like South Dakota, I think. So I remember I was like in line at the movies like one day, like when I was like 18 or 19 and I was talking to the person I was with and I was like, oh, yeah, I want to start watching Deadwood or whatever. And like the person in front of me was like, oh, Deadwood, I used to live there.
[00:55:40] And I was like, what the fuck are you talking about? I used to live on the set of this HBO show like what? What are you insane? But anyway, that's a little bit off topic. The end of the movie. Everyone's happy. Mal and Ray are going to go rebuild their father's homestead. There's a weird scene where Emma and Hannah have like a moment, even though she and Payton were the ones that had like a sort of romantic thing earlier. Yeah, so that's odd.
[00:56:08] And then Emmett and Jake finally ride off to California. Payton is the new sheriff of Silverado takes over Cobb's job and Silverado is probably in a much better place for it. Jake like rides off and he screams like we'll be back. And then the movie ends credits roll. So that's Silverado. How do you think of the ending, Mike? What did you think of it all? I kind of wrap everything up for everybody. Well, you know, it didn't have the entire ensemble marching to a theme song and then walking past a graffiti version of the title like the end of the Banzai. Yeah. So.
[00:56:39] So it's another. So it's a half star off for the third act of the movie and then another half star off from that to get me to my total of four stars. Yeah. So the only the only perfect movies you're saying are Buckaroo Banzai and the Life of the Quadrant with Steve Zizou, because the two movies that have that in the in the movie during the end credits.
[00:57:02] Exactly. Yeah, I mean, no, it's fine. It's really good. I mean, it's it's what it's exactly what I expected by that point in the movie where it's just we're going to everything wrap everything up neatly. Everyone lives happily ever, ever after. And I really do wish it had like a stay tuned to get Silverado against the evil crime league or whatever. Like it does. It needed that that like sequel tag at the end. And I would have been it seemed like your main complaint about this movie is that it's not Buckaroo Banzai. It's not Buckaroo Banzai. Now that I say that, I think you're right.
[00:57:31] Yeah. But even so, it is still pretty great. It is Silverado. And man, I had so much fun watching this movie. I'm very glad that we watched this for the podcast, even though like Jeff Koepum was only in it for a few minutes at most, probably like it was like this is part of why I like doing these podcasts is because you discover stuff that you might not have watched otherwise. And like I've always got like Lawrence Kasdan, I love Body Heat and obviously he wrote Raiders and Star Wars.
[00:57:57] But like I had there's a lot of his movies that I hadn't seen and I probably wasn't going to get around to anytime soon. And Silverado was one of them. And now I can say I've watched it and really loved it. So I got that going for me. Perfect. I can't I can't wait for our next Scott Glenn joint because I'm glad that you're being a convert to the Church of Glenn. I was I was already like I liked Scott Glenn. It wasn't because of vertical limit. It was because of it was because of the leftovers. It was. Oh, yeah. The leftovers. He plays Kevin's dad in that show.
[00:58:25] And he was incredible. There was like a couple of there was like one episode that was like just Scott Glenn. It was like him wandering through the Australian wilderness. And he was. Oh, my God. He's really great. He was also on Daredevil, the Netflix Daredevil. He was. Yes. In that show, which I think he only popped up like for like an episode or two, a season or whatever. And I didn't like Daredevil that much. But Scott Glenn was always like a highlight of it whenever he was there. So, yeah, Scott Glenn, one of the best. I like this podcast has turned me into a major Scott Glenn fan. And I'm happy about that for that.
[00:58:55] That's a pretty great thing. But all right, let's move on into some letterbox reviews, Mike, for Silverado. Here we go. It's a four star review from A.D. 917, which reads, well, it ain't exactly the wild bunch. Just know that going in. This is about as far from the revisionist Westerns of the 70s or the Italian fever dreams of the 60s as possible. It's the sort of thing that even predates the dark, psychologically complex character driven Westerns of the 50s. This is a West that never really existed except in dime novels and old B movies.
[00:59:25] The heroes are good, bad men. Killers with an incorruptible sense of justice who always do the right thing, even when the law is against them. Everybody's a crack shot, except when it will be inconvenient for the bad guys to shoot straight. There's never much doubt as to how the conflict will resolve itself or who will be left standing once it does. The human drama is kept to a minimum, but not non-existent. The story brushes up against some serious subject matter. Some dark stuff goes down, but things never slow down enough for any of it to get too heavy.
[00:59:53] To do so was spelled disaster for this brand of breezy, pulpy entertainment. Obviously, the guy who wrote the best Indiana Jones and Star Wars movies, then revived film noir with body heat, knew his way around an homage to the genres of the past. So there you go. It's a good summation. That's a good like kind of take on like that agrees with what we were saying for Silverado. So here's a three and a half star review from Michael Stangren, which reads more like Goldorado, if only measuring the near blinding shine of the ensemble cast in the film.
[01:00:20] You have half the quartet from A Fish Called Wanda, half the buddy cop duo from the Lethal Weapon movies, a 30 year old Kevin Costner acting half his age. And Jeff, here's another bag of gold bloom in a role that's less than half of what he deserves. Focus on the best bits from this, and it's easy to brush off the glaringly Hollywood-esque lack of a strong plot and realism. The music score alone always lifts my spirits, which, yes, again, the score by Bruce Broughton or Bright Brighton or something like that. Incredible.
[01:00:48] It's just one of the best movie scores I've heard in a long time. Yeah, like honestly, like probably like the thing, like maybe I even was tricked into liking the movie more than I did because the score was so good. You know, 100 percent. Like I was completely swept up in it. It was great. Here's a three and a half star review from Wayanung, which reads, I don't know if I should call this 80s Tombstone or Tombstone as 90s Silverado, but these two films really seem similar to me.
[01:01:15] Both of these star dubbed Western films got four male protagonists. Unlike Tombstone, this is not about famous lawman Wyatt Earp and his friend Doc Holliday, but this time it's centered around four misfit cowboys. Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, and Kevin Costner. Both films are about family bonding. And of course, about these men who try to take laws and law and order into film title lawless corrupted towns. I really had fun time while watching, but comparing to one another, this got more lighter tone, positive vibes and less violent.
[01:01:43] But script and pacing are not in the same league as Tombstone. For a little extra information, the director is Lawrence Kasdan, the man behind Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Body Heat and the Big Chill. Interestingly, he went on and made a film about Wyatt Earp in 1994, but it didn't get as positive a receptionist. Tombstone did, which released the year before, which is true. Why the movie Wyatt Earp in 1994, Lawrence Kasdan directed that. And I believe that one is a little bit more of a mixed review. I've never seen that that movie. That's that Wyatt Earp movie.
[01:02:11] And I think it's because it just lives in the shadow of Tombstone. You know, it's the year after, which is unfortunate for that movie. But he did do Wyatt Earp in 94. So he did get to return to the Western genre at some point. Finally, here's a three and a half star review from Fennord. Fennord, I'm not sure if the N is silent or that, if it's supposed to be Ford, but Fennord is what I'll say. I have wildly conflicting feelings about this movie. I'm in love with it and also so disappointed in it.
[01:02:38] Like you find your soulmate and then you find out they like John Mayer. Painfully conflicted. I love the cast. I love the plot. I love the score. I love Jeff Goldblum in a giant fur coat. But this movie is a sloppy, gloppy fucking mess. It seems written by a ton of people who didn't know what to do with the story they had. It goes in one direction, swerves around drunkenly for a while, makes a left turn, U-turns, crashes into a light pole, ditches the car and frothing at the mouth.
[01:03:04] Blood pouring down its face, babbles incoherently about Brian Dennehy before running into traffic and just gets creamed by a truck. And I don't know where this is going. But the point is, someone needs to go back in time and remake this with the exact same cast and design and music. But can someone write a script or something? Wow. What a metaphor. Yeah, that's gotten to some detail there. Yeah, and I think, you know, with the script and stuff, like, again, the first, like, 45 minutes are almost completely, completely disconnected from what's happening in Silverado. But it's so much fun.
[01:03:33] But there's so much stuff happening there. Every time, like, somebody breaks out into a gunfight or some, like, new thing happens, I was just like, fuck, yeah, Silverado. What a movie. Yeah. So there you have it. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, so Silverado, we were both big fans. And I'm happy to say that. So there you go. And I think that brings us to the end of this week's episode. So, Mike, where can we find you online this week? You can find me at MD Film Blog on Twitter and Letterboxd.
[01:03:59] And you can find me online at Emma Smith Film Blog on Twitter, Mike Smith Film on Letterboxd, and Radio Mike Sandwich on Instagram. Thanks for listening to The Complete Works. I'm Mike Smith. That's my decree show. Don't forget to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or any other podcast app. And if you want to contact us, you can hit us up at Jeff GoldblumCompleteWorks at gmail.com. And you can find the rest of our podcast on Rapture Press alongside the Totally Original Geek News Podcast, which is a podcast about geek news, like it says in the title. And you can follow this podcast on Twitter at GoldblumPod.
[01:04:28] I should note that I still have not updated that in my copy that it says The Totally Original Geek News Podcast, but I just remembered it off the top of my head. I thought you were good like that. Exactly. Our theme song was created by Kyle Cullen, who you can reach your own podcast themes at kylespodcastthemes.gmail.com. And our logo was designed by Jacob Honeycutt or at Jacob Honey on Twitter. Now join us next week on The Complete Works, where Goldblum stars in a horror comedy from a frequent Mel Brooks collaborator, Rudy DeLuca. It's Transylvania 6-5000.
[01:04:58] And this is also the first movie that he made with Geena Davis, which is kind of cool. Wow. There you go. I forgot that movie was in between this and The Fly, so when you said horror comedy, I was like, what the fuck? You were pretty sure. I'm going to argue hard that The Fly is a comedy next time we get around to it. Can't wait. But yeah, keep listening for our bonus episodes of Mike and Mike Goodwin movies. This week's going to be a fun one.
[01:05:27] We happen to be ranking our favorite Mel Brooks movies. So that's going to be really cool. Kind of a connection to Transylvania 6-5000 right there. It's all relevant. It's all thematic. So looking forward to that. We'll be releasing that this week. And that's the end of this week's episode. Thanks so much for listening, guys. And remember to go for the Goldblum.
[01:06:07] Also, also did want to mention the movie. Also did want to mention the. God damn it. Oh, hello. For post credits outtakes. How you doing? I feel like that verb wasn't loud enough for the post credits outtakes. Potentially. Oh, hello. Oh, hello. Oh, hello. Oh, hello. Oh, hello. Oh, hello.