Silver City

Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of a mythic "New West," a satire that follows grammatically-challenged, "user-friendly" candidate Dicky Pilager, scapegrace scion of Colorado's venerable Senator Jud Pilager, during his gubernatorial campaign. When Pilager finds that he's reeled in a corpse during the taping of an environmental political ad, his ferocious campaign manager, Chuck Raven, hires former idealistic journalist turned rumpled private detective Danny O'Brien to investigate potential links between the corpse and the Pilager family's enemies. Danny's investigation pulls him deeper and deeper into a complex web of influence and corruption, involving high stakes lobbyists, media conglomerates, environmental plunderers, and undocumented migrant workers.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Director(s): John Sayles
Production: Newmarket Films
  1 win & 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
6.1
Metacritic:
47
Rotten Tomatoes:
48%
R
Year:
2004
128 min
£872,141
Website
63 Views


We are miners

Hard rock miners

To the shaft house

We must go

Pour your bottles

On our shoulders

We are marching to the slow

On the line, boys

Freedom of religious worship

and expression.

Drill your holes and stand in line

And his lack of political experience.

Soldiers ready...

His positions on crime,

immigration and gay marriage...

have earned him the endorsement of several

Christian and family values organizations.

Can't you feel the rock dust

In your lungs

It'll cut down a miner

When he is still young

Two years and the silicosis

Takes hold

Freedom from the cultural tyranny...

and the new-age demagogues.

- I do mean citizen.

- Yes, I feel like I'm dying

From mining for gold

What I'm talking about comes down to

that precious word "freedom."

Richard Pilager cares

about Colorado.

I always turn to nature...

when I need to sort things out

in my mind...

to make sense of the world.

But our environment is under siege...

Under siege?

Under fire? Under attack?

It's not under anything, Dickie.

It's endangered.

I always turn to nature when...

Okay. Okay. All right.

Look. No, no!

We'll buy 10 of the 20-second spots...

and you'll put a hold

on the next 12.

All right.

No, I'm here! I'm here!

I'm shooting

the bucolic fishing thing...

and the press is gonna be here

in about an hour...

and we're gonna have to give them

a photo op and position quotes.

So have the helicopter ready

on my signal.

If they get really pushy,

I'll whisk him away.

Can't you find something less garish?

Look at this!

- It looks like a French tickler.

- It's supposed to attract the big ones.

We're trying to attract voters, okay?

Not fish.

Folks. Let's set up for rehearsal.

Director guy, the trout

are gonna spit this thing out.

No, Dickie, we just want you to go

through the action, okay?

Nice and smooth, so we can

get the camera movement down.

- We'll deal with the props later.

- Let me get out of your way.

Okay. Let's start in nice and tight

on the hands, move up to his face...

and then go around to the front.

Okay, here we go!

We're rehearsing!

Roll sound.

Action!

You know, I've always

turned back to nature...

to sort things out in my mind,

to make sense of the world...

but our environment...

Damn it.

Our environment is endangered.

I'm hung up on something here.

- Here, let me get that for you.

- No, I can get it.

Think I hooked a Russian submarine!

Dang, it's a whopper,

whatever it is.

Oh, God.

Put that down.

Turn that off. Now!

Turn it off, now!

Donna, we're scrambling here.

- What is the backup location for this?

- Wilson's Creek.

Donna, we're gonna change

location to Wilson's Creek.

Notify the press people

and get the chopper in here immediately.

Dickie, you're on the chopper. Go!

- Somebody's screwing with us, Chuck.

- I'll deal with it.

Find out who it is

and cut him off at the knees!

I'm on top of it. Just go.

All right. People?

We're gonna relocate,

and I want you all to follow Leslie...

to Wilson's Creek, okay?

Hey.

Come here. Come here.

Come on.

Hold this. Hold it.

There you go.

Leslie, I don't want

any of these people to leave...

before I debrief them.

- Should I call the police?

- No. I'll do that.

- Sir?

- Yeah?

What do you want me to do with this?

You don't reel it in,

and you don't let it get away.

Boy's been through the wringer.

You understand how much we appreciate

a low profile here, Sheriff?

I've already spoken to Captain Fox

at the State Patrol.

You have, have you?

You do your job...

and I am certain that

you're very good at it...

and I'm just doing mine.

Sheriff, I found something!

I don't think that's what

killed him, Davis! Keep looking.

Enthusiastic kid. Just hired him.

Do you have any idea,

any guess as to what this might be?

Henry does all the guesswork

on the cold ones.

These people insist on floating

to the surface on my day off.

Henry.

Chuck Raven. We met at

the fund-raiser for Clark Hodges.

Right. You're Dickie...

We were just about to shoot

an environmental spot...

beautiful setting, beautiful day...

then this happens.

I'm surprised you caught anything

with this lure.

Kermit, my man!

What's shakin'?

You might want to run the Dustbuster

over him while you're at it, Lupe.

Boss wants to see you.

Just filling out my time sheet.

She told me to let her know

the minute you come in.

What'd I f*** up this time?

Danny boy!

My favorite snoop.

Mort, how's

the real estate moving?

Got a big one on the hook, Danny.

Just gotta land her.

Later, folks!

Mort the mogul. He's had a big one

on the hook since the day I met him.

Danny?

I have a client in my office...

who's brought a lot of business

to this firm over the years...

and I need you to be

on your best behavior.

Obviously, we at the campaign...

don't want to seem

too interested.

We don't want to be associated

in the public mind with...

Why don't you just walk away from it?

That's exactly what I intend to do.

These things tend to stick

in the public mind.

People get distracted

from the message.

Gerald Ford falling down

that flight of stairs.

And Carter whacking

that little rabbit with his paddle.

I don't want my candidate

remembered as...

As the guy who hooked a stiff

in Arapaho Lake.

Exactly.

There's also the remote possibility

that this is not a coincidence.

I don't think

I'm being paranoid...

when I consider the possibility...

that one of our opponents

had something to do with it.

You mean somebody put a dead body

in the lake as a prank?

I'm not accusing

the other side.

I'm saying that when you

play this game to win...

you're bound to step on a few toes.

There are a few loose cannons

on this deck...

people who hold grudges.

Who'd hold a grudge

against Dickie Pilager?

Unless it was some hazing incident

from his fraternity days.

I am the best at what I do

because I have the best intelligence.

Here are three names.

These are people

who I consider to be...

unstable enough

or vindictive enough...

And you want them investigated?

I want them confronted.

Let them know

they're being watched.

Don't be subtle.

A good, stiff warning.

Nothing actionable.

And, of course, the press is not to

hear a whisper of this.

Totally confidential.

I'll expect a progress report

by... next Thursday.

Happy hunting.

I ought to put a muzzle on you.

Sorry.

Okay, you're off jury prep.

You're on this.

Don't worry about overtime

or expenses.

I really appreciate

your confidence, Grace.

Don't.

Peters is still in Grand Rapids

chasing the trust fund kid...

and Kelly's stuck in court

for the next two weeks.

What I want to know is,

can I trust you?

I always pictured you in some smoky hole

in the wall, hunched over your computer...

spewing your bile at the military

industrial complex.

Yeah, well,

it is a hole in the wall...

but I'm surrounded by a bunch

of anti-tobacco fascists.

I think we call 'em

pro-oxygen these days.

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John Sayles

John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). His film Men with Guns (1997) has been nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. His directorial debut, Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980), has been added to the National Film Registry. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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