4/4  Old Favorite
Silverado is one of my favorite movie from growing up and remains one of my favorite westerns. Other reviewers have commented that they don't know what the fuss was about with this movie, but I do. Its a movie for and by people who love ... (read full)

2.5/4  Slow, typical Western
Four cowboys come together from different walks of life, and ends up in the town of "Silverado", where come together to battle a corrupt sheriff (Brian Dennehy) and an equally corrupt rancher who takes over the family land of one of them. ... (read full)

3/4  Silverado Quick Review
This was one of the better movies of '85. But like most older shows, when you see it again, you wonder what all the fuss was about.

2/5 Musical score overbearing
  by A. Campos (Austin,TX)
I love this film...alway's have and I think Linda Hunt is great..The film score for the blu-ray release is way over done and just interrupts the story....you have to keep turning down your receiver
I hate that such a fun film is like this, the only other film that has music that gets in the way is Ronin.

5/5 Silverado, a great western
  by Vickie (WA state)
I love this movie. I can't imagine why anyone would hate it. Silverado has action, adventure, humor and just a little romance. It's one of Kevin Costner's better performances. I thought all the actors did a good job. It's a fun movie. It was meant to be entertaining, not a documentary of westerns. I watch it once or twice a year.

4/5 Blu-ray: A Western featuring a brilliant cast, beautiful cinematography and a story that is captivating from beginning to end
  by Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California)
Entertaining, well-written and overall a well-directed film with an all-star cast... "Silverado" is fantastic Western film.

From the late 1970's to mid-1980's, there was a glut of Western films. But in 1985, the Western known as "Silverado" took America by storm and was nominated for four Academy Awards. Directed and written by Lawrence Kasdan ("Wyatt Earp", "The Big Chill", "Raiders of the Lost Arc", "Star Wars: Epiosde V - The Empire Strikes Back") and co-written by Mark Casdan, the Casdan's were joined by composer Bruce Broughton ("Tiny Toon Adventures", "Infinity" and "Lost in Space") and cinematographer John Bailey ("How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days", "Mad Money, "The Producers" and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants").

"Silverado" would feature an all-star cast which included Kevin Kline ("Wild Wild West", "The Pink Panther", "The Big Chill" and "A Fish Called Wanda"), Scott Glenn ("Training Day", "Vertical Limit", "Freedom Writers" and "The Bourne Ultimatum"), Kevin Costner ("Field of Dreams", "Untouchables", "JFK", "The Bodyguard" and Wyatt Earp"), Danny Glober ("Lethal Weapon" films, "Borthers & Sisters", "ER", "Dreamgirls"), Brian Dennehy ("Our Fathers, "Ratatouille", "Romeo & Juliet"), Rosanna Arquette ("What About Brian", "The L World", "Pulp Fiction"), John Cleece ("Monty Python" films, "Fawlty Towers", "A Fish Called Wanda") and Linda Hunt ("The Unit", "The American Experience", "The Practice" and "Carnivale").

As for the Blu-ray release, as "Silverado" is a Columbia Pictures classic, as a few classics from Sony, gets the special Digibook release (not in typical blue clamshell but a book-style format) which features a 38-page booklet that includes information on the filming of "Silverado", information on the film's talent, plus images from the film and theatrical posters.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"Silverado" is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:40:1). For the most part, the film is definitely a mix-bag. For a film that was shown in theaters back in 1985, the scenery of where the film is very beautiful. But in the opening shots alone, I wouldn't be surprised if there are viewers who may find the opening scenes as too grainy and a bit aged. Blacks are nice and deep and skin tones are natural. The fact, that a lot of the film is shot outdoors and giving that sense of a vibrant Western era and its natural element is captured quite beautifully. From the mountains to the blue skies and the animals, I enjoyed how the filmmakers really captured that look and feel of the late 1800's. Suffice to say that cinematographer John Bailey did a wonderful job.

While most of the film looks very good and detail of the West can be seen quite well via High Definition, as a person who likes to see grain in their Blu-ray releases and no DNR (digital noise reduction), I acknowledge that this is one of those films on Blu-ray that will definitely have film fans of both sides of the picture quality fence supporting or not supporting the grainy appearance of the film. And personally, I do feel this is the best looking version of "Silverado" to date (and obviously surpassing the quality of the 2005 Superbit DVD release) and is the best release of Silverado to date.

Audio is presented in English, French and Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (and Spanish 5.1). The lossless audio quality features a lot of the primary dialogue coming through the front and center channels but there is a good use of panning through the surround channels as bullets whizzing from left to right. For the most part, the gunshots do come alive during the film and dialogue is quite clear and understandable.

Subtitles are presented in English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"Silverado" comes with the following special features that are in Standard Definition, English audio and feature subtitles in Spanish and Portuguese:

* Along the Silverado Trail: A Western Historians' Commentary - The commentary are done by two Western historians. For the most part, both men are quite knowledgeable when it comes to Westerns and lend their own personal opinions of this film and relation to other Westerns. I always find it interesting when people plug their own events during a commentary, when who knows when people will listen to the commentary. But nevertheless, interesting commentary and I do agree with some of the points that they had for the film. The following commentary is new for this Blu-ray release.
* The Making of Silverado - (37:01) The cast and crew of "Silverado" discuss how certain scenes were made for the film and also how they had to decrease the duration and certain scenes were cut and some regrets of not furthering storylines (ie. Rosanna Arquette's character).
* A Return to Silverado with Kevin Costner - (21:01) Kevin Costner talks about the film, how he got the part, the people he worked with and mostly a complimentary featurette for the director. Also, certain scenes during shooting that he never understood at the time but understands now.
* movieiQ - For those with a BD-Live enabled Blu-ray player (profile 2.0), when selecting this option, a panel shows up during the watching of the film and people can access cast, crew, music and production information.

JUDGMENT CALL:

"Silverado" is a modern, stylized-Western with an impressive cast with ambitious filmmaking (the film took 96 days to film) and at the time, it had been quite long while for a Western to show up on the big screen. So, for the most part, "Silverado" was a Western that many people watched and enjoyed and for the most part, it was good timing.

The storytelling of Lawrence and Mark Kasdan is top-notch and suffice to say, there was a lot of hype around Kasdan's name as he was the guy who wrote the "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi" and "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" film. Suffice to say, Lawrence Kasdan was a very much respect screenwriter and as a director, many people appreciated his work on "The Big Chill" and "Body Heat".

But what makes "Silverado" so enjoyable are its characters. Emmet and Jake, the two brothers are so different from each other but yet Emmet brings us that stoic cowboy, while Jake is almost a comedic but cool kind of guy. With Paden, almost like an everyman type of role. Cool, calm and reserved and for the role of Mal, it was quite interesting to see an African-American in the film but also to see a little bit of how racism affected the character. But to bring these four characters together, definitely made up for a fun and entertaining film.

Although I did enjoy the film, I do feel that the film had some problems. The relationship with Rosanna Arquette's Hannah and Scott Glenn's Emmett really goes nowhere. In fact, you will learn in the special features that after the film came out, some have wished that they could have explored more of Arquette's character because it was underused. Also, Jeff Goldblum's character as "Slick", we don't really know the motivation of his character unless he was much closer to Cobb than we know of. After watching the film, it makes you wonder how much of his footage was cut from the film.

As for those who own the Superbit DVD version, sure this Blu-ray release may not come with the playing cards but it does come with a commentary and a booklet with far more pages and most importantly a High Definition transfer and lossless audio. This release easily becomes the definitive version to own. Granted, the film was nearly three hours at first but was cut down to 132 minutes. With that being said, it would have been nice to see those deleted scenes (which were briefly shown in the "making of" featurette") included on this Blu-ray release.

Overall, "Silverado" is one of those films that continually has action and makes you wonder which direction the film is going to go and who is going to die. You rarely get bored and for the most part, the film was quite entertaining. For me, I kind of liken it to a film as enjoyable like John Wayne's "El Dorado" - a film with a great cast of characters, enjoyable storyline and a lot of action.

Granted, although "Silverado" may not be as deep as a modern Western such as "Unforgiven", it's definitely a film that was enjoyable from beginning to end and have wished for decades that there would have been a sequel created.

Nevertheless, if you are a big fan of this film, "Silverado" may not be hailed as a Western classic but for a modern Western, it's one of my favorite Westerns created within the last 25 years. Definitely recommended!

4/5 Blu-ray edition excellent, but disappointed with Kasdan
  by rsdk
I'll second pretty much everything the Sept. 3 '09 reviewer said about the BD transfer in his excellent review - except for the audio. Watching the BD version, I thought the TrueHD audio stood out even more than the upgrade in visual clarity. After reading his review, I went back and tried an A/B comparison - I played the BD version in my PS3 and the superbit DTS version in my upconverting DVD player, pausing one when playing the other through the same receiver. Both sounded fantastic, but to my subjective ears, the BD track was slightly better. The French horns sounded more like how French horns sound live. For the DTS version, I had to dial my subwoofer down a bit; maybe the DTS accentuation of the bass is what led the other reviewer to think the TrueHD version had a flatter feel. For the BD version, if it feels a bit flat, crank the bass up some.

My 4-star rating is for the movie itself. Although one of my favorite movies, the plot holes keep it from being the movie I would like it to be. Kasdan admits to the problem with Rosanna Arquette's storyline in the "making of" featurette, but there is also the unexplained motivation of the Jeff Goldblum character as well as some other minor issues. It gives the appearance that the editing was rushed. I was hoping for a Director's Cut with the BD version that would fill these gaps, but no luck; there is less in the BD package than there was in the superbit gift set. I am disappointed Kasdan didn't care enough for this movie to make it whole.

Best performances in the movie go to Brian Dennehy (perfect in his part), Linda Hunt (great facial expressions), and Kevin Costner (should have brought some of this character to later roles). The other three main characters were also very good, as was John Cleese in his small part.

4/5 Fun movie, mixed bag on the BD
  by Steve Kuehl (Ben Lomond, CA)
I would love to give all of these sets the 5 star Blu review, but when enough little things creep in there I try to remain objective and rate it comparatively against other excellent releases. The movie played great and the overall product makes for an appealing gift idea, but the initial release price kills it.

The picture quality has the upgraded feel over the prior releases (excluding the Superbit) and provides for a fun watch with little to no grain or flicker. There is a buffered/fuzzy look in some sequences where there is a great deal of light contrasting dark clothing (several of the shots where cast members are outlined by a bright sky). To get an idea of the before/after watch the documentary making of opening sequence/Silverado title vs. the BD opening, you will see the amount of clarity upgrades. What disappointed me was the conversion backwards on the sound, meaning they chose not to take the DTS soundtrack from the Silverado (2 Disc Superbit Gift Set) release. I love the DTS, and as usual with the THD there is a flatter feel. Not a deal breaker, just not the best.

The supplements are a copy from the Superbit release including the Historian's Commentary, the Making Of, and the Return with Costner (which gets old fast - playing the interview in the store had customers disliking his "I am Silverado" attitude). The BD does have the new MovieIQ option (your player needs to be BD Live enabled) that when turned on is like having an updated IMDB on your screen for everything there is about the cast, crew, etc. The book is inconsequential and really only had one page (will include a scan once it streets - no prebook pics are allowed) of the 34 that entertained me. The majority of the pages are fuzzy glossy pics of the main cast and their bios. The audio has Spanish, French and Portuguese 5.1 tracks with subs in the same. A/B/C coded and states the "approx. 132 minutes" as opposed to the 133 on the Superbit.

Wish I could say run out and buy it right away, but I feel the prior special edition owners will be rightfully wary. I love playing it in the store as the clarity makes for a good presentation, but I have several people waiting for a price drop. Enjoy...