Silver City Should be Seen Again...and Again (Review)...

...Here's a film that came out in 2004, just before that year's presidential election, come on, you remember...just before that faux "mandate" that we're still paying for (to the tune of 2 billion simoleans per day) got foisted on us-- remember that? Well, around that time John Sayles directed Silver City, a so-prescient-that-its-funny-and-scary-as-hell flick that dropped in September of that year. The premise follows the political ascension of Dicky Pilager (Chris Cooper) who's on the fictional campaign trail in Colorado. Although Dicky's a "presidential-looking" charmer on TV screens, he's a day late and a dollar short intellectually; especially when it comes to dealing with the aspects of public policy that directly affect his constiuency (quickly evidenced whenever he opens his pie hole to utter an impromptu thought)...None of this seems to squelch the efforts of the powers-that-be from trying to slide him into office at all costs...Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss), Dicky's ruthless campaign manager, performs all the skulduggery behind the curtains while keeping his charge conveniently out of the loop about his misdeeds as head string-puller...

....In keeping with that last little bit, Raven hires Danny O'brien (Danny Huston), a private investigator/ burned out-journalist, to do his dirty work. As the story maintains, O'brien begins to uncover more and more information which awakens the dormant, hard news journo hibernating within...it's deja vu all over again: Sayles' Silver City is is an unapologetic noir interpretation of what was around the corner back in '04; holds a message that bears repeating as the nation gears up for 2008 and the stakes are higher than they ever were four years ago, though a lot of those same arguments seem to have arisen re: the back channels of America's electoral process, the reliability of a cowed fourth estate, immigration/ conservation laws, etc...

...Silver City is equally a broad satire of our rapidly devolving political situation as it is a clarion call to seek (and pay attention to) ineluctable hard facts, past and present; fact that can't be found by just sticking our heads in the sand while dumbed-down McNews casts wash over us...Every member of this film's cast deliver the goods with simultaneously hilarious and poignant results. While Sayles' political leanings are worn right beside his wrist watch, Silver City does what any political film worth it's salt should: it raise questions about the status quo...See for yourself, give it a whirl, you've got plenty of time to check it before November '08, so there's no excuse not to...