Jammed with enough characters and plot elements to fill at least 10 films, SILVERADO is a big stampede of a movie with ideas and scenes thundering off in dozens of directions. Without things getting out of hand, the plot here sees four unlikely heros--Paden (Kevin Kline), Emmett (Scott
Glenn), Jake (Kevin Costner), and Mal (Danny Glover)--team up to rescue the town of Silverado from nasty sheriff Cobb (Brian Dennehy) and his army of goons. The basics are simple enough and definitely the stuff of 1940s westerns, but then writer-director Lawrence Kasdan bloats the plot with dozens
of side stories that, in painfully predictable detail, show how each of our heroes has a reason for being in Silverado and why they decide to stick their necks out. Though much of the running time is devoted to these expository passages, it's all very basic and shallow. Between the gratuitous
climaxes that seem to occur every 10 minutes, Kasdan parades a myriad of stereotypes before us and never develops them (Rosanna Arquette as the pretty young widow; Jeff Goldblum as the slimy, dandified gambler; Linda Hunt as the tough saloon owner). In fact, he never really explores any of his
characters but only provides them with enough motivation to justify the slaughter of dozens of people.
