John Sayles has a few visions of hell. The one he was picturing the other day is something he doesn’t need to worry about.
“I was just thinking about all the actors who have to do press junkets for romantic comedies or movies that aren’t really about anything of any importance,” he says. “And they have to come up with things to say. You know, like what a pleasure it was working with so-and-so and how the weather was in Boston. … It has to be brutal.”
Sayles has never made those sorts of movies, and the writer-director’s latest film, his 15th feature since 1980, stays the course.
“Silver City” is about a great number of things, none of which could be dismissed as insignificant. They include illegal immigration; the timidity of the mainstream press; the overdevelopment of North America; corporatization; and, most significantly, contemporary politics in a divided U.S.
Sayles makes no bones about his intentions. That would be difficult, considering one of “Silver City’s” primary characters is a Republican gubernatorial candidate whose wealthy father was a national politician, whose campaign brain bears a decided resemblance to Dick Cheney and who has never met a sentence he couldn’t mangle.
“Well, of course, he’s based on Bush, but this is the Bush running for governor of Texas, not president,” Sayles says. “He’s the same guy. He’s just greener, not yet as polished.”
More Top Picks Best Stand Magnifiers For Low Vision
The first thing Sayles had to do was decide what kind of story would be told. Political satire seemed too obvious. Instead, he came up with what he calls “this ‘Chinatown’ sort of structure” in which a washed-up reporter is in way over his head, trying to “discover an answer he really doesn’t want to know.”
Danny Huston plays the former reporter, who is hired by a cutthroat political operative (Richard Dreyfuss) to deliver warnings to the enemies of that Bush-like candidate, Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper), who is running on a pro-environment platform in Colorado despite the fact he’s willing to sell protected land to developers if they give to his campaign.
After turning over a few rocks, all manner of familiar characters from today’s political landscape slither out, including an ambitious lobbyist (Billy Zane) who is engaged to Danny’s old girlfriend (Maria Bello). There also is a billionaire chairman of a company with Halliburton-like reach and a right-wing radio host (Miguel Ferrer).
“Sure, I want to see Bush defeated, and if this movie contributes to that, great,” Sayles says. “But what I ultimately want it to do is pose the question of what kind of leaders America really wants.”