Silverado

Some movies you put on when you want to think. Others you put on when you want to be told a story. This is the second kind, and it does the job better than almost anything else I own.

The whole thing just works. I don't know how else to say it. Every gear meshes, every scene earns its keep, and by the time the dust settles you feel like you got your money's worth twice over.

The whole thing just works.

Scott Glenn and Kevin Kline carry this thing. Glenn has that steady, watchful presence that anchors the whole picture, and Kline is having a blast in every frame he's in. A young Kevin Costner shows up bright and cocky, the kind of performance that makes you understand why he became Kevin Costner. And Danny Glover? Tough as nails. Not a wasted moment from him.

The plot moves. The sets look lived-in. The fight sequences hit. The bad guys are the kind of bad guys you actually want to see get what's coming to them, which is harder to pull off than people give it credit for.

This is one of my favorite movies, full stop. When I want to be drawn into a great story, this is one of the wells I go back to. It doesn't matter that I know how it ends. The pleasure is in the telling.

Some westerns try to reinvent the genre. This one just plays the hits, and plays them perfectly. That's its own kind of greatness.