John Sayles against the world
Filmmaker makes points in 'Silver City'
By Todd Leopold
CNN
(CNN) -- From the commercials, you'd think John Sayles' new movie, "Silver City," is a comedy about a intellectually challenged, poorly spoken politician running for governor of Colorado.
Which it is, to an extent.
And yes, that politician -- in Chris Cooper's well-modulated portrayal -- is reminiscent of a certain president who's been caricatured as intellectually challenged and certainly has demonstrated a less-than-glib way with words.
Which is true, too.
But "Silver City" is also about a bunch of other things: greedy developers, soulless lobbyists, brutal moguls, apathetic journalists, exploited immigrants and Machiavellian campaign managers, along with a plot about a mysterious dead body that turns up in a lake at the beginning of the movie.
Which, to be honest, is pretty much a tapestry of characters typical for a John Sayles movie, but not exactly what you'd expect from the ads focusing on the bumbling candidate. Even a movie about the politico-industrial-media complex can get caught in the politico-industrial-media complex.
Sayles can only sigh, as he does in a phone interview as he treks up the Washington-New York corridor as part of a press tour.
"You basically give it to the company, and they advertise it the way that gets the most people in the theater," he says. "[When it plays in] other countries, [they] may emphasize the 'Chinatown' aspects.
"The problem with all my movies, because they're complicated," says the famously independent writer and director of "Lone Star," "Passion Fish" and "The Brother From Another Planet," "is they don't boil down to two sentences, so you emphasize this part or that part of it."
What's going on?
While the ads may play up the Cooper character, Dickie Pilager -- scion of a wealthy and political Colorado family -- the movie is as much a jab at mainstream media as a political dark comedy.
Indeed, the comedy drains away in the latter part of the film as the characters -- including a slowly awakening investigator, played by Danny Huston -- realize the scope of the situation exposed by the dead body.
Sayles says he was inspired to do the film while working on his previous movie, "Sunshine State," in Florida after the 2000 election.
 Chris Cooper plays Dickie Pilager, a not-very-bright candidate for Colorado governor. |  |
"I heard a lot of people ask what was going on with the mainstream media," he says, noting that many had questions about the disenfranchisement of African-American voters but hadn't seen much coverage of the issue.
"So I decided I wanted to do something about electoral politics but also about the press," he says.
Few things come off well in "Silver City," but the press is near the bottom: Reporters don't push the Cooper candidate on his frequently silly statements, and the employer of one honest, if cynical, reporter is eventually purchased by a giant conglomerate with tentacles in many other businesses, forcing many out of their jobs.
Indeed, scriptwriter Sayles puts a key line in the mouth of an oily lobbyist played by Billy Zane: "Don't tell us how to stage the news, and we won't tell you how to report it."
Sayles himself is disappointed in the rise of fluffy entertainment news and the he-said, she-said screamfests that have come to dominate the news media.
"[I think the idea became] if you run more entertainment and sensationalism, we'll do better in the ratings," he says. "And now with [all the] cable [networks] ... I call it 'the WWF form of news.' "
'Every movie is difficult'
As usual, Sayles has assembled a top-notch cast: Cooper, Zane, Richard Dreyfuss as Pilager's ruthless campaign manager, Maria Bello as the honest reporter, Kris Kristofferson as the mogul, a wicked Daryl Hannah as the Pilager black sheep.
He shot the movie in six weeks with the idea of getting it out before the election. But even with his track record, Sayles still struggled to find financing and distribution.
"Every movie is difficult," he says. "The one advantage [of being known] is that people answer my phone calls right away, so I get a 'no' quickly." (Newmarket Films, which also distributed "The Passion of the Christ," ended up putting out the film.)
"Silver City" is a bitter movie at times -- the villains thrive and the heroes struggle -- but Huston, whose character starts out as a hapless buffoon but finds his purpose by the end, told The Associated Press he hopes audiences find it inspiring.
"I think that John is also making that point to the American voter who feels that he can't make a difference because it's all too rotten, that if one is inquisitive enough, then maybe that spark can be ignited," Huston told the AP.
With all the venality of "Silver City," Sayles was asked if he thought about pitching the movie as black comedy, which is the way it begins. But the arc of the plot didn't lend itself to so much laughter, he says.
"The movie starts on a broader level, with black humor," Sayles says. "But when you realize the joke is on us, it's not so funny."
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
