Sayles delivers again
To start with, the least observant/most biased people will probably go on about the political aspect of the film and, yes, it is a courageous, militant, political statement, pointing out a few unpleasant truths about GWB's America, busy raping the environment for profit (cf. oil in protected parks etc.).
But it's much more!
And it features most of Sayles' trademark features that qualify him as an important social commentator of his troubled era and a true multi-faceted artist. "Silver City" has so much to offer.
-Funny: Cooper's impersonation of the global village idiot is spot-on and hilarious (his mangled syntax, his resort to demagogic catch-phrases when faced with a question "er... frontier justice", his false bonhommie); Billy Zane's and Dreyfus's political PR reinterpretations of vocabulary ("I couldn't call it a builders' bill of civil rights"), and so on.
-Sentimental (in its best possible sense): note in particular the way in which he turns the Daryl Hannah sex-related (teen pregnancy) episode into a moving vignette: how she decided to care for her son.
Plus, of course, the detective's leitmotiv pas-de-deux with his ex-girlfriend.
-Some Spanish spoken! Great!
-Documentary quality (cf. "Limbo" for another ex.)
-Great construction: how the detective investigates three possible threats and thus uncovers three angles to the Pilager (note the name) family story. Ironically, in all three cases, his former profession was involved and played a part in the damning episodes (more on this subject right below).
-Of course and almost inevitably, it turns out that the threat/problem in question is not the fruit of any of the three people investigated; it doesnt' come from any of these angles but -SPOILERS ahead- ....ironically enough, is of the Pilager family businesses' own makings. The usual return of the repressed/skeletons in the closet (cf. the beautiful "Lone Star" or "Men With Guns") that is -literally- natural and works:
within the logic of the plot,
structurally (the dynamics of the film),
and in the broader picture (the political/environmental context).
In fact, it also works (possibly concerns) for the hero: as a left-wing journalist, he would have been a prime candidate to get involved in the three stories relating to Dickie's past: covering them (i.e. his sister, the rabid right-winger and the miner). See how he flinches when Hannah tells him her life-story. ...In other words, he too, in a way, may have played a part in the events leading up to the various present situations.
...Everything is linked, and bad karma follows you around.
-It's a cast ensemble opus. Various actors take their turn to impose themselves; for ex. the Mexican cook slash detective takes over, and is then replaced by someone else of importance later on. No big star feels the need to hug the camera and steal a scene (like T. Roth,K. Kristofferson, or D. Hannah).
And so on and so forth.
Great stuff by an accomplished film-maker who deserves any support/kudos he can get.