History Film / Silverado

* DisownedSibling: Rae Jackson is very bitter about her brother Mal leaving his family to make money out in the frontier, which resulted in their father Ezra losing his ranch to McKendrick, their mother dying, and Rae becoming the mistress of the gambler Slick. When Slick sees Rae having a tense reunion with Mal and asks about her "friend", she replies, "He's not my friend, he used to be my brother."

* AndYourLittleDogToo: Lampshaded when corrupt town sheriff Cobb indicates to Paden that he'll harm Stella if Paden moves against him, even though Cobb acknowledges she has nothing whatsoever to do with their dispute. He does however know Paden (whom he used to work with when they were robbers) got caught while protecting a wounded dog he'd previously claimed to despise, so figures the threat will make Paden back off. It works at first, but Stella figures out what's happened and talks Paden into fighting Cobb anyway.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Slick the gambler]] initially comes across as unassuming, cordial and an ally of sorts to the heroes before selling out to Cobb.

* CatchPhrase: Paden has "Bad luck." Mal has "That ain't right." Jake's half CatchPhrase half RunningGag "All I did was kiss a girl."

%% * DirtyCop: Cobb as the sheriff.
%% * TheDrifter: Paden

* FormulaWithATwist: the film is a {{Reconstruction}} of the classic western. However One of the protagonists is a Black Man, which is TruthInTelevision since Black Americans made up a significant part of the Old West population.
** There are no Native Americans. Not even mentioned. By 1985 attitudes towards the plight of Native Americans had changed considerably since the Western was in it’s heyday so the notion of the “savage attacking the brave pioneers” would not have sat well with audiences.

* GrievousBottleyHarm: In your standard bar fight.

* GunsAkimbo: The character of Jake (portrayed by Kevin Costner) is styled in broad strokes. Lightning draws, blind trick shots, horse riding skills and firing two guns at the same time.

* HorsebackHeroism: A BigDamnHeroes moment combined with a horseback TeamPowerWalk towards the BigBad's ranch at the climax.

* LintValue: Paden has been robbed, and just walked into town wearing nothing but his underwear, when he sees one of the men who robbed him. He barges into a nearby gun store and tries to buy a gun with the money he has on him, i.e. nothing.

** When Paden and Emmett first see Mal he is being the victim of gross discrimination and then the Saloon owner tries to tell the Sheriff that Mal caused all the problems. Both are clearly disgusted by this and have no problem setting the record straight as any decent person would. Then while they’re escaping with Jake Mal returns the favor by shooting at the Sheriff and the Posse. It stands to reason they all would become close.
** Subverted somewhat by having absolutely zero Native Americans. They aren’t even mentioned. For all we know this is in an alternate universe where Native Americans didn’t exist.

* RetiredOutlaw: While never openly acknowledged, all four heroes are quite skilled at shooting and don't seem to be shocked by the idea of killing people, but also have no history as lawmen. The closest we get to confirmation is that Paden is said to have "ridden" with Cobb in their youth, which involved getting arrested.

* SequelHook: Averted since it never happened. But the last line is “We’ll be back” which sure seemed like they were leaning on the fourth wall. The movie is on a lot of “movies that deserved a sequel but never got one.”

* ShowdownAtHighNoon: Cobb and Paden meet in the center of the main street for a quickdraw contest.