Script To Screen: “Silverado”

An early scene in the 1985 western Silverado, written by Lawrence Kasdan and Mark Kasdan.

Setup: Emmett (Scott Glenn) and Paden (Kevin Kline), who have both been done wrong (Paden’s horse and belongings stolen), enter town together.

EXT. STREET - CHIMAYO - DAY The little settlement is the center of civilization
for miles around. The U. S. Cavalry maintains an
outpost here, and there are many soldiers on the
street. Emmett and Paden pull up to the general
store. Paden dismounts and hands his reins to Emmett.
Passersby look with curiosity at the undressed Paden. EMMETT
I'll get these horses tended. Paden nods and looks doubtfully at the store. He
scratches himself. Emmett produces some money and
flips Paden a coin. Paden nods. PADEN
I'm good for it. Emmett rides up the street, leading the pinto. Paden
starts toward the store and nearly collides with a
shocked woman, who covers the eyes of the little girl
with her and crosses the street. Paden gives an
apologetic tip to his non-existent hat as he watches
them go. Before he can turn back to the store, his
eye is caught by something up the street. He reacts
big. WHAT HE SEES. His horse, a good-looking bay. And,
dawdling his way out of a saloon, a disreputable
looking Cowboy. Paden's hand slaps his side, where his gun should be.
He grimaces and looks around desperately, then
hurries into the store. INT. STORE - DAY The lone CLERK is showing a woman customer a bolt of
cloth at the back of the store. Paden hurries in and
makes a bee-line to the display case holding handguns
and ammo. He spots something he likes and taps the
glass impatiently. The Clerk reacts with distaste to
Paden's appearance. PADEN
Excuse me, there -- CLERK
I'll be with you in a moment, sir. Paden looks out the front window, up the street. The
Cowboy is untying the bay's reins. Paden, more agitated now, glances back at the Clerk,
then moves around and opens the back of the display
case. He extracts a shiny, new Colt .45. The Clerk
reacts with alarm and moves toward Paden. CLERK
Just a minute there, fella. When I'm
done with this lady -- PADEN
I'll take this one. He drops his coin on the case top. CLERK
(looking at coin)
That one's twenty dollars. Paden is frustrated. He leans to peer out the window
again. PADEN
How much to borrow it? CLERK
These guns are for sale. PADEN
(indicates his coin)
What can I get for that? The Clerk gives up on putting him off and comes
around the display case, disgruntled. EXT. IN FRONT OF SALOON - DAY The Cowboy mounts the bay. INT. STORE - DAY Paden holds a broken-down memory of a gun as though
it were a cow chip. PADEN
(resigned)
What's it take? The Clerk holds up a box of shells. CLERK
This is extra. Paden snatches it from his grasp and heads out of the
store. PADEN
I'll be back. EXT. STREET - DAY Paden hurries out into the middle of the street.
Several passersby stop to look at him. A teenage girl
lets out a delighted shriek. IN FRONT OF THE SALOON. The Cowboy has turned the bay
into the middle of the street and now looks to see
what all the fuss is about. When he makes out Paden
standing alone, his expression changes. Paden is having trouble extracting a shell from the
ammo box. He glances up the street at the Cowboy and
sees that he has been spotted. He shakes one shell
loose and drops the box, trying to insert the bullet
in the gun. The Cowboy pulls his six-gun, leans forward, and
spurs the bay hard toward Paden. He raises his gun
and fires at Paden. There is general alarm in the
street as the bystanders dive for cover. Paden gets the shell loaded as the Cowboy bears down
on him, firing. The bullets kick up the dust in front
and back of Paden, who now raises his pistol slowly.
A bullet tears through the floppy material at his
crotch. The Cowboy is almost upon him when Paden
fires. The Cowboy is knocked off the horse and hits
the street dead.

The scene in the movie:

There is one cut from the script. After this nifty line of scene description — Paden holds a broken-down memory of a gun as though it were a cow chip — the movie cuts the final exchange between Paden and the clerk. Why? You don’t need it. Those three lines of dialogue are extraneous. Cut to the action, that’s what the scene is building toward.

Is it essential? That’s the first question to ask about any line of scene description, any line of dialogue, any scene.

I’ll see you in comments for a discussion of this fun scene from Silverado.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

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