There was the drama of Mal's father being thrown off his own land and later killed the day his son was going to ride into town to assert their rights. Mal's sister had already left the homestead to work as a prostitute in town. She becomes involved with Slick

There's subtext in that total strangers become good friends, because they are good people who have been wronged.
"Good night, and grease for peace."

Very true,
Open Range
Tombstone (Beehan)
Pale Rider
Young Guns/Chisum

Presumably (SPOILER ALERT!!!) Paden will be a good sheriff.
"Notice that all American law in this movie is bad "
Last night I watched the Special Edition DVD, which has very interesting and entertaining commentary by three western historians who are also western movie buffs, and one of them notes the same thing about the law, but points out that it is often common in western movies for the local law-enforcement officers to be corrupt.

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"Where's the subtext?" Heh.

There's a dishonest sheriff in Silverado. A brother named Emmitt heads there to break out his kid brother, Jake, from jail. Along the way they get involved with others. Emmitt comes upon Paden who has been robbed and left to die. They team together to break Jake out of jail and happen to meet Mal, a black man they befriend. More things happen to show that Emmitt has enemies and they kidnap Jake and Emmitt's nephew, Augie. Yeah, you're right, there is a lot to this movie. But it's good and fun to watch.