A Perfect World
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A Perfect World
Plot
Clint Eastwood, hot off of his Academy Award win for Unforgiven, directed this small character study, appearing in the guise of a cops-and-robbers action picture. The film takes place during the fall of 1963. Eight-year old Phillip Perry (T.J. Lowther), the son of a devout Jehovah's Witness mother, is staying home while all the other children are out trick-or-treating. But then prison escapee Butch Haynes (Kevin Costner) appears in his kitchen. Needing a hostage to aid him in his escape from jail, he grabs Phillip. Phillip curiously looks up to Butch and willingly accompanies him. Butch gets rid of his fellow escapee after he tries to molest the child, and Butch and Phillip take to the Texas highway, on the run from the cops. The cop in pursuit in this instance is Police Chief Red Garnett (Clint Eastwood), riding in his sleek Populux Airglide trailer -- his "mobile command headquarters." On the road with Garnett is Sally Gerber (Laura Dern), a pushy pre-feminist criminologist, along with a creepy federal agent who is an expert sharpshooter. Butch is not particularly anxious to make it to the Texas borderline, and neither is Garnett in any particular hurry to catch Butch. As Butch and Phillip form a father-son attachment, the paths of Butch and Garnett gradually come together, in time for a final confrontation, after which Garnett confesses, "I don't know nothing. I don't know a damn thing." ~ Paul Brenner, RoviReview
Clint Eastwood followed up his Oscar-winning, critically acclaimed Unforgiven, the Western to end all Westerns, with another impressive, but grossly underappreciated work, A Perfect World. The film is portentously set in Texas in 1963, and it offers a compelling examination of the nature of American violence. Some Eastwood fans were probably put off by the fact that it's Kevin Costner who plays the traditional Eastwood part, the outlaw with a code of honor, while the man himself is relegated to playing, very effectively, the inept authority figure. In fact, by directing White Hunter, Black Heart, Unforgiven, and this film in succession, Eastwood demonstrated his willingness to critique his own status as an American icon, to an extent that few actors in such a position ever had. These films feature some of his best work as an actor, and there's not an unconditionally heroic figure in any of them. A Perfect World is probably the most moving of the three films, with the wonderful complexity of Kevin Costner's performance as the well-meaning but emotionally combustible Butch Haynes, playing off a touchingly naturalistic performance by child-actor T.J. Lowther as his entranced hostage, Phillip Perry. The film compellingly contrasts the uncontrollable violence of Haynes -- which arises from his own history of abuse and from his passionate beliefs -- with the calculated, state-sanctioned violence of the FBI sharpshooter, Bobby Lee (Bradley Whitford), whose cold competence in the name of ideology tellingly alludes to the contemporaneous assassination of President John F. Kennedy. With its well-drawn characters, its action and humor, and its moral complexity, A Perfect World is one of Eastwood's strongest films, as both an actor and a director. ~ Josh Ralske, RoviCast
- Kevin Costner - Butch Haynes
- Clint Eastwood - Red Garnett
- Laura Dern - Sally Gerber
- T.J. Lowther - Phillip Perry
- Keith Szarabajka - Terry Pugh
Credit
Jack Gammon Taylor, Jr. - Art Director, Phyllis Huffman - Casting, Liz Keigley - Casting, Erica Phillips - Costume Designer, L. Dean Jones, Jr. - First Assistant Director, Clint Eastwood - Director, Joel Cox - Editor, Ronald Spang - Editor, Clint Eastwood - Composer (Music Score), Lennie Niehaus - Composer (Music Score), Jeff Wexler - Musical Direction/Supervision, James McCoy - Makeup, Don Reddy - Camera Operator, Stephen St. John - Camera Operator, Henry Bumstead - Production Designer, Jack N. Green - Cinematographer, David Valdes - Production Manager, Clint Eastwood - Producer, Mark Johnson - Producer, David Valdes - Producer, Antoinette Gordon - Set Designer, Charlie Vassar - Set Designer, Alan Hicks - Set Designer, Andy Gill - Stunts, Orwin Harvey - Stunts, John Robotham - Stunts, Spike Silver - Stunts, Brian Smrz - Stunts, Daniel W. Barringer - Stunts, John Lee Hancock - Screenwriter| A Perfect Spy (1988 Film), A Perfect Murder (1998 Film) | |
| A Perilous Journey (1953 Film), A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies (1995 Film) |
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A Perfect World
For other uses, see Perfect World (disambiguation).
| A Perfect World | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold |
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| Directed by | Clint Eastwood |
| Produced by | Mark Johnson David Valdes |
| Written by | John Lee Hancock |
| Starring | Kevin Costner Clint Eastwood Laura Dern T.J. Lowther |
| Music by | Lennie Niehaus |
| Cinematography | Jack N. Green |
| Editing by | Joel Cox Ron Spang |
| Studio | Malpaso Productions |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | November 24, 1993 |
| Running time | 138 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $135.2 million |
A Perfect World is a 1993 drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Kevin Costner as an escaped convict who befriends a young boy (T.J. Lowther), and ends up embarking on a road trip with the child. Eastwood co-stars as a Texas Ranger in pursuit of the convict.
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Contents
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Plot
In 1963 Texas, convicts Robert "Butch" Haynes (Kevin Costner) and Terry Pugh (Keith Szarabajka) escape from the state penitentiary in Huntsville. Fleeing, the pair stumble into a house where eight-year old Phillip Perry (T.J. Lowther) lives with his devout Jehovah's Witness mother and two sisters. Needing a hostage to aid their escape, Butch grabs the boy, who meekly accompanies them. The trio's journey starts off on an unpleasant note as Butch shoots Terry, following the latter's attempt to molest the child. With his partner out of the way, the convict and his young victim take to the Texas highway in a bid to flee from the pursuing police.
Meanwhile, Texas Ranger Red Garnett (Clint Eastwood), riding in the Governor's airstream trailer, is in pursuit. With criminologist Sally Gerber (Laura Dern) and trigger-happy FBI sharpshooter Bobby Lee (Bradley Whitford) in tow, Red is determined to recover the criminal and the hostage before they cross the Texas border.
Phillip, eight years old, has never participated in Halloween or Christmas celebrations. Escaping with Butch, however, he experiences a freedom which he finds exhilarating, as Butch gladly allows him the kind of indulgences he has been forbidden all along, including the wearing of a shoplifted Casper the Friendly Ghost costume. Gradually, Phillip becomes increasingly aware of his surroundings, and with constant encouragement from Butch, seems to acquire the ability to make independent decisions on what is wrong and right. For his part, Butch slowly finds himself drawn into giving Phillip the kind of fatherly presence which he himself never had.
Red's team take up positions preparing to ambush the farm where Butch and Phillip have taken refuge. Unwilling to leave the already wounded Butch, the boy runs back and hugs him - a gesture which, along with his knowledge of Butch's character and background, convinces Red that he can resolve the situation peacefully. His plans are thwarted, however, when Bobby Lee, mistaking one of Butch's gestures to suppose he is about to draw a gun, fires a shot into his chest and kills him. The move leaves Red angry and frustrated at his inability to save Butch and take him alive.
Production
While Eastwood was making In the Line of Fire, he was given the screenplay to A Perfect World. He was also in the midst of campaigning for the Academy Awards with Unforgiven and saw A Perfect World as an opportunity to work as a director only and take a break from acting. However, when Kevin Costner was approached with the screenplay for the movie, he suggested that Eastwood would be perfect for the role of Texas Ranger Red Garnett. Eastwood agreed, realizing that his screentime would not be as significant, leaving most of the time to work behind the camera.
The film was shot in Martindale, Texas, in between San Marcos and Lockhart in the spring and summer of 1993.[1]
Reception
A Perfect World was released in United States theaters in November 1993, grossing $31.2 million in box office receipts in the United States[2] with a international gross of $104 million for a total of $135.2 million. The film received largely positive reviews, with a 79% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film won considerable praise for its emotional depth and accurate depiction of the psychology of hostage situations. Kevin Costner's subtly nuanced portrayal of the escaped convict Butch Haynes forms the cornerstone of the film's success and has been hailed as one of the actor's finest performances yet.[3][4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "a film any director alive might be proud to sign," while The New York Times hailed it as "a deeply felt, deceptively simple film that marks the high point of Mr. Eastwood's directing career thus far."[5][6]
In the years since its release, the film has been acclaimed by critics as one of Eastwood's most satisfying (albeit underrated) directorial achievements, and the scenes between the convict (Costner) and his young captive (T. J. Lowther) have been acknowledged as some of the most delicately crafted sequences in all of Eastwood's body of work.[7] Cahiers du cinéma selected A Perfect World as the best film of 1993.[8]
References
- ^ Hughes, p.84
- ^ Hughes, p.85
- ^ "A Perfect World - A Film Review" by James Berardinelli
- ^ Maslin, Janet (November 24, 1993). "Reviews/Film: A Perfect World; Where Destiny Is Sad and Scars Never Heal". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE1D61738F937A15752C1A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2.
- ^ "A Perfect World". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19931124/REVIEWS/311240304/1023.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (November 24, 1993). "Reviews/Film: A Perfect World; Where Destiny Is Sad and Scars Never Heal". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE1D61738F937A15752C1A965958260.
- ^ The Washington Post. November 24, 1993. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/aperfectworldpg13hinson_a0a8b5.htm.
- ^ http://www.cinemarealm.com/best-of-cinema/cahiers-du-cinema-best-movies-1951-2006/
Bibliography
- Hughes, Howard (2009). Aim for the Heart. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-902-7.
External links
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