No one seems to talk much about this movie any more but at the time it was a big deal - Kevin Costner at his peak teaming up with Clint Eastwood at his 90s peak. It's an old Eastwood favourite, the road movie, being about two crims who bust out of prison and take a small boy hostage. One of the crims is another Eastwood favourite, the black hat psycho, who enables other crim Costner to look noble by comparison, especially by killing him.
The heart of the movie is the relationship between Costner and the boy and it's very well done. It movie does amble at over two hours; the bits with Eastwood and Laura Dern in particular feel like padding. But it is not afraid to tackle a serious theme - the effect of treating kids badly - and gives the appropriate ending.
Bradley Whitford pops up as another black hat, a smarmy, sexually harrassing, gung ho FBI sharpshooter, whose purpose is to make Eastwood seem more noble. Loving recreation of 1960s Texas. It was a throw back in many ways to boy-worshipping-outlaw Westerns like Shane and Hondo.
No comments:
Post a Comment