{"id":2102,"date":"2024-08-06T03:23:22","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T03:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2102"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:14:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:14:28","slug":"a-perfect-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/06\/a-perfect-world\/","title":{"rendered":"A Perfect World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A Perfect World <\/strong>(1993)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Drama-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 138 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence, sexual content, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Clint Eastwood\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Lee Hancock\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Lennie Niehaus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jack N. Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 24, 1993 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura Dern, T.J. Lowther, Bradley Whitford, Keith Szarabajka, Leo Burmester, Paul Hewitt, Ray McKinnon, Jennifer Griffin, Bruce McGill, Lucy Lee Flippin, Linda Hart, Wayne Dehart, Mary Alice, Kevin Woods.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $31.1M (US)\/$135.2M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0I have a theory as to why A Perfect World<\/strong> underperformed at the box office. Audiences went in expecting a Clint Eastwood actioner in the vein of the previous summer\u2019s In the Line of Fire and were disappointed to see it wasn\u2019t that kind of movie. In fact, Clint isn\u2019t even the star of the picture. That would be Kevin Costner hot off the surprise success of The Bodyguard the year before.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m not embarrassed to admit I also expected something different from A Perfect World<\/strong>. That explains why I didn\u2019t initially care for it. I found it slow and uninvolving. Over the years, I\u2019ve come to see it differently. I realize now it\u2019s a film of subtlety and great psychological depth. It may be about a Texas Ranger (Eastwood) chasing an escape convict across the state, but it has more going for it than wild car chases and violent shoot-outs. You won\u2019t find either of those here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Eastwood, A Perfect World<\/strong> is more about the relationship between Costner\u2019s character and his young hostage, a meek little boy from a strict religious home. It\u2019s also about the connection between the pursuer and the pursued. It goes deeper than a lawman chasing down a law breaker. There\u2019s a lot going on beneath the surface of this deliberately paced crime drama that proves Eastwood is one of the finest filmmakers working in Hollywood today. I\u2019d even say it\u2019s among his best work.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Set in 1963 right before the tragic events of that November, two convicts- Butch Haynes (Costner) and Jerry Pugh (Szarabajka, The Green Mile)- escape from jail and go on the run. While looking to change cars (Butch wants a Ford), they run into trouble when Jerry enters a home and tries to rape a single mother (Griffin, Vanilla Sky) making breakfast for her kids. Butch comes in and saves her, but takes her 8YO son Phillip (Lowther, Mad Love) hostage when an armed neighbor (it\u2019s Texas, EVERYBODY has guns!) attempts to intervene. He\u2019s a sheltered boy who hasn\u2019t experienced much of the world outside his mother\u2019s religious beliefs (they\u2019re Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses). This adventure will be a real eye-opener for the kid.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Texas Ranger Red Garnett (Eastwood) is tasked with apprehending the escapees with the assistance of young criminologist Sally Gerber (Dern, Wild at Heart) and FBI sharpshooter Bobby Lee (Whitford, The West Wing). They hit the road in a state of the art airstream trailer designated for the governor\u2019s re-election campaign. Sally has all kinds of new-fangled psychological methods she thinks will help them better understand Butch\u2019s mindset which in turn, will help them re-capture him without incident. Red isn\u2019t buying into all that, but he wants to bring Butch back alive as a means of self-redemption. He did something he thought was right at the time only for it to be wrong.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Without going into too much detail, Jerry is removed from the equation which leaves just Butch and young Phillip, his new navigator. They develop sort of a friendship with the escaped con allowing the sheltered boy to do all the things his mother would never allow (e.g. taking part in Halloween, shoplifting). Meanwhile, Red and his team do everything they can to locate Butch before he harms the boy. You see, Butch is something of a sociopath. He\u2019s unpredictable so there\u2019s no telling what he might do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A Perfect World<\/strong> is one of those movies that took a couple of viewings for me to \u201cget\u201d. Once I did, I realized that it\u2019s yet another triumph for Eastwood the filmmaker. A few people have said that most of his films move slowly and I can\u2019t disagree with that. I can\u2019t entirely agree either. Let\u2019s call it a matter of semantics. Clint\u2019s films tend to move at a deliberate pace. It\u2019s by design. He has an exact notion of what he wants to do and where he wants to go. He\u2019ll get there his way in his own time. Not all of his films fall into the outstanding category, but there\u2019s no denying he knows and understands his craft.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Eastwood also knows how to cast his films. Costner imbues his character with the right amount of subtlety and danger. A true sociopath knows how to hide in plain sight. Costner\u2019s signature understated style works to great advantage here. Eastwood also delivers a remarkable performance. It\u2019s not often that you find a filmmaker that can direct himself in a movie and not take center stage. Technically speaking, A Perfect World<\/strong> is a Kevin Costner movie that happens to co-star Eastwood. The two actors have only one scene together, but it comes off quite well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The cinematography is terrific; Eastwood uses the back roads of Texas to great effect. They underscore the undercurrent of violence in Costner\u2019s character. The score by Lennie Niehaus is also quite good. What I like best about A Perfect World<\/strong> is how its slow pace increases the tension in the film. Like I said, Eastwood doesn\u2019t rely on the usual conventions of the action genre, instead preferring a psychological angle. The film isn\u2019t to everybody\u2019s liking and I can see why audiences stayed away. I\u2019m glad people have since realized what Eastwood was going for and come to appreciate it. It truly is the work of a filmmaking grandmaster.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Perfect World (1993)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Drama-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 138 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence, sexual content, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Clint Eastwood\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Lee Hancock\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Lennie Niehaus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jack N. Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 24, 1993 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura Dern, T.J. Lowther, Bradley Whitford, Keith Szarabajka, Leo Burmester, Paul Hewitt, Ray […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-hidden-treasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/A-Perfect-World-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2102"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2893,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102\/revisions\/2893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}