A PERFECT WORLD
[Spoilers]
A film review by Richard Montanari
Copyright 1993 Richard Montanari
Unforgivable
What makes A PERFECT WORLD such a huge disappointment is not just the fact that it is, without peer, the worst film Clint Eastwood has ever directed, but also that it held the rare romise of combining the talents of two Oscar-winning directors: Eastwood and Kevin Costner.
The story is set in Texas, two weeks before JFK's fateful day at Dealey Plaza. This is mentioned early in the film, then never brought up again. A simple "1963" at the bottom of the screen would have sufficed, but that might have excised some of screenwriter John Lee Hancock's precious dialogue. And there's a *lot* of dialogue here, bubba.
An escaped convict, Butch Haynes (Costner), takes an eight-year-old Jehovah's Witness boy hostage and hits the road for a little psycho-daddy and son bonding. We never get to know for sure just what Butch did to put him in the joint, but we do learn that he killed a man when he was eight, and that his mother was a hooker, so we know he didn't grow up next door to the Cleavers. The Meat Cleavers, maybe.
In lukewarm pursuit is Texas Ranger Red Garnett (Eastwood), a Geritol-swiggin' veteran cop who doesn't take guff from anyone, exceptin' feisty criminologist Sally Gerber (Laura Dern), who pops up every so often for a little feminist relief and obligatory psychobabble. There's also a black-suited and sunglassed Fed around for stone-faced quips.
Oh, yeah, Red and his team phone the entire manhunt in from an Airstream trailer which has crashed into a tree in the woods.
When Butch finds out that Phillip (T. J. Lowther) has never been trick or treating he decides to give the kid a taste of normal childhood. They stop at a general store for a costume, and things move along just fine until, all of a sudden, The Guy at the Back of the Store hears The Broadcast about The Escaped Convict and starts giving them The Eye. The duo make a run for it, and soon we discover that the kid has stolen a Casper the Friendly Ghost costume. Twenty minutes on the road and the kid goes from Jehovah to John Dillinger.
Over the next day or so Butch and Buzz (Phillip's new nom de rue) take in a little gunpoint trick-or-treating, a little more larceny and, after eating dinner and spending the night with a poor farmer's family, a little pistol-whipping and duct-taping of the man, his wife and their grandson.
[Spoilers]
Eventually, Butch takes the mandatory gut shot as the Rangers close in -- beginning one of the longest death scenes in cinematic history -- and heads off to a better place. Which, for the audience, after more than two hours, means the lobby, the parking lot and then home.
What possessed Eastwood to believe that Kevin Costner could pull off the wacko-with-a-heart-of-gold is beyond me, as is Costner's tradition of astonishingly bad haircuts. (Although, this is the first film where we know for a fact it was cut in prison.)
Yet, ultimately, the blame must lie with Clint Eastwood, who follows the brilliance of Unforgiven, and his chunky performance in In the Line of Fire with such a lethargic, ill-conceived effort. Had he won the best director Oscar for Bird, like he should have, and followed it with Unforgiven, this wouldn't seem so bad. But alas, in spite of its promise, The Man with No Name has made a Film with No Soul.
~~~
A Perfect World: C- Rated PG-13
c. 1993 Richard Montanari CompuServe: 73112, 3705 InterNet: am074@cleveland.freenet.edu
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