Mu Ji Mama Productions (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} soustitres) wrote,@ 2007-12-17 21:21:00 |
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| Entry tags: | a perfect world, mom, mu ji |
A Perfect World - 1993
Steph here, with ‘A Perfect World’. Any commentary by other people, and therefore incorrect, will be to follow.
Synopsis from the back of my Netflix envelope:
‘Film icons from two generations meet when fugitive Butch Haynes (Kevin Costner) takes a young boy hostage and goes on the lam across the Lone Star state, hotly pursued by police chief Red Garnett (Clint Eastwood, who also directed) and criminologist Sally Gerber (Laura Dern). Robbery, murder and a haunting final confrontation are the lynchpins of a remarkable movie that takes a close look at the true nature of violence. [Rated PG-13 – 2 hrs. 18 mins. – 1993.]’
Selected running commentary (cut for length and spoilers):
Jehovah’s Witness family – already ostracized; not taking part in Halloween.
Jail – ‘punk thief’ trying to escape with his friends. Why is it always the air ducts?
Costner had some arms on him, didn’t he?
Intercut jailbreak with Halloweeners throwing ballons at Jeh. Witness house. Jailbreak – going to go horribly. DON’T TRUST PEOPLE.
Hahahahhaha red shirt.
Costner demands a Ford to steal post-jailbreak in the Johovah’s Witness’s neighborhood. “Fords leak oil,” his partner says. Why is he so specific?
Costner now wearing red shirt. Partner assaults mom, hits Phillip.
Costner calls the gun a pistola. Costner sounds nicer, but is messing with the kid’s head.
Partner’s a cowboy – yeehaw, shooting in the air as they get away with the boy.
Clint Eastwood entrance – reviewing case files. Refuses Sally’s assertions that study and theoretical ideas will help catch the fugitives. Costner continues to talk to the boy like an equal.
Sally bothers me – she can be struggling with Red without being klutzy about it. Mom loves the outfit Sally’s wearing.
Partner completely clueless – he has no goals overall whatsoever except to make sure that Costner doesn’t ditch him. Phillip questions Costner as to why Partner took the keys.
The difference between threat and fact – completely calculated and matter of fact.
Johnny Cash.
Crossroads.
Phillip holding the gun on Partner.
‘Livin’ with three split-tails.’ ‘Grow up queer.’
Partner attacks Phillip offscreen, onscreen Phillip bites Partner and runs off into a crop field. Costner follows, finds Phillip. (Phillip is throughout the movie so far in his underwear). Costner takes the gun with fresh shells from Phillip and shoots Partner in the field.
“You comin’?” Phillip shakes his head no once, then yes.
Crossroads is at Ben Hur.
“Horseshit is responsibility – the one with the ulcers and sleepless nights’ – Eastwood about himself.
Costner says he and Phillip are friends.
‘bass ackwards’ in front of the child. Lucky Strikes cigarettes.
“This is the present, Phillip. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
Costner’s daddy always drove Fords.
Steals jeans and a shirt off a clothesline, attracting the attention of a man on a tractor – stops mid escape to get Phillip. Phillip bites the man.
Father complex and independence. Warden that was with Haynes when he escaped was in the trunk of the car.
Finally getting the kid some pants. Casper mask! Phillip says he dressed up as a bandit for Halloween.
BOLO on TV in Friendly’s store, police in the town.
Haynes is a certified genius – so is Sally.
Phillip went back for the casper mask – Costner v. two cop cars.
Not so friendly.
Pugh called Phillip’s penis ‘puny’. Haynes calls it a good size for a boy his age. Manhood – Phillip cares what Haynes thinks.
THEY PASS EACH OTHER ON THE DAMN ROAD.
Mayor Photo Op with the Mother.
Haynes is going to Alaska.
…Edward Scissorhands meets Of Mice and Men.
Trick or treating at gunpoint and mustard sandwiches.
Slow-paced. Clint Eastwood is trying to kill me. Is that Mitch Pileggi? IT IS!
They make it past the police roadblock.
The mom overreacts to spilled juice in the car. Butch steals Bob’s car – ‘a loaner’. Butch has respect for Bob – a family man.
HE TIES PHILIP TO THE ROOF RACK SO HE CAN BE ON A ROLLER COASTER HAHAHA.
It’s Josh from West Wing! WHY IS HE SO SKANKY!!!!! And he’s the Fed – Red defends Sally from him. Comparison – Fed v. Terry.
Butch and the waitress – man needs some sex, but he’ll only take it from the one woman that’s offered in the whole movie. Phillip sees – further education into manhood. He doesn’t get it, though.
Butch: Jail is hell. Promises to get Phillip home.
Red sent Haynes to prison to get away from abusive father. Black ‘good samaritan’ slaps six yr old son in front of Butch…this can’t be good.
Butch’s style of music? Waltzing. Creole music? Accordions?
The first time Butch barks at Phillip.
Phillip stays and watches when given a choice when Butch shoots Mack.
PHILLIP SHOOTS BUTCH.
Well, Phillip learned – and the quote that became the title of the movie: ‘In a perfect world, none of this stuff would ever happen’ – gets fun. What would never happen? People like Butch? ‘Educations’ like Phillip’s?
“Only killed two people in my whole life – one hurt my mama, one hurt you.”
Butch: ‘I definitely believe in ghosts.’
Butch defending the child’s rights to be a child.
Phillip turns around after being released – realizing Butch is going to die one way or the other – leads Butch toward the cops, walking upright.
WW!Josh shoots Butch before Butch realizes who Red is/was.
Looks like the Batcopter. – Red admits that he doesn’t know ‘one damn thing’.
This movie was one of a very small category of films for me -- that category being a film that I had a lot of difficulty enjoying while watching it, but a day/a week/several weeks later I look back at it and go "...Hunh" and appreciate what the storytellers were trying to do. While there is a lot to say about the plot, it's not the most interesting part -- it's the generational development in the three age groups represented (Red, Butch and Phillip). All three characters are as good as they're ever going to get - Red is an ace at his job, even though he has 'a lot of sleepless nights' thinking about his responsibility in his profession and as a figure of authority to others. Butch has escaped from prison to attempt what he's been dreaming about for so long, even if he has no sure-fire way of getting there. Phillip, as a child, is as good as he's going to get as well -- through his experiences with Butch, he steps outside the world of his strict upbringing and spends time with (so far as we know) the only adult male that's cared about him directly. The comparison between Red and Butch in this respect is astonishing; Red directly cared for Butch but could only act upon it while Butch was growing up in an indirect way. Butch's direct influence on Phillip's life could then arguably be seen as the better route to travel in a child's life, however screwed up the actual course of events was that led both adult and child in that direction.
It's slow-paced, sure. Phillip runs around in underoos for the vast majority of the film, sure. In between screaming 'GET THE KID SOME PANTS' and wondering when you're going to get a chance to look at something that isn't Texas brushland, though, you get a picture you weren't expecting. That's why this, even though it was the first movie we reviewed, took me until now to write.
I liked it. A lot.
Just don't tell Mom. See below.
First of all, I have to say that the movie stayed true to the flavor of the times and the place where the movie happens. It had the right accents, the right atmosphere, the right characters and interactions. Having lived in that part of the world, I remember the people, the attitudes and the obsession with masculinity/guns. Unfortunately, this movie could have been shorter by at least 40 minutes. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much panoramic views of grass and dirt roads. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time spent silently communicating by looks and long pauses in conversation. I liked the relation of growing up/accepting responsibility for one’s own actions and how the decisions Butch and Red had made led up to this series of events. One has to wonder if Buzz (Phillip) will try to be more of an adult than his mother is willing to let him be. In the ‘60s in
